GLTC to start looking for new management

The Greater Lynchburg Transit Company’s board is officially putting its management company on notice.

The board agreed Wednesday to send out a letter detailing its complaints with First Transit and alerting the firm it does not want to renew its contract.

First Transit, which has managed GLTC for 36 years, will get a shot at retaining the contract, but it will have to compete with other companies in an open procurement process.

The Ohio-based First Transit’s oversight came under fire in recent months as deficits and other problems began descending on the local bus system.

Several GLTC board members and City Council members expressed a loss of confidence in the management. The board resolved to look for a new firm.

First Transit’s contract, which is worth $300,000 a year, expires next June. But it was set to automatically renew unless the board gave notice to terminate at least 90 days prior.

The board voted Wednesday to send the required notice, but requested a three- to six-month extension option pending the outcome of its upcoming search.

GLTC may elect to revamp its administrative structure as part of the shake-up, prolonging the process. Officials deputized City Manager Kimball Payne —attending his first meeting after being appointed to the board in October — to collect names of consultants to help them navigate those decisions.

First Transit, a national company managing some 300 transit systems, has been working to rebuild faith in its abilities. The board has not publicly encouraged or discouraged the company from bidding on the contract when the time comes.

But at least one board member has called for GLTC General Manager Mike Carroll, a First Transit employee, to be immediately removed.

The board discussed the matter in closed session for about half an hour Wednesday. Neither Carroll nor any other staff member was in the room. 

Afterward, board members made no mention of Carroll, but did authorize President Lisa Dibble to write a letter to First Transit expressing their concern about the company’s performance.

Dibble said the general manager would not be a focus of the letter, but declined to say what would be mentioned.

“I’m really not interested in making any further statements at this point,” she said.

The conflict enveloping GLTC has extended to Dibble herself with some board members criticizing her leadership style and continued support for Carroll and First Transit. A failed attempt was made to replace her before her term expired at the end of December.

The board was scheduled to elect new officers Wednesday, but voting was postponed until this morning due to the emergence of a last-minute candidate and two board members, Jennifer Martin and Jan Walker, were absent. The vote will be held at the board’s annual retreat.

The board did not release information about which members were seeking a leadership post.

An example of the board’s internal conflict erupted Wednesday when board member Christian DePaul challenged Dibble on an open government issue.

DePaul — upset the board’s executive committee directed staff to defer implementation of a board decision on certain paratransit fare structures — asked why the committee meeting had not been announced.

“The executive committee does not have to be announced, I believe,” Dibble said.

“Any time there are more than three board members at a meeting, it has to be announced,” DePaul said.

Dibble threw up her hands. “I don’t know. Mike (Carroll) does the announcements,” she said, going on to ask what that had to do with the matter before them.

GLTC’s executive committee is made up of its three officers: the president, vice president and secretary-treasurer.

Virginia’s Freedom of Information Act defines a public meeting as a meeting of three or more members of a body. Such meetings must be advertised and minutes must be recorded.

The city manager, while not weighing on the conflict, requested minutes be taken at future executive committee meetings and said it would’ve cleared up confusion for him on the fare structure debate.

Last October, GLTC’s board began audio recording all of its meetings due to mounting distrust and disputed accounts of events among board members.

During Wednesday’s meeting, the board was briefed about an ongoing mystery surrounding a $50,000 certificate of deposit belonging to a GLTC employee-run association.

When the association attempted to redeem the certificate last year, the bank told them it had already been cashed in 2003, but could not provide supporting documentation.

The association had no record of the certificate being redeemed.

The missing funds, which are owed to more than 30 GLTC employees who were part of the association, have stirred up strife among the workforce for going on two years. GLTC’s board advised the group to hire an attorney to compel the bank to produce records proving the certificate had been redeemed.