Interview Committee A Interviews Candidates for Bloomington Transit Board – August 20, 2026
Interview Committee A Interviews Candidates for Bloomington Transit Board – August 20, 2026
Interview Committee A of the Bloomington City Council met on August 20, 2026, to interview two candidates for the Bloomington Transit (BT) Board of Directors: Zach, a data visualization expert and regular bus rider, and Kent, an incumbent board member with 36 years of service. The committee also received written public comments. Discussions highlighted critical issues facing BT, including declining ridership, route efficiency, microtransit, management contracts, and long-term funding.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Two written comments from Nick Ira were read into the record: the first expressed appreciation for Zach’s perspective as a regular bus rider, and the second described Kent’s generational knowledge as “priceless” and “beyond valuable.”
Discussion Items
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Interview with Zach: Zach emphasized that BT faces a “death spiral” in ridership, citing a 13% year-to-date drop (the worst outside COVID). He argued the board should prioritize frequency, reliability, and route optimization over what he called distractions like microtransit, which he noted had as few as two riders per month. He called for route redesign, bus stop consolidation, and restoring late-night fixed-route service instead of subsidizing Uber/Lyft. Zach stated that as a daily bus rider, he would bring a user’s perspective to the board and use his data background to scrutinize agency performance. He also suggested raising parking rates to fund transit and expressed concern about cost overruns on the proposed new facility.
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Interview with Kent: Kent, a BT board member for 36 years and former IU transportation executive, reviewed the agency’s history and changes. He opposed the board’s recent decision (3-2 vote) to replace BT’s current management company (RATP dev) with a new provider, calling it the “biggest mistake” he had seen. He indicated he would resign if the contract is signed. Kent acknowledged that BT faces challenges in hiring and retaining drivers (seven short of full complement) and securing consistent funding, given limitations in state and federal sources. He supported microtransit for paratransit needs but cautioned against overexpansion. Kent agreed that the board could benefit from a regular bus rider and a person with disabilities. He suggested expanding the board from five to seven members per state law, though he noted quorum concerns.
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Committee Questions: Committee members (Kate Rosenbarger, Isak, and others) asked about balancing diverse rider needs, the impact of expiring ED Lit funding ($3.7 million), potential IU-BT consolidation, and the board’s role in oversight versus management. Both candidates stressed the importance of independent oversight and data-driven decision making.
Key Outcomes
- The committee completed interviews with both candidates. Written public comments were acknowledged. No votes were taken on appointments. The committee planned to reconvene the following day to continue the selection process. Kent’s potential resignation pending the management contract vote at the next BT board meeting was noted.
Note: The transcript referenced the meeting date as August 13, 2026, but per instruction the summary uses August 20, 2026, as the provided meeting timestamp.
Meeting Transcript
Okay, this meeting is real. And we are interview committee A today is August 13th, 2026. Thursday morning. Okay, so we are doing today a couple interviews. And obviously this is open to the public. And so we have both of those folks in here. Great. Got Nancy online, Kent here, Zach here. I'm Kate Rosenbarger, OPES Tasper District 3. Uh Jennifer Crossley, Clerk's office. I'm counsel as well. Okay. I'm going to start us off. Okay. So Zach, thank you for coming today. This should be quick and fun. Have you ever been part of a commission, council, or board that focused on the betterment and wellness of a specific community, particularly a minority group? If so, what was your role and what impact did it have? Yeah, so not specifically that was dedicated solely to a specific minority group, but I have been when I lived in Washington DC, I was an advisory neighborhood commissioner, which is a low-level local elected official that was in a majority black neighborhood, working class majority black neighborhood, and I had dealt with a lot of issues related with trying to protect uh a community that I think was being there was a lot of environmental racism going on in that community. Um with there was a park um in my district that had been this is an insane story, it sounds nuts and sounds untrue, but it is that had chemical weapons buried in it during from World War One era and and that had not been taken care of. And so I my entire term was dedicated to trying to get the National Park Service because the National Park Service runs parks in DC. Um that shouldn't, but anyway, um trying to get them to take care of it. And yes, that was a lot of my time was spent on that. Um so again, not something that was dedicated solely to that, but that was a big part of my um my term. Thank you. Um I I want to acknowledge right now that this list of questions psych was for the uh commission on the status of black males. So we may have to amend some things. Yeah, I think that was relevant. Okay. I read it and I think that is relevant. But I as I looked through the internet, it's like, yeah, wait, I could change those words. Um so what inspired you to apply for a position on the uh board of directors. Okay, so I am very passionate about sustainable transportation. I've been in your inbox many times on sustainable transportation issues, um, as I'm sure you're aware. Um and I am worried about the state of Bloomington transit. Um we have our this year is shaping up to be the single worst year in change in writership and the agency's history outside of COVID. Um we've got right now a 13% drop um year to date. Obviously that could change by before the end of the year. Um that's the single biggest drop in writership in the agency's history, at least going back to the data that I've looked at um outside of the 2020 thing, which is not entirely that's not the agency's fault, that was just pandemic. Um, and I don't see a sense of urgency from many public officials yet on that. I kind of worry we're in approaching like a death spiral in terms of losing writership. Um, and I worry also that we are maybe not focusing on the essentials as much as we should, which to me is frequency, reliability, um, and root optimization. Those are the three things that are the most important to me. Um and frequency, sorry. Yeah, sorry, I'll talk for very fast talker. Sorry. We're used to it, but recently reliability, and root optimization. Those are the three things I would focus on. Um, and instead are focusing a little bit too much, I think, on distractions, which to me is microtransit, a little bit of a distraction. I'm skeptical of microtransit.
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