RTA retreat to tackle major strategic issues

Expansion, housing issues, potential tax increase…

By Mark Reaman

The Gunnison Valley Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) is planning to hold an all-day retreat on April 3 and the goal is to start pondering what could be significant strategic changes for the organization. Discussing potential topics at the February 20 meeting, the board appeared to want to focus on a shift in mid-range strategy. While they will touch on things like air service and the philosophy of RTA housing issues, the board generally voiced a desire to delve deeper into things like transitioning administratively after current executive director Scott Truex eventually retires and what that means for the RTA team. Truex has been ED of the RTA just over 21 years.

Intertwined with that eventual move are things like how to possibly expand transit services throughout the county, how to better partner and integrate with Mountain Express and how to pay for it all, with the possibility of asking citizens to increase taxes for better service.

“We have some pretty substantial pieces to talk about. The issues of transition planning, the idea of contract workers versus employees, partnership coordination with Mountain Express and future expansion of services and revenues are all interconnected and lead into one another,” said board member Laura Puckett Daniels. “I think we’ll be looking for more information after the discussion.

“I don’t think we’ll know enough to make a decision on April 3, for example, on what the best structure will be for the RTA moving forward after a transition. We should be looking at a roadmap going forward, not coming up with definitive solutions” Puckett Daniels said.

“I too feel these four items are interrelated,” said board member Ian Billick. “I think there is a danger in trying to compartmentalize these things. Ideally, I’d like us to be more explicit. I’d listen to the Gunnison people on the need for bus service in west Gunnison. The integration between the RTA and Mountain Express in a critical issue because there could be more integration. We are running multiple bus platforms. There are probably significant timing constraints related to your (Truex) transition plan and a potential tax initiative, so I feel we need a scoping process where we start in a fairly open ended way and get a sense of where people (board members) are at, and then put together a conceptual map about the relationship between different items and the timeframe we are talking about. Obviously, a tax measure would be very premature right now since there are other tax items within the county and it would take a lot of planning to get there. The board has not had a chance to talk through some things to see if there’s even a comfort level to talk through some of these issues.”

“I see these items as being the foundation of a much larger strategic planning effort,” added board member Liz Smith. “How we approach that is the bigger question for the retreat. It is good to get us all thinking about these issues.”

Smith also emphasized several times the need to reevaluate the local decisions on Minimum Revenue Guarantees (MRGs) between the RTA that subsidize flights into the Gunnison-Crested Butte Airport and the changing airline industry trends at the retreat.

Billick suggested that as preparation before the meeting, RTA chair Matt Schwartz and vice chair Smith perhaps reach out to see how board members feel about the broad concepts on the retreat agenda. He said the hope would be to obtain a sense of what board members are thinking about with the big picture that could help accelerate discussion and the overall the process moving forward.

“I appreciate we are working hard to make this retreat a worthwhile one,” concluded board member Diego Plata.