The Regional Transportation District’s board chair has stripped Director JoyAnn Ruscha of a committee chair position and travel expenses this year after finding some of Ruscha’s conduct at the agency was “unprofessional and demeaning,” according to a disciplinary letter.
Chair Julien Bouquet’s Notice of Findings and Decision letter, dated Friday and obtained by The Denver Post, said Ruscha’s communications with RTD staff members “reflect a serious and concerning pattern of unacceptable conduct.”
“You are removed from the OSS (Operations, Safety and Security) Committee Chair position and removed as a member of that Committee,” Bouquet wrote in the three-page letter.
Ruscha, he wrote, ran committee meetings in a “disorderly and ineffective” manner and violated Colorado’s open meetings law in some email communications with fellow elected directors.
In addition to Ruscha’s dismissal from the committee, Bouquet told the director: “You are not eligible for Director expense allocations or reimbursement for travel, conference, or training for the remainder of 2025,” including for an American Public Transportation Association workshop in Denver in August. But he gave an exception for an APTA conference in San Francisco that began Sunday because of the cost of late cancellations.
Ruscha, who was elected to the RTD board in 2022 to represent a northeast swath of Denver out to the airport, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.
Friday’s disciplinary action was spurred by a May 1 letter signed by a bare majority of the 15-member board asking for an investigation of Ruscha’s conduct. While several directors who spoke to The Post earlier this month criticized Ruscha for inappropriate conduct, others defended their colleague as a passionate advocate of transit who might simply have rubbed others the wrong way in manner and style of communication.
Ruscha this month told The Post: “My perspectives may reflect a different view from some of my colleagues, but this is not a failure to collaborate or contribute constructively.”
“Critiquing policy and offering an independent view is a key part of healthy governance and a democratic society,” Ruscha said.
In his letter, Bouquet highlighted an email Ruscha sent fellow Director Brett Paglieri earlier this year that admonished Paglieri for his work ethic on policy matters on the committee and suggested he consider resigning “so that someone else could put in the work.”
“Your condescending tone and personal attack impugning Director Paglieri’s professionalism and ethical standards do not align with the Board Operating Guidelines on fostering a supportive culture, constructively addressing issues, and assuming positive intent,” Bouquet wrote in his disciplinary letter.
The chair said he expected Ruscha to “treat all RTD staff and Directors with civility, respect, and avoid personal attacks.”
“Further unprofessional, demeaning communication will not be tolerated,” he wrote.
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