You are probably aware that another election season is upon us, although what you may or may not realize is that there is an election for a completely new transit board of directors for the Omaha region. The Regional Metropolitan Transit Authority of Omaha, better known as Metro, is electing a board of directors for the first time ever. This seven-member body elected by citizens of the City of Omaha will replace the current Mayor-appointed (and City Council-approved) board of five members. The new board will take over in January 2025.
Map of the Regional Metropolitan Transit Authority Board Districts
How did this come to be? Anyone that has been following my previous articles will remember discussing the new regional transit authority that Metro is transitioning into. A regional transit authority with an elected board has been in discussion for many years. I remember bringing up this idea with Nebraska State Senator Ernie Chambers about 20 years ago, thinking that this would be a good way to introduce less politics into transit and get a board of directors with people that really care about the transit system.
The regional transit authority got real in 2019 with the passing of LB492 in the Nebraska legislature in 2019, sponsored by Senator Justin Wayne of Omaha. The bill passed final reading 32-11 on May 24, 2019, was vetoed by Governor Ricketts, and passed a veto override by 33-16 on May 31, 2019. Under Nebraska Revised Statutes 18-801 through 18-808 (the Regional Metropolitan Transit Authority Act), an existing transit authority that serves one or more municipalities located within the same metropolitan statistical area or combined statistical area can convert to a RMTA. Omaha has the only transit authority created under existing state law that falls under the bill’s provisions. Metro officially became a Regional Metropolitan Transit Authority on August 1, 2022 after approval by the current Board of Directors. Other municipalities that are in the same Metropolitan Statistical Area as Omaha may join the new authority with a 2/3 majority vote by its governing body.
Now back to that election. There are seven districts up for election, as shown in the map at the beginning of this article. The districts are drawn to closely follow existing Omaha City Council districts. A primary election was held in May to whittle down the district contests to a maximum of two candidates. There are currently four districts with two candidates and three districts with only one candidate running. You can view the seven districts and their candidates here:
https://www.votedouglascounty.com/candidate_info.aspx
The general election on November 5 will decide the winner of the four contested districts. Most of the election has been flying under the radar without much public discussion, although each candidate may have different priorities on how they view transit moving forward in Omaha. Note that none of the current five board members are running in this election, the so the board will be an entirely new slate. Even if you don’t live within the official city limits, this will impact anyone who uses transit (such as myself, as a frequent park-and-rider), or people with any business and/or development interests in Omaha, so this is an important election to pay attention to and make an informed decision about.
The next Metro Board of Directors will have an important role in laying out the future priorities of the new regional transit authority.
What I find most interesting is that there are currently only three transit agencies in the United States with elected board of directors: the Regional Transportation District (RTD) in Denver, Colorado (15 members), the Bay Area Rapid Transit District (BART) in San Francisco, California (9 members), and the Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District (AC Transit) in Oakland, California (7 members).
During my time working for RTD, I had an overall good experience working with our elected board of directors. We certainly had some interesting people, with a large board and an election every two years (alternating between 7 and 8 members up for election), and some had very specific interests. What I liked best about an elected board is that they had a specific population of transit user constituents to respond to and think about when making regional decisions, although drawing the connection between what is good for the region and good for their district could be a challenge at times.
As I mentioned earlier, this new board will have important ramifications for the future of transit in Omaha as we continue to embark in this uncharted (for Omaha) world of a regional transit authority. As Metro expands, what will its service look like? We have a glimpse of this with the MetroNEXT plan, which I hope continues to be implemented to its full extent by 2030. But what specifics of the plan will be prioritized? And will the regional authority district continue to grow into the suburbs and to other cities and become a true regional transit authority? And as we expand transit geographically, we need to continue to invest in transit in the core with more frequency and better service. As constituents to the new board of directors, we all have an important duty to meet with and talk to the new board members to educate them about our transit priorities and future investments.
Eric Miller is a senior transit planner at Felsburg, Holt & Ullevig (FHU), a transportation engineering and planning company that was founded 40 years ago and has been in Omaha since 2004. Eric has a 20-year career in the transit industry that includes work in both the private and public sector and work on planning and implementing bus and rail projects for transit agencies all across the country.