Gainesville City Commission considers increasing bus fares, begins process of renaming Office of Equity & Inclusion

BY JENNIFER CABRERA

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – During the evening session of the July 16 meeting, the Gainesville City Commission considered raising bus fares and began the process of renaming the Office of Equity & Inclusion to the Equal Opportunity Office.

Bus fare increases

Transportation Director Jesus Gomez said his department has completed an elasticity study on proposed fare increases for the RTS bus system, and future steps include public engagement, an Equity Study, bringing the plan back to the City Commission for approval, and a public notification campaign before potential implementation of the new fares in January 2027.

The last RTS fare change was in FY2009, and the proposed increases range from 33% ($1.50 to $2 for a one-way fare) to 67% ($3 to $5 for an all-day pass); the fare increases are expected to produce an additional $113,000 in revenue per year.

Commissioner Casey Willits said that because the revenue increase “isn’t a very large amount,… I’m a lot hesitant… I don’t feel like [there is] enough change to the overall RTS structure… I would rather pause this and go back and look at the overall [RTS] budget,… because we’ve also had some conversations about advertising on bus stops.”

Commissioner James Ingle said he had similar concerns, but he supported the fare increases because fare revenue is “one of the most available, flexible forms of money we get into RTS… We can use it for whatever… Given the budget situation we’re in and that RTS is struggling with, and the kind of structural debt they’ve had for a long time, I think this makes sense.”

Commissioner Bryan Eastman said he was “kind of with Commissioner Willits on this.” He said the City’s General Fund is currently used to help balance the RTS budget, and fare increases could move the department toward being self-sustaining, but “this is a cost that is being taken from the poorest residents of our community.” He said he would like to look at other options for the RTS budget. 

Commissioner Cynthia Chestnut said she “would endorse the changes.”

Interim City Manager Andrew Persons said, “From a larger budget perspective, $100,000 is not a lot… If the Commission… decides… that you don’t want to raise fares, then we would make up that difference through an additional $111,000 of General Fund for the next year’s budget.” He said, however, that staff is looking at RTS operations to make sure “that we’re not having to patch, year after year after year, or the alternative — continuing to cut hour after hour after hour of service, which is not good for overall longevity of the transit system.” He later clarified that the City puts about $2.4 million from the General Fund into RTS, and Gomez later stated that about 3% of the RTS budget comes from the fare box. 

Commissioner Ed Book said he didn’t want to consider ending free fares for people over 65 years of age, but he believes that youth under 18 “have other options provided in law and provided in policy by the School Board.”

Mayor Harvey Ward: “[The bus system] costs money to operate, but you find other ways to fund it that do not involve figuring out how much you have to pay to get on, because that keeps people from getting on… We need people to use the bus and not drive. If everybody drives, we’re Orlando.”

Mayor Harvey Ward said his position is that he wants “to maximize usage on the system. I want it to be a transit system that really functions well.” He said that means more optimized routes and “very little friction… to using the system… I want regular Jills and Joes to be able to just get on the bus and use it. I am 100% convinced, and I have been for a very long time, that one of the best ways to do that is to take all the… ways to pay out of the way, so people don’t have to think about that. You find other ways to fund it. It’s not free; it’s never been free; it’s not going to be free. It costs money to operate, but you find other ways to fund it that do not involve figuring out how much you have to pay to get on, because that keeps people from getting on… We need people to use the bus and not drive. If everybody drives, we’re Orlando.”

He said the funds don’t necessarily have to come from the City; they could ask employers to “pre-buy” fares for their employees at a reduced cost: “We need to be more entrepreneurial about this, is what I’m saying, and there are ways to do this until we get to a point where there are only a couple dozen people left in the community who have to use the fare box, and then I can make my case that we ought to just take the darn thing out.”

Motion

Ingle said Commissioners were only being asked to authorize public engagement about the proposed increases, and “I think that’s the obvious next step.” He made a motion to approve staff’s recommendation to authorize staff to move forward with the public engagement process, and Chestnut seconded the motion. 

Chestnut encouraged Gomez to contact large employers like HCA, the School Board, and Publix to offer a pre-buying program. 

The motion passed 4-2, with Commissioners Eastman and Willits in dissent and Commissioner Desmon Duncan-Walker absent. 

Renaming the Office of Equity and Inclusion to the Equal Opportunity Office

The next agenda item was the first reading of an ordinance to rename the Office of Equity and Inclusion to the Equal Opportunity Office. 

Ward said, “To my understanding, we changed the name with the times a few years ago, and we’re changing with the times again, at this point, but the functionality continues.”

City Attorney Daniel Nee said, “I think the legislature changed the meaning of those words, so [this is] to reflect the fact that we have an ongoing commitment to anti-discrimination federal and state laws, and that’s the bulk of what is done in that office.”

Ingle made a motion to approve the ordinance, and Chestnut seconded the motion.

Director of Equity and Inclusion Zeriah Folston: “Discrimination is still against the law, and it’s something that the City of Gainesville takes very personally. We’ve never provided deferential or preferential treatment to anyone, and we don’t plan on doing that in the future.”

Director of Equity and Inclusion Zeriah Folston said, “I’m in support of changing the name back — the new direction is the old direction. We haven’t changed. We’re not going to change. Discrimination is still against the law, and it’s something that the City of Gainesville takes very personally. We’ve never provided deferential or preferential treatment to anyone, and we don’t plan on doing that in the future.”

The motion passed 6-0, with Duncan-Walker absent.