GET REDUCES TESTING OF EMPLOYEES FOR DRUGS, ALCOHOL

After testing an increased number of employees for alcohol and drugs last
year, the Golden Empire Transit District governing board voted Tuesday to
return testing percentages to previous levels.

Tuesday's change in policy will not change the effects that policy has on
the safety of GET buses, said district general manager Chester Moland.

"The additional testing has had no effect on the program whatsoever," he said.

A percentage of GET's bus drivers, mechanics and dispatchers are randomly
tested each month for substance use.

Over the past year the district tested 75 percent of employees in
safety-sensitive jobs for drugs and 50 percent of the same employee pool for
alcohol.

But only one employee failed a substance test last year -- the same number
of failures that was recorded in each of the previous four years of the
testing program.

Tuesday night, the governing board unanimously returned the testing levels
to 50 percent of employees tested for drugs and 25 percent for alcohol.

Board member Howard Silver said the move was logical.

"Only one person a year is falling through the strings on this and being
discharged," Silver said.

Random tests are conducted every month and employees are given only 30
minutes to report from work to a nearby testing facility, said substance
abuse program manager Carol Smith.

All GET employees are also tested for drugs and alcohol before they are
hired, after an accident and on reasonable suspicion of substance abuse.

The change in the testing policy will save the GET district $2,300 annually.

In other action at Tuesday's meeting, GET staff announced the district's
highest annual ridership in history. According to district reports, 5.5
million riders used Golden Empire Transit services during the 1998-1999
fiscal year.

Board member Silver also has been elected chairman of the American Public
Transit Association Governing Boards Committee, a national post.