There were some fireworks at the Fox Cities Transit Commission Meeting on 12/08/2020.
Commission member Daniel Wilson was concerned that Valley Transit has not been following the correct procedures when making purchases of Covid-related supplies and that the Covid grant fund is essentially being used as a slush fund with little oversight into expenditures made from it.
You can view the entire meeting video here.
The interesting part starts at around the 12:25 mark.
I’ve transcribed the conversation from 12:25 to 23:35.
Ron McDonald (Valley Transit General Manager): We’re still working through it. The governor’s mandate was extended through January 20, so we’re still following the mandates that are out there and continuing to operate. If anyone has any questions or comments or concerns, I’d be glad to try and address those for you.
Daniel Wilson (commission member): Yeah, I have a question, Dan Wilson. Can you hear me?
Ron: Yes, I can.
Dan: You mentioned something about some air purifiers or sanitizers at the last meeting. What became of that?
Ron: Yes, so the air purification systems have been installed in the majority of the busses. I think they have about 7 left to install. I think they arrived–the last group arrived–I think on the 3rd or 4th of December. So they’re just finishing up installation on those. And in addition to that—
Dan: So how much do we pay for all that?
Ron: Those were…what were they, Deb? I’m trying to remember….I think they were about 4 or 5 thousand dollars a piece.
Dan: So why did that not come before this board for approval?
Ron: Well, we’ve been talking about it, Dan, you know, and I consider that an emergency purchase, and we purchased it out of what we consider bus parts and being supplied by our bus manufacturer. Under the circumstances, that was the direction we took.
Dan: Did you?
Chair: That was reported on at [fades out]
Dan: Okay, so this is–it was reported, but this board never authorized the purchase.
Ron: And I think I was within my authorization to purchase them, Dan.
Dan: No it isn’t. It’s a violation of city policy.
Ron: We have our own [something] policy.
Dan: City policy requires anything over $25,000 to be authorized by the board of jurisdiction and the Common Council.
Ron: Not in an emergency situation.
Dan: It also requires it be processed. [that line was somewhat garbled so I’m not positive about it.]
Ron: Not in emergency situation, Dan, and I would argue that we’re under an emergency pandemic.
Dan: Okay, so, did you read the policy on how to handle emergency situations? Imminent life, or imperils….Did you consult with the mayor on this as the policy requires?
Ron: The Mayor’s aware that we purchased it.
Dan: We’ve had several meetings, Ron where we could have approved this and discussed it, but you never brought it to us. Now this goes back to the same thing as those plexiglass enclosures which cost $90,000. You just went and bought ’em. Again, no consultation with this commission. So what are we? Just a potted plant here?
Ron: Well, Dan, I believe we’re under an emergency situation and it’s my job to protect the safety of the passengers and employees, and…
Dan: It’s also our job–
Ron: I’m speaking. Can I speak? Can I speak for a second? I gave you an opportunity; please let me respond to you. It’s my responsibility for the safety of our passengers and our employees. We’re under an emergency pandemic and quite frankly, you were on social media posting that it’s dangerous to ride in a bus. I’m trying to take initiative to make it safe to ride a bus. We talked about it. We weren’t trying to get it passed you. We discussed it. We had a discussion here about it. It wasn’t like it was pushed under the carpet. We were very upfront with it. It was trying to get it ordered and purchased while the product was available. We had to move when we had to, and that’s why we’re talking about it. We’ve talked about it before hand.
Dan: Okay, well, talking about it doesn’t lie with city policy.
George Dearborn (commission Chairperson): It seems to me if there’s a question our attorney would make that decision.
Dan: What’s that?
George: It would seem to me that there’s a question you could form a request and then our attorney could make a decision on it–the city’s attorney. I don’t have the knowledge…
Dan: Yeah, well, any number of people could have been consulted, but it’s been several months now since we’ve purchased those enclosures, and I’m gonna have more to say to this maybe when I get to the discussion on the CARES funding, but I just think making purchases without the approval of this commission and the Common Council to the tune of 100 or 200 thousand dollars is beyond the pale. Even in an emergency situation you have to [eventually?] bring it to this body for approval. That hasn’t been done.
George: Okay, I hear you, but I can’t answer that question. That sounds like that needs a legal opinion–something to respond to….Not now, but at an upcoming meeting. Thank you. Any other comments? If not, we have an additional item for, let’s see, the status of the CARES act.
Ron: That was a request from Commissioner Wilson.
Dan: Yeah, again, it goes along with my comments on the purchases. We got a funds trans–the city is holding this CARES fund in a separate account as I understand it. With the authority to–half million draw for requests to Ron [the audio was quite garbled at that point so I think that that is an accurate representation of what was said, but it was very hard to decipher]. I’ve been a little troubled by that. I’d like to think that any funds transfers that are out of Valley Transit accounts should, again, have the approval of this commission. And I think, I mean, there’s no dispute that we’re gonna be needing that money and we’ve–as we’ve reported, we have a shortfall of our ridership revenues of over $200,000. But I think we should be consulted on these fund transfers to purchase, and I think we’re entitled to a little bit of particulars on how those funds are going to be applied. Otherwise, we’re just…It appears we’ve created a $7 million slush fund here where there’s no accountability. Money comes in one end and going out the other, and we’re just innocent bystanders. Or, perhaps that’s an exaggeration, but I would like to see some accountability on these funds.
George: Okay, thanks…
Dan: Again, I’m greeted with silence, I see.
Ron: I’m not sure what kind of response you’re looking for. I mean, what is it you’d like us to do, Dan?
Dan: I made a specific request that any future funds transfers be approved by this commission, and that we have an accounting of how those funds are gonna be used.
Ron: It’s actually put into a 5307 grant and we’ve already been awarded approval to make transfers within 5307 grant.
Chair: I’d be [happy?] to have a separate response to you about the process that’s followed, because I’m not seeing an issue with this, and the village of Fox Crossing we have extraordinary costs as well for Covid-19, and it’s automatically approved, and I guess this is a critical situation. I understand the concern about expenditures but what is the alternative? We have to do it?
Dan: We have meetings every month. We also–it’s not a particularly difficult thing to do to discuss.
Ron: I guess I would offer up, Dan, if you have specific questions or concerns or desires for what we do, I’d be glad to have a conversation with you whenever you like. Give me a call. We can talk through any of it, and we can get other people involved in the discussion as you wish. We’re certainly not trying to hide anything. We’ve been here talking to the commission about it. It isn’t our desire to try and do anything behind anybody’s back. There’s been an urgency to get things done as the pandemic numbers were growing, and that was clearly the driving force of getting anything done. It wasn’t to go behind anybody’s back because we’ve been very open talking to you folks about what we’re doing. But I’d be glad to talk through it and the process and any other questions you might have.
[Dan says something that I simply cannot decipher due to the glitchiness of the audio.]
George: I’m just saying, it seems to me that these kinds of–this is a unique situation for all of us, and the alternative would be to shut down the services, which that’s certainly not an appropriate alternative. We need to do everything possible to keep the employees safe, the riders safe, and I think what was done was most appropriate and we don’t really know what else will happen in the future. Hopefully it’s gonna get a lot better but we have new events that are gonna be happening. We just had Thanksgiving. The numbers have gone down a little bit, but they theorize it’s gonna go way up. We have Christmas coming up, so the safety of all the customers and employees is critical, and other expenditures may be necessary and on an emergency basis. And that’s [how?] I kind of see it, but, yeah, I think it would be good for you to talk directly to Ron, and if there’s still questions of others, we could certainly have a discussion about this on future dates.
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