Interim General Manager of King County Metro Transit
By Rob Gannon
Special to the Seattle Medium
As the county named after the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., an international icon for justice, equality, and peace, changing our King County logo in 2007 to the image of Dr. King was symbolic of the values that we embrace on behalf of the people we serve – the values of inclusion, diversity and excellence.
However, as the co-publisher of the Medium noted last week, we’ve heard reports of paper Metro bus transfers being deliberately punched by some operators to obscure the MLK logo. Other incidents have been reported to me: of some employees intentionally covering the logo on their uniforms or wearing the old crown logo, and of the misprinting of a collective bargaining agreement with the old logo.
These acts are not pervasive, but they do occur, and they are connected: they reflect individual disregard and institutionalized disrespect. Each slight, even if unintended, eventually pools together and deepens the terrible stain of racism in our workplace and our culture.
As the interim General Manager of Metro, I have a particular interest in ensuring equity and social justice. It has been my honor to lead Metro’s effort for equal opportunity in our workplace. Together with our labor unions, we created the Partnership to Achieve Comprehensive Equity, or PACE, to set us on a course at Metro toward a truly inclusive work environment. We are learning to engage in conversations about issues of bias, and the role that race and power play in our society and in our organization. We are not shying away from these issues, rather we are leaning into them with courage and honesty. We are now working to make our recruitment processes more transparent, and raising the attention we pay to career development. And we are proud of the fact that our work on PACE is having an impact in support of our vision of a fair and just government.
As the most public-facing of all King County services, Metro’s brand is important. That is why I am directly addressing the issue of paper transfers being defaced. I am also taking steps to have the logo error on the labor-management contract immediately corrected. Most importantly, I am urging all Metro Transit employees to display the County logo with great pride, preserving the integrity of our brand and affirming our commitment to equity and social justice in our workplace and the region we serve.
Some residents have complained of seeing Metro buses on the street with the old logo. That is due to a policy implemented in 2007 calling for a five-year phase-in plan to reduce the cost of replacing the old one. Well, I say time’s up. I am directing staff to remove outdated crown logos still remaining on older, soon-to-be retired vehicles and replace them with new ones as quickly as possible.
I am reminded of this apt quote by Jedediah Purdy: “Attentiveness helps us to see what can and what cannot support our hope.” The King County logo is an expression of who we are as an organization and symbolizes all that we stand for as a vital agency of this government. The logo cannot be a source of division; it must instead be a symbol of our community.
Rob Gannon is the interim General Manager of King County Metro Transit.
