The transition is complete. Mountain Rides, which manages public transportation in the Wood River Valley, is operating under a new organizational structure, and an 18-year valley public transportation employee is back at work following a month-and-a-half forced leave of absence.
The eight-member Mountain Rides Transportation Authority voted Nov. 29 to approve the new structure, which includes an executive director who will oversee three departments: operations, planning and marketing, and maintenance and facilities.
The action completed a lengthy transition period that began last spring when the valley's three transportation-related organizations merged.
"Combining three different agencies (KART, the PEAK Bus and Wood River Rideshare) and taking on new roles and an expanded mission led to management challenges," wrote Transportation Authority Board Chairman Peter Everett in an e-mail. "In April of 2007 the authority's board approved a 'dual' management system that appointed Terry Crawford the director of transit operations and Jason Miller the director of planning and market strategy."
Crawford was the former director of KART, a Ketchum and Sun Valley bus system, and Miller was the former director of Wood River Rideshare, an alternative transportation advocacy organization.
The model instituted last spring involved duel management of the Mountain Rides by both Crawford and Miller.
"Although 'logical' on paper, this organization led to some lack of clarity over roles, responsibilities and fiscal affairs," Everett wrote. "The Mountain Rides Transportation Authority's board decided in October of 2007 to thoroughly 'rethink' our management structure."
In that context, according to Everett, the board placed Crawford on paid administrative leave with full pay and benefits until it could implement a management structure it believed would be more effective.
At its Nov. 29 meeting the board appointed Miller executive director, but remained mum on Crawford's continued leave. Crawford, however, accepted an offer to head the operations department in early December and returned to work on Monday, Dec. 10.
"We are currently in the process of finalizing the appointment of a department head for maintenance and facilities," Everett wrote. "A department head for planning and marketing will not be assigned in the immediate future."
Everett said the board is pleased with the employees now in place within the revised organizational structure.
"By combining with the PEAK Bus and Wood River Rideshare, the old KART has evolved from a rather small free bus system for skiers and guests in Sun Valley and Ketchum to a county-wide and beyond multimodal transportation agency offering all alternatives to the single-occupant car," he wrote. "This new agency, called Mountain Rides, is very planning and marketing oriented and has the explicit mission of reducing vehicular traffic and the region's carbon footprint.
"...We are now set up to be the dynamic and growing agency we need to be to meet the transportation and environmental challenges of our growing region."
Terry Crawford
