Updated: August 1, 7 pm
The TriMet Board of Directors is responsible for making key decisions for Portland’s public transit agency, affecting everybody who rides the system every day. But according to TriMet ridership records, only two of the agency’s six current board members regularly used their transit passes last year. The other four never tapped their TriMet ID cards, which double as Hop passes, once in a full year.
Public records show board members Robert Kellogg, Thomas Kim, LaVerne Lewis, and Kathy Wai didn’t use their transit passes a single time from June 30, 2023 to July 1, 2024. Ozzie Gonzalez, who served as the board’s president during that time, used his pass seven times. Gonzalez has since moved out of the district he was appointed to represent, and resigned from the board last month. Lewis, formerly the board’s vice president, took over as president following Gonzalez’s departure.
Kellogg, Kim, Lewis, and Wai were not immediately available for comment.
The TriMet board has seven seats, with members appointed by the Oregon governor. Board members approve TriMet’s budget, hire the agency’s general manager, and provide oversight of TriMet code, among other responsibilities. Last spring, the board voted 6-1 to approve a controversial fare increase.
The ridership records were provided to the Mercury by Bradley Bondy, a Portland public transit advocate, who requested them after seeing similar data about the board in charge of Atlanta’s public transit system. He also received data for TriMet's 12 executive directors, most of whom were frequent riders last year. TriMet General Manager Sam Desue, Jr. tapped his ID card 363 times.
Bondy says he “expected [the data] to be bad, but it was worse than expected.”
“It is shameful and inexcusable that the people entrusted with being stewards of such a large and important public institution can't be bothered to themselves use the service,” Bondy tells the Mercury. “It's indicative of their lack of interest in or care for our transit system.”
It took some work for Bondy to receive the records. TriMet initially denied his public records request, arguing against the “general premise that…there is any connection between [the board members’] efficacy in their positions and frequency of transit system use.” TriMet also argued that making ridership data public “might unreasonably invade the privacy of its leadership.”
Bondy appealed TriMet’s decision, and his petition was approved by District Attorney Mike Schmidt. In an emailed statement to the Mercury, however, TriMet noted the data may not accurately reflect the ridership information, as board members might use single-use tickets or pay cash to ride the system instead of carrying their TriMet ID badge.
“The data supplied in response to a public records request reflects how often a TriMet Board member or the TriMet General Manager tapped their TriMet ID badge, which doubles as a fare card, at a Hop electronic fare reader,” TriMet’s statement reads. “It should not be construed as complete transit ridership or reflect total time spent on the TriMet system.”
TriMet further stated that board members "likely do not frequently carry their TriMet ID unless they are coming to an in-person meeting at a TriMet facility... but, even then, they are not required to have their TriMet ID on their person."
"If they use other payment methods, the Hop data does not capture those rides," Roberta Altstadt, TriMet's Director of Communications, told the Mercury.
Alstadt also assured riders that, while TriMet was required to turn over board member data, "state law allows for protection of an individual’s Hop data from disclosure." In other words, most riders' data is not public information.
Still, the TriMet ID card data shows the other two board members, Tyler Frisbee and Keith Edwards, used their transit passes frequently. Edwards tapped his pass 69 times in a year, and Frisbee racked up an impressive total of 361 total taps in that time.
Bondy says he thinks the data is indicative of the time board members spend on TriMet. He wants the agency’s leadership to have a more personal stake in TriMet’s success, and hopes for different results from Governor Tina Kotek’s future appointments to the TriMet board. There is currently a seat open on the board, formerly occupied by Gonzalez.
Bondy also wants to see Kellogg, Tim, Lewis, and Wai resign “so leaders who actually care about the system can take their place.”
“Being a regular transit rider is not on its own enough to give someone the expertise needed to effectively oversee a transit system, but at the same time, someone who never rides transit will never be effective in that role,” Bondy tells the Mercury. “TriMet needs leadership that genuinely cares about transit, that is actively curious about the practices of more successful systems, that understands why people choose to ride in the first place, and why they choose not to.”