Carl DuRocher has helped implement many improvements to transit, especially for those with disabilities, during his 12 years on the city's Transit and Parking Commission.
Kristin Czubkowski — The Capital Times, Madison Wisconsin USA , 5/24/2009 11:21 am
When Carl DuRocher moved to Madison to attend the University of Wisconsin nearly 40 years ago, there was no transit system for disabled riders in the city.
Since then, the city has added its own bus service for the elderly and handicapped, and, after passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990, outfitted all Metro buses with wheelchair lifts. Private taxicab companies now also provide accessible service. And DuRocher, first as an activist and later as a city committee member, played an active role in helping many of these services come to fruition.
“Our paratransit exceeds in several areas the bare-bones requirements of the ADA,” says DuRocher, 62. “The political will is there in Madison to do it, and it comes from the support of me and others.”
DuRocher’s voice in city transit matters, however, is about to be significantly diminished. After 12 years of serving on the city’s Transit and Parking Commission, Mayor Dave Cieslewicz is removing DuRocher and has appointed a replacement, who is up for City Council approval on Tuesday, June 2.
The mayor says he’s replacing DuRocher, who has been chair of the panel since 2005, to bring some new blood to the committee and its related subcommittees. But critics wonder whether it’s because DuRocher opposed the mayor’s controversial proposal last year to raise cash bus fares. They also say the city stands to lose substantial institutional memory and knowledge about disability issues when DuRocher leaves the panel.
“Carl brings so much knowledge not just about paratransit or transit for people with disabilities, but just transit in general,” says Ald. Brian Solomon, a member of the Transit and Parking Commission. “I can’t even imagine the TPC without him.”
During his time on the Transit and Parking Commission, DuRocher helped implement Metro’s system of transfer points, rewrite the city’s taxi cab ordinance and oversee several changes in transit service and fares. Former Ald. Robbie Webber, who served with DuRocher on the TPC, says DuRocher brought a steadying presence to a committee that often deals with considerable drama.
“Even if he’s got strong opinions, he’s a model of decorum and fairness to everyone on the committee,” she says.
DuRocher, himself, says his departure is particularly ill-timed since the state is preparing to usher in to Dane County a new system for long-term care services called Family Care. It’s unclear at this point whether this is going to significantly affect current county funding for dedicated paratransit services.
“It’s a critical time for the high level of paratransit we have in the city,” he says. “I just don’t think it’s a good time to take away experience and replace it with someone brand new.”
DuRocher says his experience on the Contracted Services Oversight Subcommittee — the panel that handles all of Metro’s contracts with other cities and institutions — would also come in handy if the state does clear the way for regional transit authorities.
“It is the one body that has the full regional scope in mind,” he says.
Cieslewicz’s move to replace DuRocher has raised questions about term limits for citizen committee service. Mayoral appointments are subject to City Council approval and are usually for three years. The city has used a 10-year guideline for term limits in the past and the City Council voted earlier this year to require a two-thirds vote of the council for a member to serve longer than 12 years. Now, however, some current and former council members are debating the wisdom of that limit.
“It’s not that I don’t think there should be turnover, but I think it’s important that there are enough people on the committee who know, ‘Yeah, we took up that issue three or four years ago,'” Webber says. “It’s important to have that historical knowledge.”
Ken Golden, another former council and commission member, called the term limits on citizen committees an “absurdity.” While many people leave before 12 years of service, “those who don’t usually have something to contribute,” he says, and the city gets their advice for free.
“(DuRocher) informs debates and has informed debates in such a valuable way that the idea of saying, ‘Gee, you served 10 years, here’s your gold watch and thank you and good bye’ — it’s silly,” he says.
Others, however, say it’s not only the mayor’s right to appoint whomever he wants to committees, but that bringing in new people can be beneficial. Cieslewicz has nominated Dave Tolmie, a Madison resident who uses Metro’s regular and paratransit services, as DuRocher’s replacement. Cieslewicz says Tolmie, who is vision-impaired, came to his attention after submitting comments about the city’s paratransit system and its flaws, and that his residence on the far west side will give him a unique perspective on a committee dominated by those who live closer to the central city.
“I think it’s good to have a little more geographic diversity on the TPC,” says Cieslewicz. “I think that’s important to build understanding about the transit system and support for the transit system.”
After a series of missed pickups from his residence, Tolmie says he became interested in improving the paratransit system, particularly in how rides are scheduled.
Ald. Paul Skidmore says that he knows Tolmie, a constituent, from Tolmie’s work in the Wexford Ridge neighborhood. He says he could see Tolmie one day running for office.
“He’d make a great alder,” Skidmore says.
Susan De Vos, a bus advocate and member of the ADA Transit Subcommittee, sometimes rides the bus with Tolmie downtown.
“(Tolmie) is going to be a very knowledgeable guy on the commission,” she says. “I just wish he weren’t replacing Carl.”
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