Thank you, Kitsap Transit workers and drivers. Your job is not an easy one. For many of you, the highways, streets and roads that cover much of Kitsap County are your workspace and the bus you drive is your office.

The service of transportation and, subsequently, the individual freedom or movement that you provide to residents of our county is critical to our society and way of life. You are Kitsap Transit.

This community desires improved services, expanded route coverage and improved working conditions for you. Efficient bus times that are coordinated with employer work schedules, afterhours social programs and evening college classes are also currently underserved.

What needs to be done away with is the highest level of your leadership that has proven to be less than transparent and publicly documented to be the biggest liability when it comes to stewarding existing assets and purchasing new ones without due diligence.

In the coming weeks and months, the debate over whether to approve what I consider to be an ill-conceived passenger-only ferry initiative will be gaining steam. A lot of reasons about why I think it is a bad plan and why voters may not or do not have any faith left in the existing leadership to steward it properly will be forthcoming.

It’s not you, the individual worker and driver to whom the negativity, criticisms and complaints will be directed. It will be fully directed at your failed leadership.

In full disclosure, I have agreed to be a member of a three-person committee that will be writing the argument against the initiative for the upcoming Kitsap County Voters Pamphlet.

Please know that my personal stance on the passenger-only ferry plan is simply that: I will NOT be voting in favor of it. I continue to appreciate and fully support the existing transportation services that are being offered by Kitsap Transit as a whole and the workers who are making them possible. I want to see those services expanded with additional funding.

I would happily support and advocate for an additional percentage of sales tax increase for expanded bus and Access services, improved routes and easier between South Kitsap and Central Kitsap without being forced through downtown Port Orchard and onto a ferry when just staying on a bus would be much more effective.

Stay safe out there on the roads, and thank you again for your hard work and helping hands.

— Contact Colleen Smidt at collee nsmidt@gmail.com