April-May_2022 - 16

Driving Values
the agency's values throughout the organization
provides a more enriching experience for CapMetro
employees.
" It develops decision filters by which we test
everything, " said Carter. " Are these things that we
think we want to do supporting those values? And if
they're not, then we don't pursue them or we weigh
them differently. "
Equity
CapMetro has set a new benchmark for community
engagement--an approach that was realized as plans
for Project Connect were coming together.
" Public transit for many people who live around
the poverty line is the family car, " said CapMetro
Board Chair Jeffrey W. Travillion. " We tried to
make sure that we were speaking to communities
that historically had not been spoken to, that were
underrepresented [and] were underserved. "
CapMetro's actions to engage the community
go beyond the proverbial offering-a-seat-at-the-table-to-all
scenario. What CapMetro has done and
continues to do is move the table and seats into
the community. More than 85,000 people were
engaged prior to the passage of Project Connect
with Travillion saying much of that engagement
happened in PTA meetings, neighborhood association
meetings, churches and anywhere else the
community gathered.
CapMetro's proactive approach involved team
members hired from communities around Austin.
Many were bilingual and the message they helped
communicate wasn't heavy on industry jargon, but
the impact Project Connect could have on day-today
lives.
" We always think about the end-users of the information
that we send out, " said Carter. " We have
to take a step back and realize that we understand all
these things more closely because we live it, breathe
it, day after day. It can't be, 'do we understand it?',
but 'does our customer understand it?' "
The result is improved trust among the community
and among other municipal stakeholders.
" We have to have a culture of trust, " said Travillion.
" We have got a number of different stakeholders,
all which have advocates, all which have interests
and we have to understand what those interests are
and understand how those communities are trained
and socialized. And we have to make sure that we're
all on the same page. "
Transparency
Keeping everyone on the same page takes accountability
and transparency, which Clarke and the CapMetro
team work to support every day.
" We have more credibility and favorability than at
any time in CapMetro's recent history, " said Clarke.
16 | Mass Transit | MassTransitmag.com | APRIL/MAY 2022
But this too has taken intentional effort to develop.
At the beginning of Clarke's tenure, CapMetro's
favorability rating was around 38 percent. Just prior
to Project Connect's success with voters, the agency
had a favorability rating above 60 percent. The
change stems from CapMetro's willingness to be
vocal about its success, as well as topics it continues
to improve upon.
" Being transparent when you're not good, that's
when the public give you more runway and credibility, "
explained Clarke.
Leading up to Project Connect, the agency published
community engagement dashboards with
details about where CapMetro was engaging the
community and summaries of meetings to illustrate
the input received.
Transparency is also supported by a series of performance
dashboards on the agency's website that
share data and help a user visualize information
related to finances, ridership, route performance,
safety and reliability. CapMetro credits these dashboards
with building relationships and trust within
the community, as well as strengthening its brand.
" Ultimately, the agency is using the public's money,
so we feel an obligation to show the public how we're
investing the resources that are entrusted to us. These
performance dashboards keep us accountable as we
pursue operational excellence, " said Deputy CEO
Dottie Watkins.
Safety
Clarke shares his pride in CapMetro's holistic approach
to public and operational safety because
" it's a fundamentally different way of doing things. "
CapMetro's safety division has nearly doubled
in size and it has added key leaders, such as the
More Online
See Mass
Transit's Insider
Interview with
CapMetro Board
Chair Jeffrey
Travillion
MassTransitmag.
com/21262646
L-R: Austin Mayor
Steve Adler,
Transportation
Sec. Pete
Buttigieg and
CapMetro CEO
Randy Clarke on
March 16.
http://masstransitmag.com/21262646 http://www.MassTransitmag.com
April-May_2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of April-May_2022
