LTD safety officers make dramatic appeal to CEO

Presenter: Frontline LTD employees make a dramatic appeal to CEO Jameson Auten. During public comment at the Sept. 16 board meeting, Christal Bowes:

Christal Bowes: LTD decided to end my employment, citing ‘several concerning behaviors’ in June of this year. Although I disagree with this decision, I still admire and respect what this agency strives to do for the citizens of Lane County. 

I am here to ask Jameson Auten to reconsider this decision. According to the collective bargaining agreement, discipline is the province of the CEO. I believe that I would excel if given a fair chance at training on LTD’s policies, procedures, and expectations.

The training that we public safety officers receive is insufficient. It is confusing and leaves us to rely on the practices of our previous experiences and training. I believe that the encouragement that I received from my fellow officers and the bus operators that I worked with was proof that I was doing the job that LTD expected of me.

Please consider my plea for a second chance. I know that I can serve this community and lead the way that you expect. With standardized training and evaluations, I would prove my worth to you. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Quentin Price: My name is Quentin Price and I’m currently a public safety officer, Lane Transit District and I have two other public safety officers with me. (introductions)

Well, first, thank you for the service that you perform on behalf of Lane County. Transportation is an essential need for people to participate in our community. Public safety plays an important role in this mission of that service. We keep our fellow employees, customers, and property safe, and we do this with your oversight.

Today, we are calling on your oversight to support better training, an updated handbook, and equal enforcement of discipline towards our team members. 

Several of us have seen favoritism instead of qualifications that determine a person’s success at LTD.  This goes against our mission as an organization. Our community deserves the best and safest service that we can all provide.

I’ve worked for the District for almost five years in October, and I’m proud of what we strive to do for Lane County.

Now that I’m asking you to help us get to that level of excellence that I believe we are capable of.

Please invest in our training by providing the level of training even that our operators are afforded as well.

Our training consists of brief PowerPoint presentations, a half-day ride along with our public safety manager, and peers training. We are trained by our fellow officers who must rely on their previous employment experiences for guidance.

We have no actual instructors providing policy clarification or district expectations. Without a true training program, we are unable to meet the quality of safety that our customers deserve. Please consider this as you contemplate our former team member, Christal Bowes. 

I believe in her and I’m here to support her. I’m asking that you give her a second chance. Thanks.

Kasey Creech: Kasey Creech. I’ve been with the LTD now for almost 26 years.  I’m here to tell you about an experience that I had in the summer of 2024. 

I was driving a three-hour route to McKenzie Bridge back and forth, and I had a man passenger that was standing over my shoulder, talking to me, you know, making me feel really, really uncomfortable.

And I went to the public safety manager at the time, and I wanted him to have a conversation with the man, just kind of deter the behavior.

Like, ‘Hey, this guy’s creeping me out. Could you just have a conversation with him?’ 

My husband at the time was also an employee, and I went to talk to the public safety manager with my husband, and the public safety manager told me, ‘Don’t make something out of nothing.’ 

Now that really made me feel really embarrassed, really humiliated, and made me feel like as a woman, it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter the way you feel. You know?

After that, I did talk to Jameson, and he said that he would, you know, handle the matter discreetly. And last spring, I did have an opportunity to go and speak with the public service manager, and he told me he didn’t remember any of it. 

You know, as an operator, my passengers are only as safe as I am.

So if I’m concerned for my safety when I’m traveling 55 miles an hour down a road and I’ve got somebody that’s distracting me and making me feel uncomfortable, and I don’t have somebody backing me up when they’re the one person that I’m supposed to be able to go to, what does that say for my passengers and what does that say for their safety?

So thank you.

Edward Reynolds: My name is Edward Reynolds. I am proud to be an operator at LTD. I get to be of service to the community in a way that I never thought of before. 

I get to be the person who gets your children home safe. I’m trusted with your family members. I am someone that helps college freshmen navigate new city.

I have strong roots in Eugene and LTD has even named an EmX station after my dad.

My family migrated from Louisiana in 1943. We were the second Black family to settle in Eugene. I am extremely proud of the fact that I grew up in such a diverse community. I did have my struggles growing up, but I am grateful every day that my parents decided to move to Eugene.

That said, I love my job at LTD. I really do. It’s the first job I’ve ever had that I didn’t get up in the morning going, ‘God, I got to go to work.’ It’s kind of great.

But after a situation with the supervisor three to four months ago and the district’s decision to keep this supervisor, I struggle to believe that LTD is practicing what they preach.

I am responsible for the safety of every person on my bus, and I take that responsibility seriously. Now I’m asking the district to take operator safety seriously.

How can we be expected to navigate the vehicle, traffic, passengers and all our responsibilities when our safety is pushed to the side?

How can the district justify holding some people to such an extremely different standard while excusing the behaviors of others? Thank you. 

Linda Tucker: My name is Linda. I’m a bus operator, been a bus operator for about 12 years. And before that, I was a public safety officer for eight and a half for Lane Transit. Before we were employees, I was contracted, but here nonetheless.

First, I’m here to support my ATU union member, Christal Bowes. Christal was let go from her position as a public safety officer, and I believe she was wrongfully terminated.

Many of her male counterparts have had multiple incidents involving physical contact and still retain their employment—incidents, from my understanding, that demonstrate a greater level of escalation and cause for safety concerns.

Why, then, was Christal’s incident cause for dismissal? Was she used to make an example, or is it because she’s a woman? Not only should her dismissal be called to question, so should the violation of her rights as a union member per her union contract.

To my knowledge, in every contract, drivers and public safety, there is a process of progressive discipline that takes place and if needed and seen fit, remedial training. I don’t believe any of these steps were followed.

I also believe that not just Christal, but all of the PSOs (public safety officers) are grossly, even negligently undertrained for these positions. As I said, I was a PSO here for eight and a half years before we called it a PSO. 

Before I ever stepped foot on LTD property, I received 40 hours of classroom training, hands-on training, as well as various other steps in the process before I stepped foot on the property to begin on-the-job training.

The difference with what I had to face back when I started in 2005 and what these officers face now are miles apart. The officers out there today are dealing with an angrier, more desperate, more unstable public than ever.

So what kind of training do they receive for that? One day. Ongoing training to keep up with what’s going on in the world.

Christal was doing the best she could with the little training and tools she had received, but rather than offer training and correction, she was fired.

On to part two. I was on the Lane Transit website the other day. Occasionally I’ll ride the bus and I came across a list of values we all here toted around. Respect. Integrity. Innovation. Equity. Safety. I think collaboration is the other one.

And then yesterday I became feeling bewildered, angry, unheard, unseen, and questioned how safe I am at work. I wondered how many other operators must be feeling the same way.

We learned that a road supervisor was returning to duty after several months of being on administrative leave pending an investigation. Bus operators have been targeted. (Thank you. Your three-minute time is up.)

Philip Taylor: I’m Philip Taylor. I’ve been a bus operator for 11 years, an instructor and a current ATU steward. 

When I was hired 11 years ago and right up to this latest class, we have a 10-week training program that all of our operators go through. It’s comprehensive. They learn the ins and outs of how Lane Transit wants it done. 

They’re given the opportunity to have mentors that help guide them through the process. They’re educated on who they can go to when they have questions. We take people from all backgrounds and mold them into what Lane Transit needs.

Our training department is top-notch. We invest in our operators with first-class training. It’s our responsibility to provide the same opportunity to our public safety officers and allow them to succeed just the way we want our operators to succeed. 

Mike Funderburk: All right. Good evening. I’m Mike Funderburk. I’m the executive board officer here. 

I’ve been here for 15 years as an operator and an instructor for about 12 years now. So training is important to us that, like Philip said, we do ten weeks of training for operators.

If an operator has an issue and problems, they get refresher training, a chance to improve, to work upon those issues that they have going on. Christal wasn’t given that chance.

She had a meeting next day, I believe it was another meeting and then right on paid administrative leave. No opportunity to show improvement, no refresher training, no additional training, and a lack of training to begin with.

John Gangl: My name is John Gangl, recording secretary at 757, president of the Lane County Central Labor Chapter. Clearly, we have a lot of inequitable examples of discipline process around here. I don’t want to get too in the weeds about that.

We need to talk about healing. We need to talk about collaboration. We need to put the mission, vision and values to the test. We need to start reaching across the table, shoring up old friendships, healing old wounds. And I think we can get there.

We just have to start talking. Nobody has the privilege of being perfect, not a single one of us. But I can tell you right now, every single person in this room cares. Every single person in this room wants to perform the duty of service to this community.

Members of the board, you’re no exception. You’re here voluntarily. You do this just out of community pride. I look around here and I can tell you, everyone in this room is doing this out of pride for their community. .

Community Transit up near Seattle had a similar situation with their training department some years ago. They resolved that. And I think that would be a great opportunity for us to look at what one of our peers has done to resolve the training issues.

Again, mission, vision and values. Let’s put those to the test. Let’s reach out and collaborate with transit just a little bit to the north. We can do this. 

Again, I’m going to plead for Christal for her to have a second chance. Please examine the totality of the situation. Thank you.

Bruce Hansen: Tonight here, you heard from a number of members regarding safety concerns, training concerns, issues that we feel that are important. I’m the president of ATU 757.

I represent 29 different properties across the state of Oregon and southwest Washington. This is an important issue not only for us, but for the communities that we serve.

Our souls are some of the most valued employees that respond to some of the most horrific calls when we need them to. There are some of the most dangerous responders in our time of need. If you haven’t rode with them, I would challenge you to take an opportunity to ride with them.

You have an opportunity to build a training department, give diversity, give opportunities. We’re not here as adversarial tonight. We’re here to inform you guys this is a problem we’ve tried to work through.

We want to be partners. We want to build. We want to build for our communities. We want to build for the agency. If the agencies fail, we fail. Our community fails, right? That’s what we’re here to serve.

Every one of our members talked tonight about pride, right? Every one of you sit in front of the people that you’re sitting in front of because of your pride. We need to come together and build a collaborative effort to build a pride within the training department, to provide the best that we can in all divisions that we represent.

And I will say that 100% of the time, and I challenge you guys to do the same. So when we look at this, look at this very seriously, because each and every one of us as members of the field, our lives respond, whether we’re responding or whether we’re the recipients of somebody responding depend on the training that we’re given.

Ten weeks for an operator sometimes isn’t enough. Sometimes we have to extend that 10-week training, right? We mutually agree. We take a mutual agreement to extend that training because we see a value in providing additional trainings. We should do the same in others.

Presenter: LTD employees make a dramatic public appeal to CEO Jameson Auten, and call for improved training for their public safety officers.