BAT Self-Perform Updates

FEBRUARY

We let people know through social media posts that Benton County Public Works had put forward a proposal for a Self-Perform Analysis of Benton Area Transit. The following is one of the Facebook posts we made in February sharing information about this and the STIF (statewide transportation improvement fund) Meeting that took place on March 2nd, 2026:

"Benton County Public Works has made a proposal to discontinue its 50-year relationship with the local nonprofit Dial-A-Bus, which serves our senior and disabled neighbors’ transportation needs. The County is proposing to bring the special transportation program in-house. This decision is projected to increase the cost to the County, with no increase in capacity. It will also forfeit 50 years of institutional experience serving vulnerable populations in favor of a program that does not currently exist. If Public Works follows the previous experiment they deployed two years ago, seniors and people with disabilities can expect their average ride times to increase by 1 to 2 hours per round trip.

For the past year, Public Works has not met statutory public engagement requirements. Thus, very few users or stakeholders are aware of the proposal.

On March 2nd, at 2:00 pm, there will be a public meeting held by the County at the Madison Office Building, 500 SW 5th Street. This meeting will provide the first opportunity for the public to ask questions or express their thoughts about this proposal. Please consider attending this meeting, emailing the County Commissioners, or both if you would like your concerns to be heard."

For more context, the STIF Meetings are run by Benton County, but are mainly made up of an advisory committee of volunteers who would be most affected by changes to public transportation. This includes users of BAT/Dial-A-Bus, a representative from OSU, and representatives for people with disabilities, low-income folks, people over 65, and environmental and bicyclist advocates. This committee hears proposals from Benton County and works together to present their opinions to local government officials on these matters.

MARCH 2

More than 50 clients, volunteers, and other stakeholders attended the STIF meeting on March 2nd to share opinions on Benton County continuing the self-perform analysis for creating an in-house transportation program that would end their contract with Dial-A-Bus. Public comment was unanimously against the County proposal and lasted about an hour. You can view the full public comment video here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9unp5Q0RG3A

The most common questions and concerns raised by attendees were:

Why is Benton County considering replacing the highly valued Dial-A-Bus program with one that does not currently exist?

Why is Benton County not using existing funds to increase service provision when they have long known that demand for service is not being met?

The last time the County intervened with the Special Transportation program was with the VIA software system, which caused a 5 month service interruption so how will they ensure high efficiency and safety for riders?

Benton County chose not to answer questions at the meeting. Staff cited that they were writing down the questions and concerns and would respond at a later date. They did not specify when or how this would take place.

When public comment ended, the first action taken by the STIF committee was to pass a motion advising Benton County not to put any further resources toward the in-house proposal. To view the rest of that meeting and other agenda items discussed, you can visit this link to view their Zoom recording using the following passcode: 3e!&K^2b

MARCH 17-20

A group of community members made public comments directly to the Board of Commissioners at their meeting on the 17th. Like the STIF committee meeting on March 2nd, the comments were opposed to the County continuing to consider the possibility of building an in-house special transportation program. We still have many of the same questions that came up at the STIF meeting:

· Given that client satisfaction with Dial-A-Bus is extremely high, why is Public Works suggesting not renewing the special transportation contract?

· Projected staffing costs for an in-house program are $2.3 million. Dial-A-Bus is currently paid $984,000 for staffing. How is this responsible use of taxpayer dollars?

· Current service levels need to be expanded in order to meet client demand. Why would Public Works not use the increased funding to solve this problem?

Benton County has created the following webpage as a place where information about the Self-Perform Analysis and FAQs have been posted: https://pw.bentoncountyor.gov/benton-area-transit-service-delivery/ 

If you'd like to receive email updates from the County on this topic, you can sign up here: https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/sl/L1DD2dF 

APRIL 14

The Commissioners met with Gary Stockhoff of Public Works and Rick Crager, the County Administrator, to discuss plans for BAT. The Commissioners voted to continue working on a self-perform plan, but to also begin working on an expanded contract with Dial-A-Bus.

You can view the April 14th Board of Commissioners Goal-Setting Meeting at the following link: https://bentoncoor.portal.civicclerk.com/event/2175/media 

They begin discussing the BAT Implementation Plan at 1:39:27 and they discuss it for about one hour. There were a few things stated during this meeting that weren't completely accurate, such as Dial-A-Bus being the only nonprofit to contract with a County this way, but there are a number of other nonprofit transportation systems with similar contracts in Oregon. The other important inaccuracy has to do with efficiency and the Kittelson Analysis. A table on page 17 shows the average trips/cost per hour for multiple agencies from the Peer Comparison list and says “Benton County operates significantly fewer trips per hour than its peers for demand response services, which vary considerably peer to peer, based on the specifics of the service area."

If you remove the one significant outlier that is Lincoln County's transportation system with 8 trips per hour vs the other agencies all within 1.29 and 3.33 trips per hour, then the average becomes 2.15 trips per hour. This would show that on average BAT is doing just .86 less trips per hour, while costing significantly less.

May 1

Below is an email that Senator Sara Gelser Blouin wrote to the Board of Commissioners:

"Dear Commissioners, I am deeply concerned about ongoing strains between Benton County and Dial-a-Bus.   I know much of this is occurring at the staff level, and I will reach out directly to Gary Stockhoff who I understand is the point person on this.  However, I wanted to be sure all of you are aware of the widespread concern and in some cases anger that is brewing about these issues.    The anxiety expressed from constituents is real--- extending from those who are Blind, physically disabled, have intellectual or developmental disabilities and are aging.  There are questions regarding some of the public information being shared as well as persistent concerns about the exclusion of the disability community from the discussion.  In particular, the county appears to be comparing the operations and ridership patterns of Dial-a-Bus to counties that are not good comparators.  For special transportation, the appropriate comparison is not overall population.  Rather, it is how well the community succeeds at a unified system of supports that ensure people with disabilities are fully integrated into the community.  In places where most people live in group homes or congregate care facilities, where people with disabilities aren’t employed at a high rate or where support services are facility based rather than focused on community participation (such as volunteering, independent grocery shopping, etc.), more people are served with fewer rides.  In a community that is successfully experiencing community inclusion of Disabled people, a transit service will always have fewer rides per hour.  That is because people are not transported from one congregate setting to another. That is a sign of failure of the disability service system—not a sign of efficiency of a transit system. To be clear:  Absent a substantial new investment in drivers and vehicles, reforms aimed at doubling the number rides provided per hour to match “peer agencies” will fundamentally change the services offered.  This requires multiple people going to the same place on rides--- which undermines integrated, community employment, participation in individually selected community activities and organizations, participation in post-secondary education and will force more people to live in congregate settings (group homes, assisted living, etc.) than in their own homes.  This would profoundly impact the rights, dignity, self-determination and quality of life for Disabled people in Benton County and incentivize an old mindset of an institutional culture for Disabled people. Benton County is a unique place in our state in terms of the quality and pervasiveness of community inclusion and support for people across the disability spectrum. This is due to the excellent work in other areas of the county, such as Benton County Developmental Diversity, and a strong network of community nonprofit support organizations.  In addition, Benton County has a long history as a hub of advocacy and leadership for independent living from the cross disability community, including those with sensory disabilities (Blind, visually impaired, Deaf and hard of hearing), the physically disabled and aging people  If transit is shifted based on calculations that do not consider disability related factors, the infrastructure of that will disappear and people will be stuck at home. More people will be forced out of the workforce, out of community activities, out of their own homes and into sheltered program, congregate living and institutional settings.  At a time when the Trump administration is trying to force these communities back into the shadows, we need the county to be fighting to preserve the infrastructure that protects our culture of deinstitutionalization and community inclusion. Transportation is essential to that. The other concern raised is that over the last number of years, discussions about Dial-a-Bus and Benton Area Transit have not meaningfully included disabled people.   Special Transportation committees have been disbanded or reorganized to dilute the voices and participation of disabled people.  Disabled constituents of all ages and disability types have consistently reported to me that they feel erased when it comes to the discussions about transportation.  Others report that when they approach the county with their concerns or desires to be part of this discussion about this staple of their lives they are either dismissed, met with hostility or given the sense that county officials don’t believe that they have the intellect or capacity to understand the systems.  Even the materials that the county has put out regarding transportation services have sent people reeling with antiquated language that casts Disabled people as helpless individuals that need care rather than support, and that assumes transportation for this population is only about medical care or other non-community related activities.  This is an unusual experience for this community that in most cases is able to confront ableism and demonstrate cultural competence with the Disability community.  Unfortunately, these complaints have been consistent and widespread for many years and is something I discussed with Xan at some point mid-pandemic.  Most recently, Disabled constituents have been told that this is an administrative decision that does not require any public process, but that there will be community input sessions.  They report that the proposed mechanisms for community feedback are inadequate, come too late, tokenize the participation of Disabled people and fail to demonstrate respect and deference to their expertise and lived experience. I will follow up with County staff, but I wanted you to be aware of how significant these concerns are and that the heat around this issue has significantly increased in recent months.  If there are others I should talk to, please let me know.  In addition, if I can be of assistance in developing Disability forward strategies for communication and empowering leadership by the Disability community in this and other key issues, please know I am ready and eager to step up. Thank you for any assistance you can offer with this critically important matter.  I hope that we can work in partnership and while making space for the leadership of Disabled and aging people of Benton County to protect this excellent service that is essential to a culture of equity, community inclusion and deinstitutionalization in our great county. Sincerely, Sara"

If you would like to attend a Commissioners Meeting and need help with transportation, please call dispatch to make arrangements. (541) 752-2615

We strongly recommend continued letter writing, emails, and public comment at Board of Commissioner meetings. We will continue to get the word out when there are new opportunities for strong public showings. We will edit this article, update our News page, and post to our Facebook page to share this information as we receive it.

In the meantime, Dial-A-Bus will continue to provide the efficient, compassionate service our community has come to expect. Thank you all for your support.