More Twin Transit Employees Speak Out Against Manager

More than half of the Twin Transit staff signed a letter of no confidence in general manager Derrick Wojcik-Damers earlier this month, stating a belief that Wojcik-Damers, currently under investigation for work-related complaints filed by employees, is unfit to lead the agency.

A copy of the letter obtained by The Chronicle includes 16 signatures, five of which belong to employees not represented by a union. It begins, “We the undersigned have signed this document with the understanding that our signature represents a No Confidence Vote for in (sic) the leadership ability of Derrick Wojcik-Damers.”

The first two employees to sign the letter, bus operators Rhonda Symonds and Alison Meyn, spoke to The Chronicle about why they put their names on the document. A third person provided The Chronicle with a copy of the letter, which was sent to the Twin Transit Advisory Board, the cities of Chehalis and Centralia, and Lewis County.

Symonds and Meyn are the first Twin Transit employees to speak on the record about Wojcik-Damers since the advisory board barred him from the building pending the outcome of an investigation being conducted by Katherine Weber of Seattle law firm Inslee Best. 

“I’m hoping it makes people realize what is going on down there,” Symonds said. “That (Wojcik-Damers) is not doing his job the way it should be done. That we need someone who cares about the people who work there. That people don’t like coming into work right now because of the atmosphere he created.”

The letter signed by employees was distributed during the second week of January, around the same time managers Aaron Rollins and Steve Wark penned their own lists of concerns regarding Wojcik-Damers. A total of 31 employees work under the supervision of the general manager at Twin Transit.

Those two documents were published on Tuesday by The Chronicle and contained allegations of Wojcik-Damers not following company policy, ignoring input from senior staff and creating a tense, fearful work environment.

Confidence in Wojcik-Damers had been dropping for months prior to January, according to Symonds and Meyn. Symonds has worked at Twin Transit for more than two decades, while Meyn was hired about four years ago.

Feelings of distrust boiled over following negative Chronicle stories about inaccurate information used to promote a failed transit expansion ballot measure, potential violations of state law regarding the use of public funds for campaign purposes and Twin Transit being about six months behind on required filings with the state.

“What I think we’re trying to do with the letter is, basically, make sure it’s known that Aaron and Steve aren’t the only ones having these feelings about (Wojcik-Damers),” Meyn said. “He doesn’t have any interaction with the driving staff. He says he has an open-door policy, but nobody goes upstairs because they don’t trust him. He doesn’t know most of our names.”

Wojcik-Damers for the past few weeks has been working in a limited capacity from home as the advisory board reviewed complaints by employees and then contracted with Weber for a formal investigation. She has been a member of the Washington State Bar Association for more than three decades and practices a wide range of employment-related law.

Twin Transit attorney Janean Parker told The Chronicle the cost of the investigation won’t be known until it is completed. The Washington State Transit Insurance Pool will cover a portion of the bill. Wojcik-Damers did not respond to a request sent via Parker for comment by press time. Board chair Bobby Jackson emailed a statement affirming the board’s support of the investigation.

“The board of directors is taking this matter very seriously, and are awaiting the outcome of the formal investigation before making any further comments,” Jackson wrote. “Once the investigation has been completed and the board has been briefed on the facts, we will determine what actions need to be taken and will comment at that time.”

Whether the bulk of the Twin Transit staff will accept the findings of the investigation and subsequent board action is far from certain. While not named in any of the three complaint letters, Symonds and Meyn said employees feel the board has been complicit in allowing working conditions to deteriorate at the transit agency.

Symonds singled out Jackson, also a Lewis County Commissioner, for acting as a rubber stamp for Wojcik-Damers while he served as interim board chair for much of 2018. She said she isn’t sure how employees will react if Wojcik-Damers returns as general manager, noting that while there is a no-strike clause in the collective bargaining agreement between the union and Twin Transit, Centralia teachers defied similar language when they went on strike last fall.

“(Jackson) is accountable for letting things fester,” Symonds said. “The board as a whole, too, since they approve contracts and spending, all of that. But it seems like they’ve been along for the ride with Bobby. They’ve made it sound like he’s just wonderful and everything, so employees don’t feel like they can trust the board right now.”

Speaking for themselves, Meyn and Symonds said that whatever the outcome of Weber’s investigation, their biggest hope is that Twin Transit can begin to move past what was a very choppy 2018 and start rebuilding public trust in the agency. For them, that starts from the top down.

“(Wojcik-Damers) doesn’t know how to treat people, and it gets back to us as drivers being the face of Twin Transit,” Meyn said. “We’re the ones picking riders up at the train station, building relationships for paratransit clients, and we have no clue what’s going on. People have questions, and we have no idea what’s going on. The financial part of it is really scary, because any penalties or shortfalls could wind up hurting employees, and we have no clue what’s going on. Something needs to be done.”