CPT'S Candidates for the GCRTA Board of Trustees
CPT Calls on County Executive and Mayor to Appoint Riders to Transit Board
Clevelanders for Public Transit (CPT) calls on Cuyahoga County Executive Chris Ronayne and Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb to fulfill their campaign promises to appoint riders to the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (GCRTA) Board of Trustees. Currently, only nine of the ten GCRTA Board seats are filled; the tenth will be nominated by County Executive Ronayne and confirmed by Cuyahoga County Council. Another seat controlled by Cuyahoga County is currently filled by a member serving in an expired term and should be replaced immediately. The third county appointment will expire in March 2023. In addition, two of Cleveland’s four seats on the Board will expire in March. This means there may soon be five seats on the GCRTA Board of Trustees that Executive Ronayne or Mayor Bibb will nominate. CPT is pleased to recommend the following candidates, who will center the needs of transit riders, for the GCRTA Board of Trustees:
Matthew Ahn
- Downtown Cleveland resident
- Visiting Assistant Professor of Law, Cleveland State University
- Regular transit rider
Bishop Chui
- Glenville resident
- President, Board of Directors, Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless
- Devoted, lifelong rider of public transit
Shalida Dobbins
- Bedford resident
- Vice Chair, Clevelanders for Public Transit
- Paratransit rider
Anastasia Elder
- Downtown Cleveland resident
- Associate Counsel, Case Western Reserve University Office of the General Counsel
- Regular transit rider
Sandra Ellington
- Mt. Pleasant resident
- Custodian employee, City of Cleveland
- Executive Chair, SEIU Local 1
- Regular transit riderReg
Yvonka Hall
- Lee-Harvard resident
- 2021 Community Member of the Year for Cleveland by the National Association of Social Workers
- Collinwood resident
- Vice President of Community Empowerment, Midtown Cleveland
- Organizer, Black Lives Matter Cleveland
- Lakewood resident
- Executive Director, Campus District Inc.
- Regular transit rider for over 20 years
Deidre McPherson
- Cleveland Heights resident
- Chief Community Officer, Assembly for the Arts
- Co-Chair, Bike Cleveland Board Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee
Robert Pfaff
- Cleveland Heights resident
- Visiting Assistant Professor of Urban Studies, Cleveland State University
- 2020 US DOT Dwight D. Eisenhower Transportation Fellow
- Fixed-route and rail Rider
Matt Rolf
- Shaker Heights resident
- Attorney, Matt Rolf Attorney LLC
- Frequent transit rider
Jeff Sleasman
- Downtown Cleveland resident
- Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Boussole, a consumer goods startup
- Dedicated transit rider for 30 years in four cities on two continents.
- Originally nominated by Mayor Bibb in 2022
Jonathan Steirer
- Cudell resident
- Managing Director, Great Lakes Energy Institute, Case Western Reserve University
- Co-Vice President on the Board of Directors of Northwest Neighborhoods
- Active user of transit and bicycling for commuting and recreation
Akshai Singh
- Cleveland Heights resident
- Co-founder, Clevelanders for Public Transit
Jenna Thomas
- West Park resident
- Advocacy & Policy Manager, Bike Cleveland
- Frequent transit rider
CPT commends Mayor Bibb and Executive Ronayne for their commitment to appointing members with expertise in transit policy and advocacy and with lived experience riding transit regularly.
As Mayor Bibb said during his mayoral campaign in 2021, “riders understand the pain points of our transit system better than anyone. As mayor, I will appoint trustees to the GCRTA Board that reflect the real, lived experience that riders see day in and day out.” Executive Ronayne showed a similar commitment at a candidate forum co-hosted by CPT and Bike Cleveland.
GCRTA remains in a period of precarious transition. The agency hired a new general manager in 2019, released a 10-year strategic plan in 2020, and redesigned its bus network in 2021. Yet, in 2022, GCRTA began the year with an unprecedented total shutdown of service during the Martin Luther King Jr. Day snowstorm. GCRTA will not begin to replace its railcar fleet for several years still, despite its own consultant’s warning in 2019 that the fleet should be replaced by 2023. In fact, due to the age of its railcars, the agency could only operate one train per line during December’s coldsnap, when it was able to run trains at all. In total, over 30% of service has been cut in the last 20 years while fares have doubled. Today, riders pay more for less reliable, less frequent buses and trains, and it is unacceptable!
As the ultimate seat of authority for GCRTA, the Board of Trustees must be filled with members who understand the needs of riders. Riders need more buses on the streets and new trains on the tracks. We need to get to where we’re going quickly, reliably, safely, and affordably.
Great cities have great transit. Residents of Cleveland and Cuyahoga County deserve great transit. To get that, Mayor Bibb and County Executive Ronayne must appoint GCRTA Trustees who will ensure the agency lives up to its mission of connecting the community. While Mayor Bibb’s call for Cleveland to be a 15-minute city and Executive Ronayne’s plans to create a county department of mobility and transportation are nice words to hear, their GCRTA appointment powers represent an opportunity for action. CPT looks forward to their appointments of new board members to bring diversity of thought, lived experience riding transit, new energy, and a more representative perspective to GCRTA’s board.
###
Clevelanders for Public Transit is a riders organization that builds power for affordable, accessible and equitable public transit in Northeast Ohio. CPT’s policy platform, Ending the Transit Death Spiral, was released in 2021. For more information, visit clefortransit.org.
One thought on “Press Release: Riders Call on County Executive Ronayne and Mayor Bibb to Appoint Transit Riders to Transit Board”
Comments are closed.