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The Agency Council on Coordinated Transportation (ACCT) is a partnership of members from the legislature, state agencies, transportation providers and consumer advocates whose mission is to direct and promote activities that efficiently use all available state and community resources for special needs transportation across the state. The legislature created ACCT in 1998 to facilitate coordination and eliminate cross-jurisdictional and government program barriers to transportation. The ACCT Council concentrates on three critical areas: Identify and Address Barriers, Focus on Results, and Increase Advocacy.
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IDENTIFY AND ADDRESS BARRIERS
ACCT Wins National Award
Governor Gary Locke accepted an award from the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) in honor of ACCT's achievements. The award presentation was held on February 23 in Washington D.C. during the "United We Ride: National Leadership Forum on Human Service Transportation Coordination."
U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta presented the award to Gov. Gary Locke. "On behalf of the state of Washington, thank you for this award," Locke said. "Let's continue to unite in this worthwhile and humane cause and refuse to let the world pass any American by."
FTA selected ACCT for the "United We Ride" Leadership Award for the significant steps the state has taken to improve human service transportation options for its 1.5 million citizens with special needs.
Washington State was represented at the awards ceremony and forum by:
- Judith Giniger and Don Chartock, Washington State Department of Transportation
- Allan Jones, Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction
- Steven Wish, Department of Social and Health Services
INCREASE ADVOCACY
Legislative Wrap-Up
Legislation to improve options for people with special transportation needs met with limited success in the 2004 session of the Washington State Legislature.
House Bill 2883 (SB 6552) would have permitted medically stable people who have to travel in a lying down position to travel in vehicles other than ambulances. Neither bill moved out of committee.
On the brighter side, bills that would allow non-profit transportation providers to form a risk pool (SB 5869 and HB 1840) have passed the Senate and House respectively. This will give the non-profit providers more stability when insurance rates fluctuate.
ACCT recognizes Tiller and Mendoza
The ACCT Council expressed their appreciation and sent letters of commendation to Debra Mendoza and Brandy Tiller for their hard work and dedication supporting the ACCT Council.
Brandy accepted a promotion within the Department of Transportation to the Office of Equal Opportunity and Debra is now working with FLT Consulting.
ACCT wishes them both the best of luck.
FOCUS ON RESULTS
Performance Measures Summit is Set
Measuring the success of coordinated transportation is a national issue recently highlighted at the United We Ride conference in Washington, DC and a focus for ACCT.
ACCT is organizing a performance measures summit on March 24 at Hopelink in Bellevue. The goal of the summit is to bring legislators and agency managers together to create a shared vision and plan for measuring our state's progress in coordinated transportation.
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