By Ryan Berry

DailyAdvocate.com

GREENVILLE — After further explanation during the regular meeting of Greenville City Council on Tuesday, July 17, the city moved forward with renewing several contracts for transit services.

There were plenty of questions from several council members regarding the cost to the city for providing contract transit services for organizations such as Job & Family Services, Rest Haven and Darke Educational Services. Councilman Greg White led the charge in trying to determine whether or not it was feasible for the city to renew the contracts and what the cost to the city would be.

Safety Service Director Ryan Delk stressed the renewal contracts and the new contract for Greenville Transit Services (GTS) will not increase the fleet of vehicles used by GTS, nor will it increase the budget for salaries of employees. However, he did mention that council previously approved a change to the strength ordinance that allowed transit to hire additional part-time drivers and allows current part-time drivers to decrease how often they work.

Councilwoman Delores Eley suggested council should have been informed that the majority of contracts being considered were renewal contracts. She said, “I think it would have been most helpful, maybe I overlooked it and if I did, I apologize, it would have been most helpful if it would have been explained that it was a renewal. When you get these things (ordinances), I don’t think it’s always clear what you’re expecting us to read and vote on.” However, it was stressed at the previous meeting by Delk and transit director Katie Benge that all but the contract for Darke County Education Services were renewal contracts.

With approximately 140 trips per day, Benge wants transit clients to know the importance of scheduling their trips with not only a pick-up time, but also a return time. Trips scheduled outside of the city must be scheduled 24 hours in advance. Councilman Leon Rogers expressed his concern regarding wait times, but he was reminded the trips are on a first come, first served basis. This includes scheduled trips. Benge pointed out there may be a wait if a person schedules the pick-up but waits until they are nearly finished with their errand before scheduling their return trip.

White continued to question the financial end of adding contracts and seemed to be looking for a magical number the city would need to reach before it began costing the city more to run the service. According to Delk, the city budgets approximately $60,000 to $70,000 to operate transit. They have been encouraged by the Ohio Department of Transportation to seek additional contracts and to raise rates on the contracts to keep the city from shelling out more money for the service.

Because the city transportation service chose to offer county-wide service in February, they received additional funding from federal and state sources, in addition to county funding. Last year, the city received approximately $500,000 in funding. The council approved legislation on Tuesday to receive $450,000 from the federal government and $260,000 from the state for transportation costs.

White asked when the city could get to the point that adding contracts would cost the city money? Delk explained, “The contracts are how we offset the city’s cost. If you do away with the contracts and you depend only on the grant money, you’re going from the city putting $60,000 to $70,000 a year, you could have to put in $300,000 to $400,000 a year.”

Mayor Jeff Whitaker added, “These contracts that are being renegotiated are taking into effect our costs. We are renegotiating not to lose money, but to make more money than we did last year. To be fair to Katie (Benge), these were pointed out last week to be renewal contracts.

Eley questioned the safety service director about monitoring the contracts to determine if they are successful and to determine if they should be renewed. Delk said the transit director provides the first oversight and works with the mayor and safety service director. There is also oversight by ODOT. The city is required to send quarterly reports to ODOT and ODOT does an audit on the transit system. Delk pointed out it was ODOT that informed the city the previous contract rate was costing the city money. For example, the previous rate for Darke County Job & Family Services was $16. The new rate is $22.65. The previous rate for Rest Haven was $8.50 and the new rate is $22.65. The previous rates were instituted prior to the city taking over management of the transit system.

Council did approve the renewal contracts for Darke County Job & Family Services and Rest Haven. Two additional resolutions received a second or first reading of the resolution and will be on the agenda again at the next meeting.

The council did approve a resolution to provide service for Darke County Educational Services. The resolution was rejected at the previous meeting of council. Councilman Brian Brown asked why the resolution was back on the agenda. Delk said he didn’t believe the administration did a good enough job of educating council prior to the first vote but believes they have done a better job over the past couple of weeks.

Eley defended asking questions regarding this issue. “It seems silly that we’re asking all these questions. This is information that we as council people need to know. We need to know what our city is doing. I think the public has a need to know what transit is,” she said. She continued by pointing out they are trying to educate themselves.

White added to the defense, “The meetings seem to be getting a little longer, but I think there is a benefit of the meetings getting a little longer and that is dialogue amongst citizens, council and the administration. I think the discussion and dialogue is good.” He continued, “When I came on council, all I heard was this was a rubber stamp council and it looked liked one.”

Not all members of council agreed. Councilman Doug Schmidt suggested council members should look at their agendas when they receive them on Fridays. Council President John Baumgardner encouraged council members to contact the safety service director, mayor or the department heads on Friday, Monday or Tuesday to get answers if they have questions. However, he also said there are times he will ask a question that he knows the answer to because he believes it is beneficial to the public. Councilman Clarence Godwin agreed with Baumgardner and Schmidt and pointed out that he contacts the safety service director and other administrators often when he has questions.

Brown comments challenged White’s assessment that the council was perceived as a “rubber stamp council”. He brought up the zoning issue that was discussed for several months before it was finally settled.

To contact Daily Advocate Editor Ryan Berry, email [email protected].