Date: October 9, 2023
From: Lenard Diggins
To: The Regional Transportation Advisory Council (RTAC)
RE: Candidacy for Chair of RTAC

Dear Advisory Council Colleagues,

Four years was enough time, but as I indicated last year, I am still excited and enthusiastic about the Advisory Council and its role on the Boston Region MPO Board. I am also as eager as ever to be the Chair for another year and to work with anyone on the Council who wishes to be Chair next year in order to help you learn as much as possible so that you can hit the ground running in your first year as the Chair.

In cooperation with the MPO staff at all levels, I feel that the Advisory Council made significant contributions to the MPO in the last 12 months. Some of our accomplishments were: (1) active participation in the development of the MPO’s Operations Plan; (2) active participation in the development of the UPWP, the TIP, the LRTP, and the Coordinated Plan which enabled us to comment on those plans more effectively; and (3) active participation in all of the Congestion Management Committee as well as the Administration and Finance Committee meetings. I also feel that we have continued to maintain our reputation as a hard-working, cooperative, and collaborative entity on the MPO Board.

Regarding the four goals that I set for this past year as Chair, with the dedicated assistance of Stella Jordan, we were able to have a greater variety of guests. We were also able to work with Stella as well as other staff in order to play a more meaningful role in assessing the universe of projects for the UPWP and in taking advantage of more opportunities to have a bigger impact in the selection of the final projects. We continued to struggle with attracting new members, and I was perhaps unrealistic in my expectation that we would be able to review the Needs Assessment for the latest LRTP, Destination 2050, before its release.

Looking forward, here are my goals for the upcoming year:

1. Continue inviting a greater variety of guests who can give us different perspectives on handling the transportation challenges in our region
2. Work more closely with MPO Public Engagement staff to explore novel ways to do outreach and to create a pipeline of people with whom the Advisory Council and the broader MPO can engage meaningfully.
3. Thoroughly review the Needs Assessment as presented in the Story Maps that accompany the current LRTP and in the process determine whether we want to propose an amendment to Destination 2050 as we recommended in our review letter.
4. Fully participate in the current MOU updating process so that we can increase the Advisory Council’s impact as we work with the MPO on all aspects of the 3C process.
5. Participate more with the Transit Working Group in order to identify gaps in the transit network in the region as well as across the state and then determine how best to fill those gaps.
6. Participate fully with the new TIP Process, Engagement, and Readiness (TIPPER) Committee as the MPO attempts to make a significant improvement to the annual process of selecting projects.

As I stated last year, my primary goal is for the Advisory Council is to be the kind of organization with which people want to work. As I also stated, my strongest desire is to help us all learn and grow and become more valuable contributors and better collaborators. I continue to have lots of ideas, but I continue to be more interested in your ideas; so, please bring them to me, either in pubic or in private, and please work with me transform your ideas into actions.

Finally, thank you all for your support over the last 4 years!

Sincerely,
Lenard Diggins