Driving Excellence Through Nojay's No Show Leadership

There is little doubt that the 415 plan came from DDOT's COO Bill Nojay. After all as the Chief Operating Officer it would be part of the overall plan to keep things moving, marketed, and measured. It stinks of marketing through performance indicators. A solution that would come from a person who is watching numbers, instead of riding on the buses to know how they are working. Mr Nojay didn't ride the buses. He was busy in one of these ways:

• At home in New York state working on details for his radio show
• Making public appearances in preparation for his run for state representative in New York's 133rd District, (which was declared May 13 2012)
• If in Detroit at his desk Mr Nojay would be going through the performance measures, creating scenarios for change based on those measures, meeting with City of Detroit COO Chris Brown, or Beau Taylor (Chris Brown's assistant handling transportation and public lighting), and perhaps making a visit to the bus terminals to consult with Ryan Gallivan (another Envisurage/TransPro employee contracted to DDOT's executive management team).

At several April Detroit City Council sessions Stephen Boyle asked if they knew Bill Nojay was holding a job in Avon, New York as a Tea Party radio host through WSYL. The information came as a surprise, but was followed up on.

When Bill Nojay was asked at a May 9, 2012 Detroit City Council meeting to be accountable in his position the response was clearly not commitment to the job. The following is from The Michigan Citizen:

Councilmember Ken Cockrel, Jr. asked DDOT Chief Operating Officer Bill Nojay whether he could effectively serve DDOT when he’s only in Michigan part-time.

“Only time will tell,” Nojay, who’s employed by Envisurage, replied. 

The conflict of holding the DDOT position was evident before he was even considered for the position. By his principals as a staunch right-wing Tea Party radio host and public presenter he represents a set of interests in system that is clearly against the people of Detroit. The Tea Party agenda of minimal government and advocating free markets is basically the underpinning of being an anarchist. In such a system those that have a defined need for social services (more of a socialist approach) would be diametrically opposed in belief of how a system such as public transportation would operate. The mere fact he is considered involved in public transportation seems problematic, because his belief system would further the direction to privatize social services such as public transportation and place it in the hands of the free market (aka privatization, sold into corporate hands).

Bill Nojay is one of Envisurage CEO Mark Aesch's proteges as it began in May 2011. Mark Aesch wrote a book about using performance measurements to turn around public transportation, called Driving Excellence. The book has had questionable reviews, yet Mr Aesch continues to gain speaking engagements as a self-proclaimed transportation expert. Each engagement offering additional support to future engagements. From the text of Driving Excellence the management delivered at DDOT seems to be very contradictory. The first steps being the elimination of transportation for anyone with need from midnight to 5am on major routes, and 8pm until 7am on secondary routes.

Split Shift with Kansas

The investigations into Envisurage, which has changed its handle to TransPro needs to be continued. September 13 at the Mayor's District 4 Community Meeting

Stephen Boyle asked the Mayor's administration to justify the lack of investigation into those hired through Envisurage to manage DDOT. He stated "The $2 million dollar contract could balloon to over $4.6 million dollars at completion".

In response COO Chris Brown stated, "The bonuses for Envisurage have not been paid, they will be at the end of the contract."

Getting to know Envisurage thoroughly hasn't been an easy investigation, but  additional findings are showing up. I've been looking for an accounting of exactly who are the "5 executive management" contractors assigned through the Envisurage work order brought into the Parsons Brinckerhoff contract.

Contracted To KDOT Too?

I suppose there was little wonder why Mark Aesch was looking over at Stephen Boyle during the Detroit Financial Advisory Board meeting in September with a bit of apprehension, considering Bill Nojay the COO assigned to DDOT was removed pending a Hatch Act investigation. It seems the slippery slope runs in multiple directions.

Ryan Gallivan is one of the people Envisurage brought in to manage maintenance for DDOT's services. I am just beginning to uncover stories that Mr Gallivan has also been working with Kansas Department of Transportation's investigation for Regional Transit Authority in Southeast Kansas, covering 23 counties. 

KDOT arranged a meeting February 14, 2012 bringing TeamTech's Kathleen Hornish-Doucet and Joel Wright, along with Ryan Gallivan to meet with Finney County Transit Board.

A subsequent meeting was held March 6, 2012 between KDOT with TeamTech/Envisurage staff was held to discuss serving the growing southeast KDOT RTA communities.

Ryan Gallivan with Florida-based Envisurage, LLC, which is being sub-contracted through Olathe-based TeamTech, Inc., to work on the regional transportation issue, shared some of the findings from the regional study.

Having experience with implementing regional public transportation in Rochester, N.Y., Gallivan said that there were some key differences between there and southwest Kansas. One key difference was that Rochester's area was united under a single transportation entity, while southwest Kansas involves entities that are all separate. He also said that there is a difference between the rural areas he worked with previously and the rural areas of Kansas currently being analyzed.

"One thing I discovered about traveling in Kansas is that there's rural and then there's frontier," Gallivan said.

{Read more}

It seems Envisurage is getting more in the field experience as it places Mark Aesch's transportation team of affiliates through Rochester Genesee Regional Transportation Authority (RGRTA). His staff have started with feeder system experience bringing commuters from locations outside the core of metropolitan cities in, but Detroit is the only interior serving metropolitan system they have worked with yet. One that is difficult because of the dispersed population of the area spanned. 

Measuring Performance for Detroit

Here are a few questions worth asking for measurement:

• How do you achieve ridership performance measures when riders are scattered around the city? 
• Are you truly serving the potential rider who would ride if the bus was easier to access? 
• Are the routes connecting to the feeder system(s) outside the city at significant times? (such as end of extended work hours, end of sporting events, early morning starting hours, airport & train commuting connections)
• How about measuring job retention and growth that results from bringing people to their desired destination? 
• Can you measure attendance at recreation events, and clarity for visitors to the city in using their preferred mode of transit - public transportation. 

Public transportation is provided for more than core-hour working commutes. People take care of tasks at all hours of the day, including medical visits, laundry, grocery shopping, and visiting friends & relatives across the city.

Rosa Parks Arrest Vigil and DDOT update

Saturday, December 1 at 3 pm a candle light vigil will be held at the Rosa Parks Transit Center. The event commemorates 57 years since Rosa Parks was arrested for failing to sacrifice her seat on a Birmingham Alabama bus to a white passenger. We need to bring awareness up of the history to present of the fight for Human Rights.

The 2nd floor lobby will have the vigil and recognition, awareness on the street at the transit center needs to be increased. This isn't a time for peaceful recognition of a key moment in the struggle. It is time to show there is still progress to be made.

DDOT Update

Detroit Department of Transportation (DDOT) has been routinely discussed as a public service that Mayor Bing's administration believes should be privatized. The people spoke up at the November 19 and 20 City Council sessions. We questioned the wisdom of entering into five contracts spanning five years for $58 million to provide "engineering services" which morphed into management services last year through closed door meetings of the Mayor's administration and a turnaround team.

The vote on November 20 turned down the contracts and requested an emergency interim contract be drawn not to exceed nine months for critical engineering services. This leaves DDOT without a senior management team as the Envisurage/TransPro contract fizzles out today, November 30. An audit of service provided by the contracting firm needs to be conducted by the Auditor General prior to payment of bonuses that are part of the contract.

"Reform Agenda" To Remove Detroit Department of Transportation

Can we shake free of the "Reform Agenda" put forth through the Financial Stability Agreement. Since Public Act 4 and 72 were repealed November 6 this agreement and operations under its guise need to be halted. In the plans according to the September 2012 Financial Advisory Board meeting:

• Create a new governance model by January 2013 to overcome challenges such as:
  • Collective bargaining agreements
  • Civil service bumping rights
  • Financial information systems
  • Divided responsibility and authority
• Timeline of outsourcing operations and management
  • Feb 2013 - Release of RFP
  • Mar 2013 - Formation of new authority
  • Jul 2013 - Outsource management vendor selected
  • Sep 2013 - New authority board approves selected vendor
  • Jan 2014 - New vendor begins management of DDOT

These plans would remove public transportation and replace it with privatized public service. Do you believe the public will be better served by a private entity? What manner of public discourse will they be required to have?

The next Financial Advisory Board meeting is scheduled for December 10, 2012 starting 2:00 pm at McGregor Conference Center on Wayne State University Ferry Mall, across from the Law Library. The State of Michigan needs to stop holding meetings and advancing an agenda that is not supported by law. Likewise City of Detroit administration (Mayor Bing, et al) need to step forward and assume responsibility to provide service to protect the people as their oath of office requires.

State & Region Transportation Update

November 27 the State Senate passed legislation (SB909, SB911, SB967) to create a regional transportation authority for South East Michigan. Additionally SB912 was passed regarding zoning of land for use by the regional transportation authority. The pressure was on from the Federal Transportation Authority as US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has promised $25 million for construction of the M-1 Light Rail project provided a regional transportation authority was created.

These bills are to be discussed at the State Transportation Committee meeting on December 5, 2012 at 10:30 am in Room 307 of the House Office Building in Lansing. Once approved through the House the bills would go to Governor Snyder for approval into law.

Troy Transit Center Underway

The Troy Transit Center (partially in Birmingham as well) began ground breaking on Tuesday November 28. Opposition was from the now-recalled former Mayor Janice Daniels. 

The 28,000 sq-ft center replaces an old Amtrak station on a 2.4-acre site at Maple Road and Coolidge Highway.

Keep Quiet and It Will All Change (for the worst)

We Have Been Too Quiet

Detroit Department of Transportation held eight public bus hearings in four locations around Detroit between August 24-27, 2009. This video is a compilation from over 60 video clips. The people were given 3 minutes to speak, not 90 seconds. The locations were well placed in areas served well by buses to enable people to attend. There were over 200 people that gathered at Rosa Parks Transit Center on the evening of August 25, 2009. Coverage by the mainstream media was extremely limited, the People cried out.

The direction DDOT was looking at going into this meeting was to:

• Eliminate four routes
• Eliminate weekend service between Saturday 6pm to Monday 5am - wiping out Sunday service
• Eliminate night service on many routes between midnight and 5am.

Resolved after the meeting was to retain Sunday bus service on many lines, but runs times were extended offering perhaps half the service that was previously available. Night buses were also reduced but not eliminated.

Recent Bus Hearings

February's hearings were announced without much notice by the mainstream press. The Mayor's Press Secretary and Chief Operating Officer would rather not have many people at public hearings. Meeting the bare necessities on timing, number of meetings, and format for the meetings ensures limited involvement by the public -- which works well when the agenda is to privatize public transportation.

Meetings were scheduled at the Northwest Activity Center, and Wayne County Community College East campus. Neither of these routes is well served by buses, and two meetings were scheduled at the same time on the same date to take care of all the meetings in a single day.

The hearings had little if any impact on the route changes - literature was clearly marked as changed service. There was nothing "proposed" about the changes going into the meetings. Public meetings are used to find areas that changes proposed may need adjusting.

Printed materials following the meetings was very limited. Occupy Detroit has footage showing a single desk copy of March service changes in the office at Rosa Parks Transit Center. Offering material in Spanish and Arabic, both large population groups in the city was not available for months. Updates to schedule tables on Google Maps were incorrect for a week, and changes since have been sporadic.

Mayor Dave Bing

Source: NY Times (Sept 2009)

What kept DDOT from executing the original plan? Many say it was the election campaign for Mayor Dave Bing. Things have changed in 2012. The Mayor is approaching the end of his term and looking at running for another term as Mayor. His platform of change is evident through the campaign branding of videos on the City's YouTube channel MyDetroitCable. The branding of videos in this manner is a violation of Detroit City Charter

Calling Mr Nojay... are you here (or there)

Lets call Bill Nojay TODAY at 2pm! 

Phone WYSL in Avon NY at (585) 346-3000 and ask to talk with the host!

Bill Nojay

Bill is the Chief Operating Officer for Detroit Department of Transportation. He is also an Envisurage employee, brought in to his position with DDOT through a Work Order initiated by Parsons Brinckerhoff with the City of Detroit.

Bill has to be rejoicing because there is another incentive bonus coming up at the end of the month!

Keeping under the budget allowance through June 30 is going to net a $150,000 incentive bonus on top the salary of $100,000 per month for the five person team. There are so many more BONUSES in the contract too! You know I bet anyone would take this job with a $20 per month salary and make plenty of money simply on bonus payments!

Bill you've got to admit this job is a piece of CAKE! You can stay in Avon New York and host your Teabag Party talk radio program from 2-3pm Monday through Friday.

http://tunein.com/radio/The-Bill-Nojay-Show-p126464/

You might wonder HOW can incentive bonuses be paid when we have bus lines & employees being cut. well that's how performance measurement works when you DON'T look at customer satisfaction or need. They just need the number of buses they dictate on the road during the hours they set to make those incentive bonuses come in. Stay in the system and it all works great - for the top management - and the workers and public suffer.