Kudos to The Chronicle for it’s unbiased and relentless reporting efforts to expose the dysfunctionality inherent in Twin Transit over the past year or so.
The key word here is “unbiased.” The Chronicle staff has steadily followed the developing stories within Twin Transit, not because of any dirt-digging or back-stabbing, but because the stories were there to be reported. What has happened with this once fairly-respected public agency over the past year is an outrage, and the public needs to know about it.
The Chronicle has done just that, at the risk of being accused of acting like the National Enquirer, which, in my opinion couldn’t be further from the truth.
My hats off to The Chronicle staff and especially Will Rubin and his tenacious pursuit of the true story of deception, ineptitude, mismanagement, employee mistreatment and seemingly downright corruption taking place at Twin Transit.
After Wojcik-Damers left, I felt very depressed that not only was Jackson seemingly not held accountable for going along with Wojcik-Damers’ every move that ended up in his termination, but that Jackson was actually stepping up and running Twin Transit on a daily basis.
How horrifying that must have felt to the employees who filed complaints against Wojcik-Damers and were supposed to be protected from feeling threatened by him via a “no entry” policy issued to him, but also were presented with an incomplete and unsatisfactory internal investigation. Then Jackson, Damers’ “right-hand man” so to speak, was running the place. The employees must have felt back to square-one, as though Wojcik-Damers had never left, and probably every bit as threatened as they did before Wojcik-Damers left.
Thank goodness for the continued Chronicle reporting that led to Jackson resigning as chairman of the Twin Transit Advisory Board. Thank goodness we didn’t have to resort to a recall election to get Jackson removed from the commissioner’s seat just to get him the heck off the Twin Transit Board.
I did a bunch of research on how to start a recall election because I thought that was the only option, and thank goodness it didn’t have to come to that. Jackson would have been in place that much longer, (mis)micromanaging things he is obviously unqualified to do and having had a misguided hand in hiring the next general manager. Thank goodness is all I can say, again.
I sent a letter (via email) to the Board of County Commissioners over a week ago asking what they were going to do about addressing recent service safety concerns in Chehalis. Thank goodness I cc’d The Chronicle. None of the BOCC bothered to respond, but one of the recent Chronicle op-eds did cite part of that letter. Again, unbiased, responsible and thorough coverage of the issues, in my opinion.
The Chronicle also deserves praise for acknowledging Jackson’s resignation from the board, rather than saying nothing or something more negative, which would have been easy to do. The paper staff took the high road, and good for you.
When stories are reported responsibly, thoroughly and in an unbiased manner, such as this one, The Chronicle is an invaluable and irreplaceable community resource. It takes a village, and The Chronicle is an integral and valuable part of that village.
Thank you!
Cathy Whitney
Centralia
