At yesterday's meeting of LANTA's board of directors, the only color I saw was in the peanut gallery. Its large, twelve-member board, appears to be entirely white, and only three are women. Of these three, only Northampton County Council member Ann McHale may cast a vote. This board has no resemblance to Lehigh Valley demographics, where woman actually outnumber men and we have just a tad more diversity.Perhaps that's why, at least until now, LANTA has failed to even acknowledge the plight of the mostly minority-owned businesses along Allentown's Hamilton Street. In September, board member Steve Schmitt smugly dismissed these merchants. "They wanted something to complain about, basically." And yesterday, he actually challenged their honesty. "I find it hard to believe. ... I'd like to see the books."
Would Schmitt be this insensitive if the affected merchants were white?
LANTA's board needs more diversity.
After yesterday's board meeting, I sent emails to each board member. The only one to respond was its sole female voting member, Ann McHale, whom I've called imperious.
Whatever happened to MLK's colorblind society. I guess only liberals are allowed to notice it, huh?
ReplyDeleteWhen there is a complete lack of diversity, it's time for a change.
ReplyDeleteI think you're going after the wrong guy here Bernie. While I agree that the bus board is not representative of the rider's demographics, Steve is one of the few LANTA board members who actually rides the bus. Not to mention the fact that he has been working to improve bus service as well as bike and ped access for nearly 20 years. Without his efforts to bring to light planned fare hikes and major service cuts a few months ago, you would probably be blogging about those issues instead of this one. Steve is actively trying to improve transit and you're going after him? Have you bothered to ask him why he agreed with the bus route move, or what he's asking for to improve the new route for riders or to help the Hamilton Street business owners with the transition? All of these questions have answers, but you have chosen to take his words out of context. You can call Steve plenty of things, but calling him a rich white aristocrat who does not care about bus riders because they are minorities is just way out of line. It is simply not true.
ReplyDeleteRobin,
ReplyDeleteI know Steve, too. I've spoken to him many times and respect many of the things he's done. But his mborderline rqacist remarks are outrageous. They display a copmplete insensitivy to minority-owned businesses, and Schmott would not hasve the balls to say that if it were Butz or PPL.
I did write to Steve. Well over a months ago. And he blew me off. Not a response at all.
And what he did after that meeting is disgusting.
After everyonme has left, he challenges their honesty. I wrote to him about that, too, and have heard nothing.
Before you get all holy about what a great guy he is, I know that he depends on handouts from the big businesses to keep his little enterprises going. So obviously, he's carrying their water.
I'm disgusted by Steve.
I took nothing our of context either. He slammed those Hamilton Street merchants and behind their backs. Believe me, I wanted his side a month ago and got dead air.
ReplyDeletePardon my typos, Robin. I should have checked my spelling. I gave Steve over a month to get back to me. He didn't. But in that same time, he went out of his way to be disrespectful to minority-owned businesses, calling them whiners and suggesting they are dishonest. He would not have made this complaint about PPL or any of the biggies that throw him bones for his little bike operation. As far as I'm concerned, his insensiticve remarks destroy all the good he's done over the years. And they have not been taken out of context. His term expires in March. I've already sent Stoffa an email asking him to dump Schmitt. That board needs more diversity.
ReplyDeleteKneed sum additional edukation hear Burnie.
ReplyDeleteCould you elaborate on how the Board is chosen? Is a Board position volunteer or paid? How long are their terms and are the terms staggered?
The size of the Board appeared LARGE to me for the task at hand. Is there really that many weighty issues involved that require that quantity of folks? (Oh, I forgot, this is Pennsylvania, the land of bloated bureaucracies ;-)
Then again, we're talking two counties here so many that number is prudent. Just asking..
Now I'm sorry that I didn't stay for the rest of the meeting so that I could get a sense of their agenda. And they didn't chase folks out, so I guess we really could have stayed???
WhetherVain!
ReplyDelete1) We could have and should have stayed for the entire meeting. Whenever I address a body, I like to stay for the entire meeting. I believe I owe it to them to listen after making them listen to me. In this case, we were given an opportunity to leave and the merchantsd bolted. Since I wasa the ride for a number of them, i had to leave. otherwise, i would have stayed.
2) So far as I know, this is an unpaid position. I don't know if there are any paid trips for "seminars."
3) Six members of this board are appointed by NC and the remaining six are appointed by LC. It appears that the two nonvoting members are LANTA employees. I agree that it is a large and unwieldy board.
4) Schmitt's term is the next one up in NC. His term expires in March.
Common sense should be common enough, that it is blind of a person's sex or color. So let's judge people on the content of their character, not the color, or sex they were born with.
ReplyDeleteIf the board was full of hard-working, intelligent people, would we scream that the boobs and idiots weren't being represented? Should we diversify out the intelligent people, for the inclusion of stupid people?
O_o
Speaking of boards....any plan to attend a BHA board meeting? Joe Long would welcome you with open arms.
ReplyDeleteNo taxation without representation.
ReplyDeleteThat is the reason we are the United States of America.
Our forefathers (Thomas Paine and friends) killed people over the right to be goverened by people like them. Not people detached from their society, culture, and needs.
That blindness defense holds little water, because we are people and few of us can relate well to something or some situation we've never been or been in.
No taxation without representation.
translation:
The group addressed needs to be represented by their kind.
I think Vegan Commies who look like Charlie McCarthy are underrepresented in society too! Where's the diversity?!
ReplyDeleteThey tried to get LANTA's board to represent their customers. However it didn't work, since when the board members used the buses, they were always late for the meetings. j/k
ReplyDeleteO_o