RBA’s new manual almost ready

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Updated: January 23, 2012 4:11AM

PORTAGE — The Regional Bus Authority said changes to its policy manual endorsed by Northwest Indiana’s leading differently-abled advocate will be completely incorporated by October’s end.

The public transportation entity agreed it would have its final cleanup changes to the manual to Merrillville-based Everybody Counts Inc.’s attorney Steve Sires by the end of this week. In turn, it’ll ask the Chicago-based attorney and the agency to have looked at them by Wednesday of next week so it can be presented a the full RBA Board meeting for adoption.

“The key is to get it done,” RBA Board Member Richard Hardaway said at a Tuesday morning RBA meeting. “We want to empower people to make a decision, but the longer we draw things out, the more complex (the manual) becomes.”

Closed meetings to discuss rider complaint appeals remain a concern for the RBA, in that the board cannot discuss the process publicly when records by the person appealing are private, such as medical information. RBA Executive Director Tim Brown said he’s fine with complainants having an ear with the RBA Board if that helps the person receive closure, but discussing the complainant’s documentation would have to be held in executive session while the ruling would be made public.

Any ongoing complaints filed with the RBA, meanwhile, will be held to the current appellate process until the new manual is approved, the board agreed.

The board also discussed a petition put forth by Sires and Everybody Counts regarding the lack of marketing outreach to the differently-abled community. The organization wants the RBA to directly market its para-transit routes that demographic, but the board believes its efforts have been successful.

“I think we’ve done an admirable job,” Board Member Steve Adik said. “We have more riders than (the Gary Public Transportation Corp.), and our numbers have increased substantially by word-of-mouth. They can argue process, but they can’t argue results.”

Since August 2010, the RBA Easygo Lake Transit Route, which covers the Hammond area, was expanded, it has experienced at least 10 percent growth in ridership month-over-month, Brown said. For 2011, numbers counted to August of total ridership on that route are 6,249 people, an increase of 41 percent over 2010.

“Why would we spend money on targeted advertising when we can put the money toward continuing a route or two?” said Board Member Lynn Duttlinger.