I have driven for Twin Transit for the past 31 years. I have worked under every director of transit services that Twin Transit has had. We have had a few good ones, but none better than Joe Clark. Since his arrival, he has built Twin Transit not only in improvements to the routes, but also in morale. He has instilled teamwork and brought a lot of us together while helping the community.
During the pandemic, he was able to keep employees working throughout it all. Under his direction, Twin Transit served East Lewis County when Mountain Highway Transit shut down so East County riders would not lose service. We shuttled food to more than 800 senior citizens in Lewis County as far as Packwood. We made vegetable gardens in buckets to give to people as well. He started the DARTT program to connect people who didn’t have access to our buses. He also started a new route servicing Tumwater. He brought several grants to our community and Twin Transit, and we now have two new electric buses as a direct result of some of those grants.
Joe has good work ethics and expects that of his employees as well. When improving a business, sometimes changes need to be made for the better. I was sad to read of our employee who believes she needed to blast Joe for his disciplinary action (The Chronicle, May 27). Sometimes people can’t handle that well. No one likes to be disciplined, but that’s why you have a manager — to keep order.
I have never seen Joe throw things, raise his voice to anyone or slam any doors. His normal demeanor is to pump everyone up and, I might add, he does it well. He’s a very positive man. He may have hired acquaintances but they have all done outstanding work. This tells me he just knows how to be a director and hire the people who get things done. I have never seen Joe retaliate or harass employees — ever.
Joe has done well since coming to Twin Transit and I don’t want to see one person drag down his hard work. He definitely knows how to run a transit business and I am happy to be working here while the system gets improved finally after 31 years.
I know many of my fellow employees think the same way I do.
Peggy Haase
Tenino
