Tonight's I team story is a hard hitter. And it was an extremely difficult story to produce. You won't see the sweat and tears that Reporter Steve Atkinson and producer Felicia Kit shed but trust me, this was one tough assignment.
It evolves around a screw up by San Diego Transit Safety Office. The DMV was sending out warnings of drivers with issues. The bus company’s management was supposed to clear the problems before allowing the drivers behind the wheel. They didn't. SDT was breaking the law by letting certain drivers drive.



I won't give away the entire plot but it began with a phone call from a bus driver, who was later fired. It would entail our I team filing California Open Records Act Requests with the state and San Diego Transit. Producer Kit must have made a million calls to the DMV to figure out the regulations and all the nuisances. We all talked a great deal about how to be fair in the story but still tell it like it is.



Things got ugly early on when we went to SDT with what we found. They think 10News and the I Team have it in for them.



That's how the bus company's CEO Paul Jablonski expressed it. Nothing is further from the truth. While I didn't sit in on his interview, I did review the tapes when the team returned to the station. I was surprised by his animosity towards our reporter. And Mr. Jablonski's answers were flip and made a bad situation worse. Judge for yourself tonight when the story runs at 11 p.m.



I suspect his attitude has something to do with a story our former I team reporter Marti Emerald did on the number and type of complaints bus riders have in regards to the drivers. We spent a great deal of time crunching complaint information the company supplied us. This only happened after we received numerous complaints from customers of San Diego Transit.




This was still an issue when we showed up for our latest story.

The CEO commented, off camera, words to the effect that our first story didn't amount to a hill of beans. I would guess his assumption is the current story isn't worth much either.



But for the I team that was then, this is now.



We approach each story with a fresh perspective. It's a major commitment of time, money and energy to produce these stories. My experience has been if you don't go in with your eyes wide open and prepared to weigh all the elements, you aren't going to do a very thorough or professional job. I think we have in tonight's story; we certainly grappled with it enough.




One final note, when we went to SDT we wanted to talk to the safety officer who was the transit employee responsible for the errors we uncovered. But they wouldn't allow us to interview Bundy Sarmiento. It looks like the suits on the top floor decided to have the CEO take the heat. . Not a good idea. Reporter Atkinson knew more about some of the relevant DMV codes than Mr. Jablonski did. I think the bus company may want to rethink this policy in the future. Either prep the boss better or get someone out front who knows the subject.


jwblog@10news.com