February 19, 2018 at 5:24 p.m.
Updated advertising policy, draft business plan discussed at transit meeting
Teichmiller lashes out at media coverage
Updated advertising policy, draft business plan discussed at transit meeting
Due to issues with timing of federal and state funding coming in, the VOTC faced a financial crisis last year in its first full period of operation. In December 2017, transit commission chairman Erv Teichmiller went to
officials in Oneida County and asked them to contribute an additional $75,000 to the group alongside Vilas County. This request was strongly criticized by Oneida County supervisor Ted Cushing.
"If this committee had known then what we now know, the resolution to create NTC (Northwoods Transit Connections) may never have passed," he said at the time. "If this was a private company, it'd be bankrupt and in receivership ... you'd have to give a profit plan."
Since then, they've been working on one.
Early last month, the VOTC's executive committee began discussion on how to run advertising on the side of vehicles in its fleet. At the time, some VOTC officials expressed skepticism at the idea but directed transit connections director Jim Altenburg to develop a policy for this source of revenue. Then, on Jan. 22, Teichmiller revealed the VOTC was working on a new design for its operations, both of which were revealed Feb. 15.
Updated advertising
According to a document given to committee members, Northwoods Transit Connections (should its decide to sell advertising in the future) will model its policy for ads on one currently in place at Namekagon Transit in Sawyer County.
Like this organization, no advertising will be allowed which discourages the use of public transit or damages the reputation of the VOTC in the Northwoods.
"With Namekagon, they have this rule there because when they didn't have it, the first thing someone did was take out ads saying, 'Hey don't use transit,'" Altenburg told the group. "I don't care about who uses it, it could be a taxi service, even the Linzmeiers (of StarGazer Limousine Service), you just can't take out ads which would be derogatory towards the use of the bus."
Another point of concern for the commission was safety. In Teichmiller's view, ads needed to be designed in a way where they wouldn't inhibit views from the windows on any NTC vehicles.
"You wouldn't place advertising in such a way where it would inhibit the driver from seeing out of the back window or could cover up windows in such a way so you couldn't see out of them," he said. "Nor would you want them to be hangars on the bus which could fall off and then endanger the car behind them. These will all be laminated, will they not?"
In response, Altenburg clarified ads would be in the form of vinyl stickers and called on the group to get an advertising policy into place as soon as possible, warning the organization was missing out on a lot of money.
To this, Teichmiller stated the time in development was essential, as without it, an improper policy could open VOTC up to various issues.
"Every month we take to get this right, we avoid problems," Teichmiller said.
Business plan and critical comments
After discussing the latest version of advertising policy, VOTC went over the draft copy of its updated business plan. Initially, Teichmiller told media present - which included The Lakeland Times and The Star Journal - he would not be giving out the documents for examination, claiming law allowed drafts to be withheld until approved.
"We can't pass this out until we've talked about it, it has to be edited and is still not for distribution," he said. "I don't want to have a battle with you (the media), but on the county level, it is a drafted item, we have a right to hang on to it until it is finalized. If this is an issue, we can talk about it but I am not going to give it to you."
Though drafts are exempt from being requested as records, this rule in general only applies to documents prepared for a superior at a government body. If it is given out to others over who the person the draft was prepared for does not have authority or at a public meeting, it can be accessed. The Lakeland Times was able to obtain the draft business plan, but not before Teichmiller criticized coverage given by the paper and other media outlets.
"You don't report things as drafts," Teichmiller said. "The last time we submitted copy of a policy, it was suddenly in print in the newspaper as policy. Frankly, the discretion of both of you is questionable."
When asked after the meeting which articles he had issue with, Teichmiller declined to elaborate.
"I'd like to just drop it," he said. "I don't want to pursue this anymore."
Evan J. Pretzer may be reached via email at [email protected].
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