City will honor bus passes for elderly and disabled
By Mike Leidemann
Advertiser Transportation Writer
City officials yesterday said they would honor thousands of old bus passes for senior citizens and disabled riders until their expiration date, reversing a previous position that new, more expensive passes had to be purchased by Monday.
The decision means that up to 16,000 people who have not bought the new passes can continue to ride the bus without any additional expense, in some cases all the way until August 2005.
The fate of another 30,000 senior and disabled riders who bought the new passes and received a rebate on the unused portion of their old passes was uncertain yesterday.
Attorney Richard DeWaele of the Hawai'i Disability Rights Center said the group will seek some sort of additional credit that compensates those who turned in their old passes and bought new ones.
"The city is acting in good faith, and I think you'll see that the new pass holders will get something, perhaps a sticker that extends the life of their new passes," DeWaele said.
Although both old and new passes will now be honored, U.S. District Judge Helen Gillmor asked city officials not to discuss plans for further action until the next specific steps in the process are determined, said Cheryl Soon, the city director of transportation services.
"We're looking at a lot of different scenarios and I really can't say yet what's going to happen," Soon said.
The city action came one day after city attorneys met with Gillmor and attorneys for six bus riders who had filed a lawsuit claiming that, in effect, not honoring the old passes until their expiration represented a breach of contract.
"It's the right thing to do," said senior bus rider James Combs, one of those who brought the federal lawsuit. "It's what they should have done in the first place. If they had done this right away, they would have saved a lot of people a lot of trouble and eliminated a lot of problems."
The city began requiring new passes in September after the City Council approved fare raises for a wide variety of bus users, a move that angered thousands of senior citizens. The old passes cost $25 for two years; the new ones cost $30 for one year — an increase of 140 percent.
"That's a point that has not been made well enough," Combs said. "The fare increases affected most the people who could afford it the least."
City attorneys had argued earlier this month that allowing the use of the old passes, which have staggered expiration dates up through August 2005, could cost the bus system an estimated $600,000 in lost revenue. Attorneys for the bus riders, however, said their clients could be irreparably harmed by being forced to pay the higher rates.
Gillmor last week issued a temporary restraining order barring the city from implementing the new rates until Monday. Gillmor has now lifted the restraining order and scheduled the next hearing in the case Nov. 25, Soon said.
"The city did the right thing," Combs said. "The judge saw our arguments and agreed with us, and the city decided not to make a big stink. I'm glad the system worked the way it's supposed to."
Meanwhile, the city plans to continue issuing new senior passes for those who have ones that expire in coming months.
The passes will be available from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. today at the Blaisdell Center. Starting Monday, the new passes will be available from 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday at TheBus offices at 811 Middle St.
Reach Mike Leidemann at 525-5460 or mleidemann@honoluluadvertiser.com.
