NY: Watertown dissolves Transportation Commission in favor of new committee

More than 50 years since it was established, the city’s Transportation Commission has been disbanded.

On Monday night, the City Council unanimously voted to dissolve the 11-member commission, which provided input on the city’s public transportation system and other modes of transportation.

They agreed to turn the commission into a Transportation Committee on the recommendation of City Manager Eric F. Wagenaar, who advised “a more streamlined” approach after the city brought on Brandi Smith as transit director.

The council didn’t discuss the change, except for Mayor Sarah V.C. Pierce mentioning that the resolution was being amended to stipulate that council will make the committee appointments, not the city manager.

Wagenaar wrote in a memo to council about the reason for changing to a transportation committee.

“The Transit Committee is intended to function as a focused, flexible advisory group that complements the work of the transit director, transportation planner, and the Complete Streets Committee,” Wagenaar wrote.

But three members of the former Transportation Commission expressed disappointment that they were no longer serving on it.

Adam Ruppe, an avid bike rider who served on the commission for several years, wrote to Pierce in an email that he spoke at a council meeting last summer urging the city to consider a variety of opinions about transportation-related issues following a fatal e-bike accident in Thompson Park.

He said eliminating the commission “looks like a step in the wrong direction,” while acknowledging that the group could "use some reform so it can help more, more efficiently, than it historically has.“

“The Transportation Commission currently has zero authority, zero power, and nobody (to my knowledge anyway) is asking to change that, but it does have the diversity of opinion to provide independent advice: something worth preserving,” he wrote in the email.

Wagenaar wrote in the memo that “the committee would not have authority to direct staff or make policy decisions, but rather would provide input, review specific issues as assigned, and offer recommendations as requested.”

The commission’s direct involvement was no longer needed in taking part in discussions and planning of the CitiBus system, its operations, route mapping, customer service and other aspects of the system, since the new transit director will do that work.

Bradford Riendeau, a local attorney who served on the commission for about six years, said he always had an interest in public transit, making sure that when his children rode the subway systems in New York City and Montreal when they were young. He’ll miss serving on the commission.

Former City Councilman Patrick J. Hickey, who was on the commission for eight years, described a strained relationship with the city manager in recent months.

Hickey recalled a recent awkward discussion with Wagenaar about offering some ideas about e-bike safety. But the city manager said he didn’t need the former councilman’s input.

Hickey went on to say that the former commission was made up of members with a variety of interests, including biking, and members from nonprofit organizations.

In other news, the council voted, 3-2, to appoint Brandi Smith as transit director. She had served in a similar capacity for the Volunteer Transportation Center when that organization was involved in the city’s bus system.

Councilmen Benjamin P. Shoen and Douglas E. Osborne Jr. voted against the appointment, saying the city should not add positions when they are talking about making job cuts.

City Comptroller James E. Mills said that the position “was budget neutral” and would not cost the city to add it.

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