Consultant: City not in danger of losing transit aid

The city is not in danger of losing federal grant funding for its Citibus transit system, a consultant said.

Mary Howard told the Common Council’s Finance and Audit Committee on Wednesday that 11 deficiencies identified by the Federal Transit Administration’s Triennial Review of the Citibus system were either already corrected, or in the process of being fixed. She said there are two policies that need to be updated by the Common Council, one that deals with the city’s procedure to change bus fares and the other an employee drug and alcohol policy.

“The existing grants are still obligated to the city,” Howard told the committee. “(O)nce the deficiencies are cleared, future grants will be available.” She said the existing fare and drug and alcohol policies were just missing some information required by the Federal Transit Administration, which has since been added.

Following her presentation, the committee unanimously endorsed resolutions to update both policies. The resolutions will go to the full council for a vote on May 1.

During a council caucus on April 2, Ulster County Planning Director Dennis Doyle had told aldermen there were “significant problems” with the Citibus system that would have to be corrected before the city and county could consider merging their public transportation systems. He indicated during the meeting there was grant funding the city could no longer get and more funds it was in danger of losing.

City Transit Supervisor Toni Roser said she felt Doyle’s comments “weren’t very fair” to the city. She said her department has a limited staff that has to run the Citibus system, as well as handle administrative tasks such as the triennial review. Roser said that, during the previous triennial review, only two deficiencies had been noted.

Howard said the Federal Transit Administration has a master agreement with the city that spells out exactly what has to be done. She said the federal agency’s expectations are very clear; it is just up to the city to meet them.

“I see that administratively, things aren’t getting done,” Howard told the committee. She said, though, her sole job is to address the triennial review and get the information required.

Howard said the Federal Transit Administration reviewed the city operation in June, which led to the current deficiencies being noted. She said the reviews are done every three years because the federal agency provides the city with funding and wants to know how it is being spent.

The federal agency reviews 17 areas, Howard said. She said among the deficiencies found were that the city’s vehicle maintenance plan was incomplete or out of date and that the city’s “Milestone Progress Reports” were late. The review also found information on half fares — discounted fares for seniors, for example — was incomplete, Howard said.