2023-08-24 SMART Board of Directors
Fixed-route service to Novi, Wixom, and Bloomfield Hills (Woodward / Long Lake) will begin on Monday, September 11th.
This is a carbon copy of a live thread originally posted to Mastodon .
Call to Order
Meeting Materials: Board Book and YouTube recording
The August 2024 SMART Board of Directors meeting was called to order at 6:03pm. Attendance was light, likely due to high heat, flooding, and the meeting location at Macomb Community College.
Item F (Office 365 SaaS contract) was removed from the agenda without objection.
🚨 Public Comment
Virtual participation was unavailable for this meeting.
- Lukas Lasecki, Farmington Hills: “I attended the board meeting in August [2022] in which SMART declared it had become ‘the new SMART.’ They state the lack of a contract is causing a major struggle to attract and retain operators and that run cancellations are not only still an issue, but worsening. Voters in Oakland County entrusted SMART with funding over nine months ago, but none of planned extensions are live yet. Lasecki additionally asks for written comments to be read into the record today, as many were unable to attend.
- Email comment from Robert Pawlowski: States SMART is at the worst level of service in the past six years. Will continue to advocate for improved transit, but says leadership is ignoring the concerns of its riders. “That’s not leadership, it’s corruption.”
Public comment closed at 6:11pm.
This was the first meeting since the rule change regarding virtual participation in which emails were verbally read into the record.
Board Remarks
Chairwoman Chambers welcomed attendees to Macomb Community College along with John Paul Rea, Macomb County representative.
An email comment was accidentally skipped. It was not read aloud but will be forwarded to the board.
GM Dwight Ferrell presented a plaque to the board commemorating 50 years of partnership between SMART and DDOT.
Staff Updates
Harmony Lloyd, VP of Planning, officially announced that fixed-route service to Novi, Wixom, and Bloomfield Hills will start on Monday, September 11th .
Bernard Parker III, VP of External Affairs, shared that SMART is working with local media to reach a targeted audience and recruit new operators. These publications reach over 140,000 individuals.
Hiring Update
Makini Jackson provided a hiring update: : 8 fixed-route coach operators, 1 Connector operator, and 4 mechanics have been hired in the past month. 11 fixed-route operators and Connector operators who were in training have left in the past month.
Other Board Business
Danny Whitehouse, VP Paratransit and On-Demand Services, shares a video with the board showcasing new side-loading paratransit vehicles from Mobility Transportation, which will begin replacing rear-loading vehicles. Ferrell notes these new vans will be what SMART uses for Flex service once expansions are implemented, rather than Via’s vans.
Vicki Wolber, Bret Rasegan, and Dr. Curtis Ivery were selected for the Nominating Committee under Agenda Item A.
Agenda Items B-E and G, all purchasing and project agreements, were approved unanimously. 800 new signpoles are being ordered on top of the 500 ordered in June, and the contract for Swiftly (realtime bus tracking) is up for renewal.
The board entered executive session to discuss contract negotiations at 6:46pm and returned after over an hour at 8:07pm. Following a vote to “proceed as recommended in closed session," the meeting adjourned.
earth to mission SMART, do you read
