Holding more effective public hearings and getting better comment.

ISO 9001 assumes a lot of things not written into the standard, and the matter of public hearings is no exception to the rule. After discovering a problem which I am trying to get more information on the cause of, in relating to a time change that affected all runs on a route, I came up with this solution on the public hearings problem, including the lack of holding public hearings in some cases, that will make everyone happier, including UTA itself.

1. Preparing for the hearing.

Diseminate as much information about proposals as possible, via fliers on buses, mailings to homes along the affected route (within 1/2 mile is the standard, since that is how far most people will walk to get to a route). This process must begin the month after a change day. For example, a change day occurs in August, so the process must begin about the first of September for the December change day.

Get media outlets to air commercials advertising the change day proposal hearings, this should all take place in the first month following a change day in preparation for the hearings about changes for the next change day. Disseminate press releases about the changes to media outlets as well and contact reporters to run stories about the proposed changes.

This must be done for all changes that substantially affect a route, even if the proposal is to shift the start times from one time to another especially if the new start times for a route are significantly earlier than before, like more than five minutes earlier. Also this must be done for any routing changes besides temporary detouring that is going to last for an extended period like the recent 811 detour was.

2. Scheduling the hearings.

For the commercials, a date and time must be in the commercial, flyer, or newspaper ad notice (putting anything in the public notices area alone is inadequate, advertising space must be purchased). That date must occur in the first week of the second month after a change day, for example, October is the second month following the August change day. This must be held in a location convenient to all residents in the division the route is in that is to be changed. Fliers are to be mailed and distributed in the manner described above.

The flier must include the proposal, and must include a very brief but understandable reason for the change.

Information on changes in divisions other than the division where the change is proposed must also be made available to all divisions to all riders, that way if a change might adversely affect riders that might use a route affected by a proposed change can give comments about the change, either for or against.

The hearing must follow this format:

6pm. Begin hearing, meet with public, show maps and give more detailed info in response to inquiries and questions. This will set the stage for later parts of the hearing. This should be in the back of the venue, so that latecomers can see and then comment in the hearing process later in the evening as they arrive.

7pm. At the front of the room, the lead planner for the division discusses the proposal and reasons that UTA feels the route needs to be changed in the fashion they propose it to the entire audience present, including sharing some of the feedback from discussions with in the first hour. This must includes both comments for and against the issue, and this to inform those present so comments later at the microphone can be more direct in relation to the issues involved. This ensures a dialogue between the public who uses UTA and the managers who have to juggle everything on the system to make it work for all.

By 730pm, that phase should be completed and the public should then be invited to ask more questions, and managers should be prepared to give responses to the public. If a manager feels slighted and discovers the plan they had envisioned for the next change day was wrong, he should not feel guilty for saying 'We were wrong, we'll see what we can do to fix the planned change so it works for you'. Everyone makes mistakes, and we should all learn from them, and they can even offer possible alternatives be it on the fly if necessary, which will help perfect the process and ensure that any eventual changes implemented serve the public interest once they are.

The public input portion of the hearing should go until 830pm, after which a summation and discussion of the ideas should be presented to the entire audience present.

In addition to this, a web comment portal needs to be established, like how the FCC does it, where a person can E-File comments, and read the comments of everyone else, regarding a change day. If mutliple routes are to be affected by changes, the comment website should be structured to allow one to comment on a specific proposal for a specific route. This comment portal URL on the Internet should be opened at the time the fliers are mailed out and placed on buses, and the webpage should be noted on the fliers and mailings, as well as the advertising and news stories. Mailed comments should be scanned, and phone comment transcriptions/summaries should be posted to the site also.

3. Internal planning.

After the hearings are done, planners should take written comments until end of the third week in the second month following a change day, after which they should issue another flyer indicating what they wish to do. They can then on the fourth week in the second month following a change day submit it to the UTA Board of Directors, who can then approve the plan. That will allow everyone to be in the know throughout the process, and once the board approves the modified plans, will allow drivers to bid on work for the upcoming period beginning at the next change day.

By the third week in the third month following the change day, or rather the third week in the month preceeding the next change day, notices should be mailed out to affected areas, news media needs to be contacted, and fliers need to be handed out on buses and TRAX indicating the changes that were made and the effective date.

4. Implementation. On the week before a change is to go into effect, fliers must be posted on buses and placed in schedule holders yet again, so that people can see the changes that passed, and how they will affect them. Concise reasons for the change again should be included in the description of the change, and the use of 'in house' jargon should be avoided. Terms such as 'runtime', 'headways', etc., are confusing to those unfamiliar with transit system jargon, and explaining everything in plainer terms will help. This rule of thumb should also be followed in all eariler phases of this process.

5. Your comments about this idea.

Your comments are now invited on this idea. UTA employees and planners are welcome to comment. UTA personnel, if desired, may post anonymously if you feel like you do not want your name or position known.