Vote 2002
Probst wants to "unstack" RTD board
Property rights activist takes on Judge McLean
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by Staff (Editorial@boulderweekly.com)

Kevin Probst, a fiscal conservative who ran against County Commissioner Paul Danish in 2000, is challenging RTD Board Member Dick McLean, elected in 1998 to represent RTD District O. "Transportation is the No. 1 issue in Boulder County and has been for years," Probst says.

"I support the general idea of expanding (bus service to meet) the transportation needs of Boulder," Probst says, but too many large buses are operating without adequate ridership and RTD's administrative overhead "is way overboard."

The state should face facts and expand US 36 with HOV/HOT lanes, Probst says. "It generates revenue that we can use for other things like buying smaller buses that can run in the neighborhoods."

Probst noted that McLean is campaigning on a record of helping to create a "less contentious" RTD board, but McLean's election was actually part of a successful 1998 effort to stack the board with a pro-transit, anti-car philosophy.

"Schmoozing with your buddies and patting each other on the back is not the way to get things done," Probst comments.

He accused McLean of being part of the City of Boulder's "strategy to make traffic so bad that people have to resort to something else, like the bus."

Probst is also critical of McLean for not being "a communicative type of person." Probst recalls only one newspaper article from McLean that informed citizens about his actions on the RTD board.

"There are serious problems in the neighborhoods that people have with RTD. Why doesn't he want to talk to the public?" Probst asks.

RTD has offered several varieties of its $6 billion FASTRACK rail/bus expansion proposal, but Probst says he wants a cost effectiveness analysis on the proposal before recommending it to the voters in 2003.

Dick McLean, Boulder's RTD representative, is a former mayor of Boulder and a retired district court judge who was elected to the bus board in 1998.

McLean's supporters credit him with bringing civility back to a board that had been splintered by the presidency of former board member Jon Caldara. McLean is also credited with convincing the RTD board to spend $15 million on an environmental impact assessment of the Boulder turnpike corridor, which will include planning for a light rail line, more buses and a bike path.

McLean puts his money where his mouth is and is frequently seen riding Boulder and Denver buses. He's a supporter of the GO/Boulder municipally owned RTD affiliate that puts the HOP, SKIP, JUMP, LEAP and BOUND buses on Boulder streets.

McLean retired from the district court bench in 1997. A Stanford graduate, McLean earned his law degree from the University of Colorado School of Law in 1958. He was president of the Colorado Defense Lawyers Association from 1978 to 1979, and is currently a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, as well as the Boulder and Colorado Bar Associations.

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