Derrick Wojcik-Damers, former general manager of Twin Transit, speaks during a board meeting in December in Chehalis.
Twin Transit General Manager Derrick Wojcik-Damers has been instructed to work from home and avoid contact with most agency employees for the duration of an outside investigation into complaints made against him by Twin Transit staff.
The directive came from the Twin Transit Advisory Board following an executive session of about 90 minutes that took place Tuesday morning during a regular meeting of the board at Centralia City Hall.
Board also members met in executive session for more than 90 minutes Friday during a special meeting, but were not permitted to take action until the next regular meeting of the board.
“Because they’ve proceeded with an investigation, they want to ensure that … generally in any investigation, it’s wise to limit communications between complainants and subjects,” said Twin Transit attorney Janean Parker. “So these parameters are to have a process in place for those communications and to still allow the business of Twin Transit to get done.”
Parker added that she hopes to line up a third-party investigator as soon as possible and that the timeframe for such an inquiry would depend on the schedule of the investigator.
For now, Wojcik-Damers is not allowed direct contact with any Twin Transit employees except Melissa Shoemaker, human resources manager for the agency. Any work he completes remotely must be routed through board chair Bobby Jackson or Parker.
“Any time you have these types of internal investigations, I would think the prudent thing to do, depending on the severity of (the complaints), you put someone on leave at least until you can determine their validity,” said Peter Abbarno, a Centralia city council member and local attorney. “You at least want a wall up to where someone can access the files they need to do the day-to-day work without accessing anything that would impact the investigation.”
Wojcik-Damers’ conduct is the subject of letters of concern submitted by Twin Transit staff members to the advisory board by way of the city of Chehalis. The Chronicle submitted a records request for the letters last week.
Chehalis has given Wojcik-Damers until Jan. 25 to seek an injunction blocking their release pursuant to Revised Code of Washington 42.56.540, which allows a person to claim release of certain records would not be in the public interest and would cause substantial harm to themselves or a public agency.
Requests for comment from board members on their actions and the pending investigation were directed to Jackson, the board chair, who did not respond by press time.
In addition, the Washington State Department of Transportation confirmed to The Chronicle that Twin Transit has not filed all of the mandatory paperwork related to its operations grant for the first two quarters of WSDOT fiscal year 2019, which runs from July 1, 2018 through June 30, 2019.
Twin Transit received a $1.39 million operating grant from WSDOT for the 2017-19 biennium.
The total amount of expenses incurred by the agency from July 1 through Dec. 31 of 2018 that are eligible for reimbursement isn’t known.
Agencies that receive grant funding from WSDOT are required to submit detailed invoices to receive reimbursement out of the total dollar amount allocated to the grant award from WSDOT. Those invoices aren’t subject to a hard deadline, but documentation such as financial and statistical reports would have been due on Sept. 30 for the first quarter and are due on Jan. 30 for the second quarter.
“We knew those were things that needed to be done, but not that Twin Transit had already missed a deadline,” said Twin Transit Advisory Board member Chad Taylor. “It’s concerning.”
Don Chartock, Grants Manager for the public transportation division of WSDOT, said his agency informed Twin Transit last month that it was behind on its filings. It has not received an update since then.
“Basically what we do is we start with a phone call,” Chartock said. “We usually give them another quarter to catch up. In the end, if we feel like they’re being responsive, we are unlikely to give out any financial penalties.”
The “Guide to Managing Your Public Transportation Grant” document published by WSDOT lays out penalties for agencies that don’t meet performance standards such as “submittal of accurate and timely progress and statistical reports and reimbursement requests.” Consequences range from written warnings to ineligibility for additional grant funds during current or future funding cycles.
Chartock said agencies can turn in invoices as they see fit, based on their own operating budgets and it’s not unusual for them to come in near the end of a biennium. However, if invoices aren’t turned in soon after the end of a biennium, the account could wind up being closed without being paid out.
