Our Views: In Defiance of Facts, Twin Transit Leaders Won’t Back Down

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Anybody who’s taken an introductory psychology or philosophy class can tell you the “truth” is a sticky matter indeed. 

Truth is subjective — a person’s perceptions, feelings, experiences and biases all influence their grasp on the truth of a situation. Truth is often up for debate.

Meanwhile, facts are objective. They are what they are, whether you like it or not. You can stare them down, stomp your feet or throw your weight around and they’ll stare right back at you with their tongues sticking out, not budging an inch. 

Facts are like gravity — they always win. 

With that in mind, we at The Chronicle continue to be astonished at Twin Transit leaders’ reactions to questions about the accuracy of information spread as part of a campaign to expand the Lewis Public Transit Benefit Area — the taxing district that funds Twin Transit — countywide. 

Specifically, advisory board member Bobby Jackson and Twin Transit General Manager Derrick Wojcik-Damers said, in print and in public presentations, numerous times leading up to November’s vote, that the impetus for the expansion was to absorb East County’s Lewis Mountain Highway Transit, saying it would fold in 2019 for lack of funding.

That’s a fact. 

We’ve since found out that LMHT hadn’t actually been in danger of losing funding since mid-2017. The expansion was built upon a premise that was not true. Well, let’s be specific, not factual. 

Since then, we’ve heard a variety of excuses and arguments from Jackson, also a county commissioner, and Wojcik-Damers. On Thursday, they met with fellow Twin Transit board members Chad Taylor, of the Chehalis City Council and Rebecca Staebler, of the Centralia City Council, at Chehalis City Hall for an open meeting specifically to address the reporting on misinformation promoted during the campaign. 

During the course of the meeting, Wojcik-Damers and Jackson both said they did and they didn’t know about the change in Lewis Mountain Highway Transit’s financial status. 

First, they said they knew the state legislature capped grant matching funds at 10 percent for nonprofits in mid-2017, averting a situation in which LMHT might have had to pay an increasing contribution, up to 50 percent, which would have forced them to close. 

Wojcik-Damers on Thursday said Twin Transit continued to use the threat of the nonprofit’s demise as a reason for absorbing it despite the change in circumstances, saying “The legislature can always change their mind … nothing is certain. That’s all we ever said.”

In the same meeting Thursday, Jackson backtracked. Though he and Wojcik-Damers had already admitted moments before to knowing about the cap, he changed course.

“If we had known this information, we would have either changed the narrative or quite frankly, I would have moved that we stop it,” he said. 

He later grilled Doug Hayden, of LMHT, about why Hayden didn’t tell Twin Transit about the change, saying the responsibility rested with Hayden to give Twin Transit information about his nonprofit.

Taylor asked how Thursday Wojcik-Damers and Jackson could run a campaign for a tax increase without getting all of the facts. 



Wojcik-Damers switched gears again.

“We stated repeatedly there was a cap,” he said. 

Is your head spinning yet? 

Taylor seemed to be the only one interested in getting to the facts of the matter. He asked hard questions while clearly working to be as diplomatic as possible. 

Staebler made no contribution. She complained at one point — about two hours into the meeting — about being away from her business during the holiday shopping season. 

“I am losing money every minute,” she said, while asking to end the meeting. 

We’re still piecing together the facts, but this is what we know today. 

1) We can’t find any evidence that Wojcik-Damers or Jackson ever publicly mentioned the matching cap, or discussed LMHT’s grant in detail. 

2) Conversely, we have recorded meetings, publicity material purchased by Twin Transit and even a letter to the editor from Jackson himself warning of imminent closure of LMHT without an expanded Twin Transit. 

3) Twin Transit formally endorsed LMHT’s application for grants through 2023, and is furthermore bound by the same grant match requirements. They applied for grants in the same cycle — they had to know what those requirements were. 

4) Yes, Doug Hayden should have said something sooner. He knew Wojcik-Damers and Jackson were spreading information that was not accurate, and he didn’t say anything until the measure failed. 

But the difference is Hayden is telling the truth now, and his story is consistent and matches the documented facts. Better late than never. 

It’s a fact that Twin Transit spread false information. So again, did they do it knowingly, or not? 

“To suggest that somehow we were dishonest in this is a stretch,” Jackson said in November. “A huge stretch. We did everything above-board and honestly. We never hid anything. We were honorable and up front.”

The moral of this story is, as always, if someone is telling you the sky is green, look up.