Monorail Meeting Tonight at 5:30 Downtown
There will be a meeting of the Monorail Board of Directors every Wednesday at 5:30pm including this evening at Seattle Monorail Project Community Room at 1913 4th Avenue downtown. Some of us will be there as early as 5.
We’re just getting started with this little project of ours and this is short notice for many as well as job conflicts and such, so I’m not expecting a lot of people. Like most things though, it’s a start. In the future, try to see if you can schedule in an occasional one of these Wednesday meetings. Reminders and agenda will be sent out to those on the mailing list.
The Quick Guide to Your Options at Meetings
The meeting starts at 5:30, but try to show up between 5 and 5:30. If you can make it, here are your three choices for what to do:
Option 1: Show up to meet your fellow 2045ers, watch the public comment period and then head home.
Cost: About 30 minutes
Option 2: Show up to meet your fellow 2045ers, sign up to speak in the public comment period when you get there and then head home.
Cost: About 30 minutes and some bravery
Option 3: Meeting and speaking, but you stay for the whole thing.
Cost: The time varies depending on the agenda, but it can be as short as 90 minutes or as long as 3 hours. Only those who seem to find this interesting should apply. For those hardy souls who manage to make it through the whole thing, perhaps we can get a drink somewhere after.
If you can’t make it, we’ll have short summaries of the meetings up here soon afterwards.
The Meeting Agenda (Simplified)
It starts with a public comment period (sign up if you’re up for that), and then will launch into presentations and a vote by the board on whether they should rebid the monorail contract in an attempt to lower costs.
2045’s Agenda
The short version:
Don’t rebid the project now until after it is clear we cannot fund the current contract.
The long version:
We believe that although rebidding (aka re-procurement) the project is a tempting option to explore, the process could drag out for some time, may not lead to lower costs and may never reach it’s end due to the state legislature’s ability to destroy the Monorail Project in January and use the motor vehicle tax for other purposes. As a result, we are pushing for the board to pursue the current contract and work towards funding and signing it before it expires in December. If the contract should expire in December, then the board should begin discussing rebidding with other parties at that time.
How to Identify Your Fellow 2045ers
If we’re lucky and the buttons arrive tomorrow afternoon, you’ll be able to identify your fellow 2045ers by the two tone green button they’re wearing. If the buttons don’t arrive, then look for stickers that say “Hello My Name is 2045″. That’s not as cool as the buttons and a little dorky, but we don’t mind looking a little dorky in the name of rapid transit.
August 3rd, 2005 at 12:07 pm
Go Monorail!
(I got nothing else to say really, I just wanted to pop your blog cherry)
August 3rd, 2005 at 12:49 pm
I’m all torn up about the monorail, myself. And not very trusting at this point. How are you affiliated with elevated.org? And by you, I mean the people writing and paying for this site. Actually, given the state of where things are, what are your names? I couldn’t find that kind of info on the site. I’m Justin Carder, concerned citizen, downtown resident, and potential monorail backer.
August 4th, 2005 at 12:38 am
Hey Justin,
You’re right. We should get more information up on this site as to who we are and I promise to do so in the next few days. This thing was put together so quickly, about three days really, that there’s lots of information that needs to be added.
To answer your immediate question though, no, we’re not affiliated with elevated.org nor any of the companies involved. It basically started as a group of friends sharing conversations and emails about the mess that’s happened. Once we realized we needed to make our concern more real and attach a name to it, we put up this site.
August 4th, 2005 at 1:21 am
awesome — glad to hear it. it’s so well done that i was concerned i was experiencing some sort of ‘new media’ PR campaign. mix that with my jaded spirit on this thing and you get doubt. sorry to doubt you. Looking forward to lending a hand.
August 4th, 2005 at 1:28 am
I’m glad the site looks good, but clearly there’s more work to do if we’re leaving that kind of impression. It’s really the fault of my background as well as the background of others involved as many of us are designers and producers and I personally have worked at a big media company for a while. We’ll have to a grab a coffee and touch base. In the meantime I can point you over to my mini bio on my personal blog I suppose.
August 4th, 2005 at 10:25 am
The PI’s report on last night’s mtg could have been worse, I guess. At least they didn’t resort to the lame-ass ‘it’s all doomed’ tone that KOMO tv stooped to last night.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/transportation/235211_newbidder04.html
Looking at this purely from a public relations POV, I don’t see any good routes that don’t include opening up the bidding again. Precedent? There is no precedent. Local politics, like any good bureaucracy, is ahistorical!