A man gets off a Lewis Mountain Highway Transit bus last October in Centralia.
Twin Transit General Manager Derrick Wojcik-Damers said Monday that he will remove language from a slideshow presentation that claims support from United Way of Lewis County for the agency’s ballot measure to fund expansion of its transit district countywide.
A slide near the end of the document that has been shown to many municipal bodies and community groups during a public outreach push by Twin Transit ahead of the Nov. 6 election date states that “Transportation Choices Coalition (TCC), Lewis County Democrats, Lewis County United Way, and several others are supporters” of the proposed two-tenths of a 1 percent sales tax to be voted on by Lewis County residents outside of Chehalis, Centralia and Napavine.
Debbie Campbell, executive director of the United Way of Lewis County, said Monday that it was misleading to say the local chapter of the nonprofit organization supported the measure, since it hadn’t even been discussed by the board of directors, which would need to vote before taking a public stance.
“It’s not that we’re against it, we haven’t even talked about it as a board,” Campbell said. “That’s not a true statement. It would mean we stood behind (the measure) when I know there are board members who wouldn’t support it. Obviously, transportation is a big deal for United Way’s mission, but I don’t even think anyone on our board lives in a place that would be voting on this.”
Wojcik-Damers said Monday that he was surprised to hear about Campbell’s concerns, because he had spoken with board members who were in support of the initiative. He also said it could be an issue of semantics, since the presentation said they and other groups supported the measure, not that they endorsed it.
“There are some groups that have come forward to weigh in on what their thoughts are on the ballot measure … There are some groups that I am aware of that are supporting this,” Wojcik-Damers said while giving the presentation at an Oct. 8 meeting of the Chehalis City Council.
That is true when it comes to the TCC — Executive Director Alex Hudson said her nonprofit does not make endorsements but has supported Twin Transit’s expansion push.
Transportation for Washington, a political action committee based out of Seattle, did endorse the measure by a vote of its five-person board. Carol Brock, who chairs the Lewis County Democrats, did not return a message seeking clarification about the group’s support of the ballot measure.
In the case of the United Way of Lewis County, Campbell emphasized that there is an important difference between members of the nonprofit expressing support and claiming to have the support of the organization writ large.
She’s certain that Wojcik-Damers and Twin Transit aren’t conflating the two with ill intent, but isn’t sure where the wires got crossed.
“I was at the meeting at the (Lewis County) Courthouse when they had all the small cities there to discuss expansion last spring,” Campbell said. “I was just there listening. I’m not sure where Derrick got that … It puts us in an awkward position.”
