Alachua County Commission signals commitment to continuous transportation service for disabled individuals

BY JENNIFER CABRERA

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – At an October 7 Special Meeting, the Alachua County Commission asked MV Transportation to quickly provide cost estimates for providing paratransit and Transportation Disadvantaged service outside the city limits of Gainesville and signaled a commitment to continue to provide that service. They also decided to discuss new County Commission district maps at their October 14 meeting.

Growth Management Director Jeff Hays referred to a discussion at the October 6 Metropolitan Transportation Planning Organization (MTPO); at the meeting, Gainesville Mayor Harvey Ward said the City made the decision to bring transportation services for disabled individuals in-house when they set their FY2026 budget: “We were put into a situation where we had to make changes… We did not have an option financially about how to make this work… We think we can make this work for the entire Alachua County community.” 

At the MTPO meeting, County Commissioner Anna Prizzia countered Mayor Ward, “It sounds like, really, what it was about was saving jobs. It wasn’t necessarily about saving money. It was about saving the jobs for RTS,… which I think is a very admirable thing.” She said, however, that she was frustrated that there weren’t more conversations with the County before making the decision.

At the September 25 Gainesville General Policy Committee meeting, Ward specifically referred to saving “good union jobs”: “I believe that we can provide at least as good of service through good union drivers at RTS, in the city of Gainesville, as can be provided through a for-profit company… I would hope that there would be no concern about whether or not our good union drivers can continue to offer the same services they have offered thousands and thousands of people every day for many, many years.”

MV Transportation commits to providing service until RTS can cover the whole county

At the October 7 County Commission meeting, Hays said the Transportation Disadvantaged (TD) service is currently provided by MV Transportation throughout the county, but MV Transportation had said it would be “difficult or impossible to provide the service for residents [outside the Gainesville city limits]” if the City brought the service for city residents in-house. However, MV Transportation committed on October 6 to continuing to provide services between the time when the City brings the service in-house, currently projected for March 2026, and sometime in the fall of 2026, when the City estimates it will be able to serve the whole county. 

Commissioner Mary Alford said, “I just want to be able to look with a straight face at my constituents and say, ‘Yes, we are not going to be stranding you. You will be able to get to your appointments.'” 

Hays said, “We understand that’s the direction of this board, that we’re not going to have a gap in service.”

Trips are mostly for medical appointments and grocery shopping

Scott Koons, Executive Director of the North Central Florida Regional Planning Council, explained that the funding for the service comes from $1.50 paid with each vehicle registration and renewal in Florida, and those funds are allocated to the counties to provide transportation to disabled, elderly, and low-income individuals to get to life-sustaining activities. He said the “overwhelming majority” of those trips are for medical appointments, grocery shopping, “and similar trips.” Alachua County currently receives $525,000, and that goes to the designated Community Transportation Coordinator (CTC), which is currently MV Transportation; that designation runs through 2028, but “if MV Transportation and the County and City are not able to work out an arrangement where they are willing to continue to provide the service between March and October of next year, the State Commission would need to formally… designate a temporary or emergency Community Transportation Coordinator.” If that happens, the Regional Planning Council would need to designate a new CTC, and the City of Gainesville could take that on, “but not until October of 2026.”

Paratransit is a separate service that is required for any transit authority that operates a fixed-route system, such as Gainesville’s RTS bus system. That system must provide paratransit service to anyone within three-quarters of a mile of those fixed routes, regardless of whether they’re inside the city limits; this service is typically available to individuals who are disabled or low-income and can’t access the fixed-route system. The funding for that comes from multiple sources. 

MV Transportation: A recent study showed that insourcing costs 82% more than outsourcing

Randy Frantz from MV Transportation said, “Every credible insourcing study in the country arrives at the exact same conclusion: insourcing always costs more than outsourcing.” He said a study published last month by the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System found that insourcing the City’s paratransit system would cost 82% more than their current outsourced model. 

Frantz said the City of Gainesville “has been unable to produce third-party studies or any evidence that their effort will actually save money.” He said the City said insourcing would save $500,000 a year, but since they won’t take over the service until March, “half of the alleged… savings is already fiscally accounted for.” He said the City has said that insourcing will save 10 existing driver jobs and 20 vacant driver jobs, but MV Transportation currently serves the whole county with 20 drivers, so “that salary and benefit expense would rise by over $500,000 a year.”

MV Transportation: “We’re going to operate with integrity. It’s our mission to leave no one stranded.”

Frantz said MV Transportation offered the City a $213,000 price reduction in July, and the company recently proposed additional savings that would come from adjusting its service for ambulatory riders. He said MV Transportation’s proposal “would have allowed the City to achieve 100% of the budgetary savings it said it needed, without negatively impacting the paratransit service.” He said the City did not reject that offer until after the budget was passed. He concluded, “We’re going to operate with integrity. It’s our mission to leave no one stranded.” He said he would like to provide cost estimates at the County Commission’s next meeting.

City Manager Curry: “We never had the opportunity because we were never asked. At least, I was not.”

Gainesville City Manager Cynthia Curry said Frantz had never met with her office or with the Chief Operating Officer, who is also the incoming City Manager. She said she had met with a different representative from MV Transportation, and he had presented a plan to save $500,000 “about three weeks ago,… and it was short of the final budget hearing where the budget had been approved. So I just want to make that clear: we never had the opportunity because we were never asked. At least, I was not.” She said MV Transportation “may have met with the Transportation Department, and I’m sure they did… We understand the challenge ahead of the City in terms of providing this service… There’s a lot at stake here, but from a budgetary point, this is where the City has landed.”

County Commissioner Marihelen Wheeler asked whether it was too late to have those conversations, and Prizzia said, “He’s offering them the savings they require, so there shouldn’t be a budgetary impact.” 

Cornell: “What is our solution, and who is going to provide that?”

Commissioner Ken Cornell said, “As I understand it, it’s both a budgetary impact but also a personnel impact.” He said his biggest concern is communicating to the citizens what will happen after March 1: “What is our solution, and who is going to provide that?”

Alford said that, “as a former business owner,… ramping up too quickly is often a real cause of failure,… and I don’t want us to put our citizens in that situation. So I think it’s really important that we have a long-term plan with MV Transport and not commit too quickly to transfer it over to a City-provided service.” She said the County should “watch [the City’s] level of success and how they transition.”

Cornell said the paratransit change “accelerated” a future discussion about making RTS a true regional transit system, “transportation for the whole county.”

After public comment, Prizzia said she wanted to “make it clear to the public that we don’t get a say in whether the City decides to do their paratransit at this moment. So we can’t really determine that we don’t think their decision is a good one.” She said the County’s job is to ensure that the service continues for its residents, with efficient use of tax dollars: “I’m hopeful that MV can come forward with a reasonable proposal for us, so that we can move forward with them and we don’t have to pressure the City to move quicker with their transformation of their paratransit system… while we’re working on this option for our county residents.”

New County Commission district maps to be discussed on October 14

During Commission Comment, Prizzia asked when they were going to discuss the County Commission district maps that have been submitted, and Hays said any changes have to be made before November 20, so Prizzia made a motion to put them on next Tuesday’s agenda, and Cornell seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously.