CEO's Message

Miguel Velázquez

Chief Executive Officer

We entered the 2022-23 fiscal year nearing the one-year anniversary of the implementation of Reimagine RTS and with an approach focused on innovation and promoting a better quality of life. We continued engaging with employees, customers, and stakeholders to understand how well the new system is meeting the needs of a community that is recovering from a global pandemic. With greater understanding of our employees, customers, and stakeholders throughout the community, we developed a new Comprehensive Strategic Plan that will help us connect communities by embracing innovation, equity, and sustainability. Put simply, this new plan is our guide for the 2023-24 fiscal year.

The initiatives in this new plan reflect what we experienced in years past, our current reality, and our commitment to keep building on our solid foundation. It is based on our existing mission and intent statements and includes an important update to one of our values. Our value of Diversity and Inclusion has been updated to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) to reflect our continued embrace of DEI as a critical component of our culture: “We embrace our wide variety of cultures, values, skills, thoughts, and experiences to promote racial equity and fair access to opportunities through public transit.” This plan is also a reflection of our continued commitment to the RTS team. We are fortunate to have at RTS one of the hardest working and most dedicated teams in our industry. They have continued performing at a high level through seemingly constant and sometimes unforeseen challenges and change. They understand and embrace the important role we play in the lives of our customers and work tirelessly every day to show the community what it means to live the RTS Way.
 

Approved by the RGRTA Board of Commissioners, the comprehensive plan will guide our continued efforts to support employees and their overall well-being. It continues our work on critical, innovative projects and studies that will help us build on the improvements we have made for customers across the service area. It includes the continued embrace of innovative technologies and software to improve the experience of our employees and customers. It enhances our focus on financial sustainability through analysis of new zero-emission technologies, cost containment efforts, and important facility needs. And it demonstrates our climate leadership with the purchase of Hydrogen Fuel Cell vehicles and continued investment in our zero-emission infrastructure needs. Our team is ready to implement this plan and continue growing our system to meet the needs of the people we serve. Thank you for your support.

Sincerely,

Miguel Velázquez
Chief Executive Officer