RBA and Everybody Counts continue to fight

The disability-rights group Everybody Counts and the Northwest Indiana Regional Bus Authority soon may be facing off in court again, unless a last-ditch July 7 meeting can set things right.

Everybody Counts accuses the regional bus group of failing to abide by an April 2010 agreement imposed by a federal court. The group said none of its key requirements, such as developing an advisory group on access for the disabled, has been fulfilled.

The RBA counters that Everybody Counts has failed to cooperate in getting the agreement implemented.

The bad blood between the two groups was on full display at Monday's regular monthly RBA meeting at the Methodist Hospitals Southlake Campus in Merrillville. Disability-rights advocate Raymond Fletcher interrupted the meeting just eight minutes after its start. He accused the RBA of wasting taxpayer money and not listening to riders.

RBA Chairman Richard Hardaway told Fletcher he was out of order and then adjourned the meeting as Fletcher kept voicing his complaints.

That led to a dozen RBA members trying to squeeze their way past Fletcher, who was in his wheelchair at the meeting room door.

"There is no possible way we can have a meeting when someone is being disruptive like that," Hardaway said before exiting the building.

"You continue to fail to address me," Fletcher said. "You refuse to answer my questions."

In February and March of this year, Fletcher filed formal complaints about late pickups to get to his job as a substitute teacher for the School City of Hammond.

Area bus providers are operating under a 2006 federal court decree that was issued after Everybody Counts brought a class-action lawsuit. The RBA was added to the list when it started providing regional transit. Last year, it took over the former Hammond Transit and essentially inherited all of its duties under the decree.

In April 2010, the RBA and Everybody Counts reached an agreement outlining RBA's obligations under the decree. One of the leading requirements was for the formation of a council on accessible transportation, which was to be a riders group that could help the RBA meet the requirements of the Americans with Disablities Act.

The RBA in June 2010 voted to enter into negotiations with Everybody Counts to help form and train the council. But two months later, the RBA board voted to withdraw from those talks and begin negotiating a similar deal with the Chicago-based disability-rights group Equip for Equality. But that group shortly withdrew from the effort.