Richards to ask Cape Girardeau County Transit Authority to improve accountability

The board chairman of the Cape Girardeau County Transit Authority plans to ask fellow board members and officials to be more open about financial dealings.

Doug Richards, the chairman of the agency's board of directors, said Wednesday the transit authority's rapid growth over the last 18 months has complicated the fiscal picture.

"When we started, we had no vehicles, no employees and no money," he said. "Now we're a $1 million-plus operation."

The most recent version of the transit authority's proposed 2009 budget, released Wednesday afternoon, reflects an estimated income of $1.551 million, expenses of $1.583 million and a potential $32,498 deficit.

A version of 2009 budget released Oct. 8 included four line items in the income category totaling $177,291, all listed as "service contracts." Transit authority officials initially declined to identify the entities or release the contracts.

Wednesday's version of the budget moved $100,291 from two service contract income lines into the category for cab revenue, for a total $425,291. Seventy-two thousand dollars originally listed as a service contract has been renamed "shuttle services" and reflect an agreement with Workforce Inc., according to Richards. The remaining $5,000 is now identified as donations or miscellaneous income.

Richards said the transit authority inherited some business practices, such as handshake deals with certain clients, that need to be formalized and documented.

"That protects everybody -- us, the providers, the customers and the taxpayers," he said.

Another budget item Richards said he wants to clarify is the senior coupon program. He said it is not clear how the transit authority compensates itself for the cost of each ride beyond the $3 covered by each coupon. Cape Girardeau County Senior Citizens Services Fund Board gave the transit authority a $60,000 subsidy this year.

Tom Mogelnicki, executive director of the transit authority, said that money has been used and that he has extended the program with $10,000 from the general revenue fund. Mogelnicki said each ride is priced at an average cost per ride, including the coupon, of $11.50.

The Fredericktown, Mo.-based Southeast Missouri Transportation Service has similar coupon programs in some of the 21 counties it covers, according to Denny Ward, the service's comptroller and office manager since 2006. He said the actual cost of a ride above the coupon is deducted from existing subsidies.

Richards said he'll make his request at the board's quarterly meeting at 7 a.m. today at the transit authority's office at 937 Broadway, Suite 200, in Cape Girardeau.

Mogelnicki said he will present the 2009 proposed budget to the board today. He said overall use of the transportation services, which include bus routes, curb-to-curb on-demand service and wheelchair-accessible vans, has risen from 92,000 riders in 2007 to an estimated 130,000 for 2008.

Glenda Hoffmeister, executive director of the Southeast Missouri Area Agency on Aging, said the transit authority may be experiencing growing pains.

She and Richards helped draft the first proposal for a countywide transit system nearly a dozen years ago.

"As a whole I think they've done a pretty good job," she said. "Yes, they've grown and there's always growing pains, but you've got to be accountable."

Her agency has a written contract with the transit authority worth $63,900 for rides for people over age 65 or those with disabilities, placing a priority on essential trips for medical care, groceries or business transactions, such as banking.

Hoffmeister said AAA performs annual required audits to track how the $63,900 is spent and check safety standards. The most recent audit, dated May 28, indicates what she deemed "minor, easily correctable" issues, including a lack of flashlights and fuses and the need for a locked contribution box. Though seniors are not charged for AAA-subsized rides, contributions help offset costs, she said.

pmcnichol@semissourian.com

388-3646

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