Light Rail, Shucet and proactive transparency

By Brian Kirwin | Thursday, February 25th, 2010 | Policy

Several bloggers and I met with new chief of Hampton Roads Transit Phil Shucet and my first impression was definitely one of flux. Still evident is the strain of transition from the leadership of Mike Townes (who still is making a pretty buck doing whatever he’s still doing at HRT. We didn’t see him at HRT headquarters.)

It was fun, mostly to hear Eileen from the Dumocrats’ blog whine, moan and filibuster her way into something that sounded like a question as she criticized citizens for caring how their money is spent. I could’ve caught a quick nap during her single question, but I was caught gazing like a witness of a car accident and listened to the whole thing.

But it was still evident that Shucet’s openness has yet to trickle down to the organization. When we commented about the availability of information, staff’s response was that information would be public documents.

I responded that it does no one any good if people don’t know it’s there to ask for it. Shucet jumped in and said no one should need to fill out a FOIA to get information. HRT should put important information out and initiate the communication. That was a microcosm of the difference between then and now. The new boss ain’t the same as the old boss. Phil’s proactivity of transparency is what the agency needs, but it takes time to engender that.

I was a little peeved that Phil, even though his request of a quarter million dollars from Virginia Beach was eventually withdrawn, didn’t talk about it more directly when I asked him more directly. Shucet’s comment that he heard about the promise that no Beach money would be used in the study at 8:30 am February 22nd is troubling, since it was mentioned in every media story (Feb 9, Feb 10, and TV reports). This was no new discovery. Transcript or no transcript, 11 Council members don’t act surprised about a funding request and say they were promised full HRT funding and just make it up.

Overall, I was very impressed with Shucet’s contract knowledge. He knows how to set up contracts that protect taxpayers and simply get work done. That’s huge! He also promised a dashboard (which should track every individual part of construction, not just phases), which VDOT used, to track progress, good and bad, of light rail. If that was in place already, we would’ve saved everyone a big headache.

There are still problems with light rail. Everyone’s still flying blind from a PR perspective on this train, and perhaps that understandable in this initial stage. The most important thing is to get Norfolk’s starter line started, for if that fails, nothing else much matters. But even the most cursory research about the public perception of this project by folks in Chesapeake or Virginia Beach is overlooked. No one knows. No one has even thought to ask.

In my political world, I’m amazed that you wouldn’t want to know. But that’s me. (Hint – a public relations strategy isn’t geared towards talking to your supporters and telling them what they already know. That’s a snow job.)

Phil’s got a year with HRT, with a possible extension of six months. I hope the HRT team rallies around him, rather than waiting to outlast his contract and not turning things around. HRT is the single largest albatross facing light rail, and opponents know it. I hope Phil has the ability to shake things up and get cooperation rather than entrenched internal battles.

Plus there’s a little matter of $80,000 that was stolen and not reported to police, which told me all I needed to know about the previous administration and what it cared about. That investigation can’t go on forever, and I await the findings.

But Shucet should be given time to right the ship. So far, the things he’s done well in the past, he’s done well here. And if his staff adapts to his style more quickly, he’ll accomplish even more.
Vivian Paige provided the video here:

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