Cape Girardeau City Council wants more transparency from county transit agency

As it has for the past five years, the Cape Girardeau City Council gave first-round approval Monday night to a $110,000 contract with the agency that provides the city's public transportation.

But this time, the council insisted -- in writing -- that the Cape Girardeau County Transit Authority open up its books with quarterly details about ridership, vehicle depreciation and mileage, as well as a copy of its audited financial statement by year's end.

"We just want to make sure we are fully informed partners with them, and that requires more transparency," council member John Voss said. "We're not picking on Cape County Transit; it's no different than Old Town Cape."

Voss was referring his recent questioning of a funding request by Old Town Cape, the downtown not-for-profit organization. He had questions about how the money was being spent, so he met with the organization and got satisfactory answers.

"This is five times more than Old Town Cape's request," Voss said.

Council member Kathy Swan agreed. In his funding request last year, transit authority executive director Thomas Mogelnicki provided fewer specifics than she is accustomed to seeing.

"I just personally want to see more detail," Swan said. "It's a service to our citizens, but we're spending taxpayer dollars so we'd like to see the proper accounting reports."

Mogelnicki brought a three-page report that detailed Cape Girardeau's specific numbers for ridership and other data for the year so far. January through May saw ridership at about 3,500 for each month, culminating with more than 4,186 riders of the city bus system in June. The authority is a county service, which receives funding from Jackson, the Cape Girardeau County Commission and from the federal government through grants.

The report also revealed month expenses for the four buses -- three run regularly and one is a spare in case of a breakdown. For the first two quarters of 2011, expenses for items like tires, batteries, oil changes and miscellaneous repairs ran $9,288. Labor costs to man the three buses ran $124,650.

While Mogelnicki said after the study session that he thought he answered most of the council's questions with his report, Voss called it "a good start."

Mogelnicki took issue with the council's request to get copies of government grant reimbursements. Grant reimbursements aren't broken down and don't show specifically what the money was used for because they're based on total expenditures, he said.

"I don't know if that will do you any good to see that," he said.

City finance director John Richbourg replied that "we just want to see the grant reimbursement."

City manager Scott Meyer said that the city should have enough information to have a complete picture about the way the transit authority does business.

The reimbursements "along with the audit and the budgets will give us a complete picture," Meyer told Mogelnicki. "The more we can make that complete picture, the more it helps us."

After the study session, Mogelnicki said it's difficult for his organization to compile the type of data that the council is looking for. The authority needs a better software package, he said, but the one it would need costs $360,000.

"And nobody's trying to give me that kind of money," he said. "But that's what I need. Then I can give them any report they want. But at this point I don't have it."

Instead, he and his staff have to compile the data manually. That's hard to do, he said, considering the authority provides 250,000 rides a year.

The request for more details is not about a lack of trust or a hunt for misappropriated funds, Mayor Harry Rediger said.

"It's a pretty significant investment on the part of the city," he said. "We think it's doing very well and it's a needed service. We really just want the accountability."

smoyers@semissourian.com

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Pertinent address:

401 Independence St., Cape Girardeau, MO