“We are not responsible for meeting a need the County has”: Gainesville City Commission declines to reconsider bringing paratransit in-house
BY JENNIFER CABRERA
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – At today’s General Policy Committee meeting, the City Commission indicated that despite advocacy from the disabled community and a Chair letter from the Alachua County Commission, they intend to bring paratransit services in-house, possibly leaving those outside the city limits without transportation to medical appointments.
During Commission Comment at the end of the meeting, Commissioner Ed Book said he thought they “probably owe it to the County Commission to talk about… MV Transport,… and it’s got to be sooner rather than later.”
City Manager Cynthia Curry said her office had met with MV Transportation the previous day, and “it’s the first time that they’ve actually requested a meeting with the Manager’s office, with all that has been going on with the delivery of that service over the last — what, four or five months. The budget has been pretty much set and recommended to the Commission with that service being provided internally, utilizing our own internal staff at the Transportation Department.”
Curry said that if the Commission wanted to reopen the discussion, “it would require us to further adjust the General Fund budget, so I’m not quite sure where the Commission wants to take it, but for now, staff’s recommendation is that the service be delivered internally, using the staff from the Transportation Department.”
Book agreed that it’s “a difficult question, and I don’t want to be in a budget discussion [in September]. On the other hand, I do have some concerns about MV Transport; it’s such a critical service that has to be done on an absolute 100% level. So I don’t know — I’m really asking you, as my colleagues, what do you think about that? Should we [place it on an agenda]?”
Ward: “I believe that we can provide the service, and I also believe we are not responsible for meeting a need that the County has. We have said this a lot recently, but we have picked up the slack for other institutions locally for a long time, and we just can’t afford to keep picking up the slack for everybody else again.”
Mayor Harvey Ward said, “I have, number one, complete faith that RTS can meet the needs. I can tell you that I have been taken aback by the manner in which MV Transport approached this with us, and I continue to have concerns about that. Again, I believe that we can provide the service, and I also believe we are not responsible for meeting a need that the County has. We have said this a lot recently, but we have picked up the slack for other institutions locally for a long time, and we just can’t afford to keep picking up the slack for everybody else again.”
Ward continued, “Just personally, I will tell you,… if it comes down to supporting a business that we have done business with and keeping them afloat or keeping our own people, I’d rather keep our own people, and that really is the question before us now. That’s not on our agenda today, but I wish that folks had asked about all this, you know, months ago, knowing very well when our budgetary season is.”
Since MV Transportation has stated that it would not be cost-effective for the company to continue providing transportation for residents outside the city limits if it lost its contract with the City of Gainesville, Commissioner Casey Willits asked Book if he was concerned about the City’s relationship with the County or “the larger system” of coordinating transportation for those who rely on paratransit services.
Book: “I worry that the actions we have to take to deal with our specific budget and our specific service delivery will have a potentially negative impact to the greater community at large, which is also part of our community.”
Book said he wasn’t worried about the relationship with the County Commission, but “they’re going to have an issue that’s going to impact some of their residents that won’t impact our residents… This is a very complex delivery system,… and I worry that the actions we have to take to deal with our specific budget and our specific service delivery will have a potentially negative impact to the greater community at large, which is also part of our community.”
Chief Operating Officer Andrew Persons said it’s a budget discussion, both from the aspect of having to lay off employees due to UF’s cuts in RTS funding and the projected increase in MV Transportation’s contract, so if the Commission decided against bringing the services in-house, they would need to find additional funding to cover the increase in the MV Transportation contract. He said there might be a separate conversation at the MTPO level because MV Transportation currently provides CTC (Community Transportation Coordinator) service for the county and the TD (Transportation Disadvantaged) service, but that’s “irrespective of the City’s budget. We are where we are, you know, and I know you all know exactly how we got here.”
Book said there is “nervousness and anxiety from some of our vulnerable people and those that use that service.” He said he wasn’t concerned about whether City staff could provide the service, “it’s that we’ve got to be up and running on day one, and we have to do it at a really good level, because it impacts people who are really impacted.”
Persons said there would be a transition period, “but I am confident that we are taking steps to make sure that it’s as seamless as possible for those riders.”
Ward said the County asked to discuss the issue at the October MTPO (Metropolitan Transportation Planning Organization) meeting, and Book decided against making a motion.
Let’s be honest the MV transport scam was built on connections with the city, it was never meant to be a real business without city contracts.
The golden goose has stopped laying your eggs MV, this creates jobs for citizens that now have to pass through the cities rigorous guidelines for employment at RTS(hihi) and not some janky company and their practices.
There is no scam from MV Transportation; this company has been the Community Transportation Coordinator for Alachua County for more than 20 years; providing the service of ADA and in Alachua County for the elderly and disable. They have an outstanding safety program as well as proper training for their drivers to effectively transport the elderly, persons with disabilities and in dialysis. My father was on dialysis for five years and he lived in High Springs, if it wasn’t for MV my father wouldn’t have had a way to get to his dialysis treatments. The drivers were great with my father and always took good care of him. If RTS takes in house the ADA paratransit, thousands of trips will be stranded in Alachua County, most of them are dialysis and medical. If the City doesn’t care about that and just wants to save 15 jobs and have thousands of medical trips stranded to save 15 jobs???! Now, that doesn’t make sense. They cannot act like is the County’s problem, Gainesville is part of Alachua County and they need to work together and help each other. If RTS takes the ADA work in house and passengers from dialysis are left without transportation in the rural area of Alachua County, then people are going to die from not getting their dialysis treatment and their blood will be on the City’s hands.
Dialysis the great American scam.
It would be small town rural folks still being taken advantage of with this.
Our entire health care system is the great American scam…from cradle to grave
Uber and Lyft offer transportation services.
That’s fine if you can easily get in and out of a vehicle, but if you have a mobility device or service animal…good luck! Not to mention, there is no screening process for the Uber/Lyft drivers or safety training. they barely check your insurance or car condition. At least other states require a vehicle inspection.
You know nothing about MV…what’s janky is you hiding behind the name common sense. The employees at MV are city and county residents who go though state federal and local guidelines to achieve employment with a company who transports clients to medically necessary appointments to maintain a “normal” way of life. Secondly MV Transportation has never been a scam, it has been a transportation company that provides transportation for individuals who would otherwise not have access to medical needs, employment opportunities and grocery access. The senior and special needs community are over looked and pushed aside to much in our society, these individual are the roots and foundation for many of your city residents and they need to be respected and protected to the best of OUR ability as a community, a city, a state, and as a nation who preaches “United We Stand”……Now that’s common sense…!!!
It’s a scam because the entire business model was built on one thing government contracts, plus y’all be doing more than just transport.
Also the leaders never had the foresight to plan for and expand the business so that if this day ever came they could survive.
It’s just karma and trust me y’all not the only ones, it’s a lot more correction on the way when it comes to Gainesville.
Excuse me “common sense” who are you? Have you ever spent a day inside the offices of MV Transportation to be talking about what MV does or doesn’t do? What do you mean by “y’all be doing more than transport” – yes, MV does more than transport, many of the employees at MV DO CARE about the coworkers and the passengers. You are talking all this negative rhetoric about MV, makes me wonder if you are a former employee that is frustrated or simply a complete ignorant that doesn’t have a clue what you are talking about. Tell
Me do you handle the contracts at MV in Gainesville, I don’t think so, do you do the Accounting at MV’s division, I don’t think so. Have you even been inside MV’s division ever? If you have never been in MV or know who handles the Accounting for example or who handles the Safety department; then you don’t even know what you are talking about. Too much talking and no evidence baby.
Focus on your next employment opportunity this one is a wrap.
It’s football season again maybe y’all can work a concession booth.
Hey “common sense”, I have news for you – you are a human being not God! If God says that MV stays, there is nothing you can say or do to stop it. God Almighty has all the power and what He says is what will happen. No matter what you type here, God is the one that will have the last word not you; and I don’t care if you believe it or not because I know that God is real and powerful and His Will, will prevail. Amen.
I forgot to mention this earlier, but what started this whole thing?
MV tried to ask for more money when they didn’t really need it, because Management was trying to increase their own pay.
Had y’all not gotten greedy you might still be in the game, now you on the bench.
Here we go again, “Common sense” you don’t make any sense. You are very wrong, MV was paying his drivers $11.00 an hour and then the pandemic came making it hard to find drivers; then Amazon came to Gainesville and started paying $18 to drivers so yes MV had to be competitive, the drivers were leaving to go to Amazon and FedEx. The city of Gainesville is the one that required that MV will pay $15 or more to the drivers in the contract; bet you don’t know this because you don’t even work at MV! So, the City is the one responsible for the increase they asked the ADA contract to be out for bid and they requested the pay to be $15 or more so of course you will have an increase in rates, how the Hell you think you are going to charge the same old rate and pay much more to the drivers, now that doesn’t make sense “common sense”. If the city requested more pay to the drivers of course the rates are going to increase, that’s common sense. I really wish to know who the Hell you are so we can have a one in one conversation and see how
Much you really know about MV. You sound like you are in “wee land” “common sense”…
Wasn’t there an article on here about MV wanting more money? At a city or county commission meeting and that’s what triggered this entire thing ?
Really I could care less, y’all are trash because you do more than just transport and some of your employees know exactly what I mean, it’s karma and God don’t save workers of iniquity, he hates them.
That’s so not true “common sense”; you are such a liar MV never asked for more money and no that’s not what triggered this “entire thing”. What triggered the “entire thing” was the City Manager that came up with the idea of insourcing due to the cuts RTS received from UF. UF cut $million from RTS; that’s what triggered the “entire thing” and you need to read the Bible because you obviously don’t know it. God is Live and Consuming Fire but God doesn’t hate the employees at MV. You better be very careful, there are employees at MV that are real Christians and you are generalizing. Be very careful because God has the power to punish you if you are unfair. And by calling everyone trash you are in sin already because the Bible says love your neighbor like yourself and you are not doing that. You have malicious desires for the MV employees and that is not what God teaches in the Bible. Start looking for God, fixing you life with Him and if you have a grudge with someone at MV forgive that person. That’s what God teaches in the Bible. I really wish I can meet you in person to see who you are and to tell you face to face.
County has plenty of money. Not the city’s responsibility, for once they made a decision within their boundaries. Alachua County wouldn’t fix roads until they passed an infrastructure surtax. Look up their financials they have plenty of cash
But we can bilk the customers of our utility with no other choice and no say in it’s governance for more than enough to cover any perceived costs to teh City.
The county commissioners really need to publicly address the upcoming GRU ballot initiative. I do not see how they can possibly be in support of it considering the sheer number of non-city constituents on GRU that they represent.
Maybe one day our representatives will actually represent us and not some vague political agenda that the commissioners hold in common
Let’s not help the county! Let’s just steal money from the city residents, businesses, trash cans, and county residents. Did I forget any other disrespect or theft?
MV transportation does a phenomenal job. There is no way RTS will ever preform the way MV transportation does! MV transportation is compassionate about their clients!!
The city has been trying to be secretive the whole time and go behind everyone’s back and not let MV transportation know what was going on until it was to late. The board is telling lies!
MV transportation does a phenomenal job. There is no way RTS will ever preform the way MV transportation does! MV transportation is compassionate about their clients!! MV Transportation is safety driven not money driven!!
Let’s not forget about how many employees at MV that will loose their job, but they don’t care they only want to save union jobs!
What about the livelihood of MV employees and the livelihood of these clients getting to their appointments???
The city has no compassion for anyone but themselves and their pockets!!!
The City mayor, the city manager and the commissioners are all a bunch liars! They need to speak the truth!!
“We are not responsible for meeting a need the County has”
Well I hope our county responds in kind when the GCC comes begging for money like they did with Grace. No more!
Ward, “We have picked up the slack for other institutions locally for a long time, and we just can’t afford to keep picking up the slack for everybody else again.”
🫣 Did that idiot really have the nerve, notice I didn’t say balls, to say that? 😲…🤣😭😂
People who voted for that idiot have proven once again, their intelligence has been way overrated. Longer than the City has picking up the slack. Dummies.
Upon further consideration…
If Ward was truthful and not a liar, he would have said, “We’re not responsible.”
They’re not responsible for their misuse of our tax dollars, GRU profits, or any other funding that comes their way. However, they are responsible for the increased homeless population, high taxes, filth and trash around Gainesville.
Question is, when are the liberal voters going to hold him and those others accountable?
Geeze. I just messed that comment all up. Ward should have said, “We are responsible for the misuse of tax dollars, GRU profits and other funds that come our way. We’re also responsible for the increased homeless population, high taxes, and trash around Gainesville.”
I need a good editor.😉
The people who voted for them also share some responsibility.
““We are not responsible for meeting a need the County has”: Gainesville City Commission.”
OK….fair is fair….so if your’e not responsible for county matters then stop stealing county residents GRUs $$$!
MV Transportation has been the Community Transportation Coordinator for Alachua County for more than 20 years; providing the service of ADA and in Alachua County for the elderly and disable. They have an outstanding safety program as well as proper training for their drivers to effectively transport the elderly, persons with disabilities and in dialysis. My father was on dialysis for five years and he lived in High Springs, if it wasn’t for MV my father wouldn’t have had a way to get to his dialysis treatments. The drivers were great with my father and always took good care of him. If RTS takes in house the ADA paratransit, thousands of trips will be stranded in Alachua County, most of them are dialysis and medical. If the City doesn’t care about that and just wants to save 15 jobs and have thousands of medical trips stranded to save 15 jobs???! Now, that doesn’t make sense. They cannot act like is the County’s problem, Gainesville is part of Alachua County and they need to work together and help each other. If RTS takes the ADA work in house and passengers from dialysis are left without transportation in the rural area of Alachua County, then people are going to die from not getting their dialysis treatment and their blood will be on the City’s hands.
The Lord rebuke you Mayor Ward, you said: “I believe that we can provide the service, and I also believe we are not responsible for meeting a need that the County has” – what a shame, so you care more for the jobs of 15 drivers than the lives of hundreds of dialysis patients that live in Alachua County and will be left without transportation if RTS insources the paratransit work. That is so selfish, to think that way, in other words “if you live in the county and not the city, the heck with you, and the heck if you die from not having the treatment you need! that’ not wise at all; you should humble yourself, admit that this is a drastic move and reconsider, what is more important the jobs of 15 persons that can find jobs elsewhere or the lives of hundreds if not thousands of persons that need dialysis and medical treatment in Alachua County. lets put priorities first and in a wise manner. Everything cannot be about the budget and money; what about compassion, mercy, love and care. Honestly, it looks to me like some of the city commissioners don’t have that and they are more worried about themselves and their own beliefs than the well-being of the community. God will have the last word on this!! Nothing is impossible for God!
They forgot two important things; the “R” in RTS stands for Regional not rain-boy. Also, the County contributes dollars to extend city centric routes to parts of the unincorporated area, maybe such a concept could be considered here, if only there was a willingness to listen and work together. Thanks Mayor and the others for sticking your fingers in the air at the County. Such childish stupid pranks.
What is going on with the City Commissioners and the Mayor? Are they that cruel and careless that they do not care about anyone but themselves? How can you say it is the County problem and not the city? Gainesville is part of Alachua County!!! Mayor Ward, wake up, the voters that voted for you are telling you, YOU NEED TO CARE!! YOU NEED TO LISTEN TO THE COMMUNITY!! I was reading the article and couldn’t believe that they care more about some city employees not “loosing their jobs” than the seniors, the ill and people with disabilities – what is the matter, don’t you see that MV is providing a great service and covering the rides for people in Alachua County and covering their needs. If it ain’t broken don’t try to fix it!! If RTS takes over, it will be a FIASCO! They do not care, they do not have the compassion needed for persons that are disable, that have Alzheimer’s, that are ill, etc. Is not just about transporting, is about caring, is about wanting to do what is right, is about safety – can you imagine how many lawsuits RTS will have with the way many of their drivers drive and the lack of training on properly dealing with persons that are disable. Good luck Mayor Ward and City Commissioners, be ready for not being elected again by the same community that you are not listening to. Incredible how they are trying to do all of this in secrecy and not giving details to the public just to satisfy their ego and what they desire not the community’s desire.
Interesting that the city has apparently unlimited funding for shady criminal enterprises like GRACE Marketplace and Block by Block that serve homeless drug addicts, thieves, and murderers, but no charity to spare for dialysis patients.
Shows you where Harvey Ward’s priorities lie.
We live IN THE CITY and MV wont even do their jobs here. MV is a house of lying crooks who will do and say anything they can to not service disabled customers on the regular. I have 0 sympathy for anybody in MV management who would get tossed to the curb should the service transition.
You don’t sound like a blind gal, how did you typed this if you are blind??? There are lots of people at MV that they do care; MV services hundreds of passengers in Gainesville and Alachua County. You must be a former employee that got fired for not doing your job well or a pissed passenger that couldn’t get her way because she thinks MV is a taxi service just for her. Besides, do you actually know all of the Management team at MV to say that you do not care; I don’t think so – I used to work at MV and i can tell you about several members of Management that are wonderful and care for the employees and passengers genuinely.
Wow, that is an extremely rude and ignorant comment! Blind people use computers ALL THE TIME. Screen readers have been built into computers for decades. Many blind people know how to touch type, and speech-to-text options also exist.
So, the comment was like, “I obviously know nothing about blind people, and based on my ignorant guesses you are lying about being blind.”
I knew zero about MV transportation before reading about this, but the beginning of this comment means I don’t trust one word of the rest of it.
It would be great if this article or the discussion had some dollar amounts involved. Fact: UF has slashed its contribution to county transportation. (By how much?) Fact: GRU is providing a less money to the City of Gainesville, which owns the GRU infrastructure (as I understand it), and the amounts that will come in the future are uncertain. (How much less money?) Fact: People outside of Gainesville use GRU and pay it money, and that’s part of long-simmering tensions. (What share of GRU money and service is that?) Fact: The MV transportation contracts are not free. (How much do they cost?) Fact: People with disabilities outside the city would have to take on greater costs, both in transport costs and other logistics, to replace current service. (How much would that cost? Almost certainly much more than the contract.)
If anyone who likes the new unelected GRU Authority has any sway with them, maybe ask if they’d cover these transportation contracts. And/or ask the county what it can contribute.
You took my comment completely out of context; let me make myself clear I love and respect VI (blind) persons and I do know they are capable of doing anything they want because they are fighters and I love that. I wrote that to “blind gal” because I really do believe she is not blind and is using that title to disguise herself to make her comment. I want to clarify that I live and respect people with disabilities.
You all never even took into consideration of MV staying in the picture. You all had your minds made up from the beginning. Should have just been honest from the beginning. RTS was insourcing door to door all along. Clients do not deserve to be blind sided neither does MV transportation.
This whole ordeal has been trying to done sneaky but word gets around.
Talk about wanting to save jobs but what about all the employees at MV transportation? They don’t matter because they are not union??
Their livelihood matters.These people have families, bills, and lives just like y’all do. But all y’all think you are doing is saving some pennies.
These poor clients in rural areas will not get door to door services because MV will no longer be around. The people in the city sure will not get the same services they get now. These clients will NEVER get the same quality of care I can assure you of that. MV is compassionate with their clients, not just dollar signs. They go above and beyond for their clients. Let’s see how RTS handles this.
These clients stand up worried about their services and they just get brushed off. Very rude. Just say it’s about the computer system to run the door to door system. Tell them up front yes RTS is going to take over door to door services and people in the county limits are screwed. Tell MV they want have a job. Is it HARD to just HONEST for once.
No, going to wait to the very last minute and make all these people panic and stress.
This board is a circus show.
Wasting money elsewhere…..
Let’s not even get started on the poor police department. They need HELP!!!
Gainesville crime rate is HORRIBLE!!! Protect the people!!
How about each one of y’all stand up and offer MV transportation jobs pay at where they are at or a severance pay being they will be loosing their jobs because of y’all. Y’all should be doing something for these people. Being y’all are for the people.
See nothing but greed…….Every time I watch these meetings! Bunch of criminals sitting up there!!
Get ready for the biggest backlash once RTS takes over. Your phones will be ringing off the hook. These clients will NOT be happy!!!
So I am curious, If the city was so concerned about about budget costs and protecting jobs, they would have planned this better from the start. I believe they would have had to review the contract terms with MV at the signing of it, not 2 years prior to termination. As for the blatant rejection of responsibility for the county clients, where do you think they go to see said doctors and dialysis and chemo? there is only 1 dialysis unit in county, the remainder are all in the city. This is income for all of these businesses, which assists in the in the city economy as well. If a county client could later prove in court that this decision by the city’s insourcing caused harm to them at a later date that could result in lawsuit, not to mention the eventual lawsuits from injured clients due to a lack of safety training at RTS. MV can pool their collective resources as a nationwide company and learn from their mistakes and successes to assist in better practices for the clients. RTS just rolls with their own financial mess, kisses up to UF and hopes for the best. Instead of making a smaller service area and insourcing to exclude the county residents, how about expanding to cover the county to the surrounding communities with your busses and keep the paratransit to the professionals!
A concise definition of terms is requested such as “paratransit”. The topic interests many so l suggest the next “essay” on the subject use an outline format: a. b, c etc Explain, if possible, why the MV Transport is NOT a scam as a reader claims
So you can have some knowledge.
The only increase MV ever received in pay was because of the city’s mandate of City employees must be paid $15 a hour including any contractor that provided service to the city and that did NOT include or increase management pay! So do your research!!
MV has NEVER went to the City demanding money! Any money MV has ever received has been built into the contract!
If MV transportation is so bad why are they ran throughout the whole country?
If MV transportation is so bad why have they been involved in running the transportation for the city Gainesville and the county of Alachua for 22 years?
I do NOT understand how you can take something that is running awesome and even in public meetings it has been said MV runs a great service! That it has nothing to do with service it has to do with saving city jobs! That’s what I do NOT understand!! So it’s more important to take away residents employment that pays taxes which goes towards paying for city employees! Do you not understand the city employees are paid by the residents of the city Gainesville?
At Common Sense:
MV has never went and asked for money this is not how the whole thing started!
The whole thing started because of the city manager being sneaky 😈 trying to go behind MV transportations back and do this without their knowledge but word gets out! So MV transportation expressed how this would impact the city and the county and the mayor himself said well the county is responsible for the residents in the county!
Not for the people of the community or their needs! Just his greedy pockets!
I don’t know who you have beef with at MV transportation but don’t take it on all of them! They are a great organization and do great deeds for our community! They help through crisis situations, get us to our dialysis appointments early in the morning when RTS is not even running at that hour. RTS can’t even run a bus route on a normal schedule without an 90 minute wait or more. We can not depend on them for treatment!
Please if someone is doing something illegal contact the office and let them know! They will investigate!
Mayor Ward you act like MV Transportation just slept with your wife or something the way you keep targeting them. Get on your plane and fly away, no one likes you. You DO NOT know how to run a city.
City manager you are just pissed because MV transportation knows how to manage fiances better than you apparently. You hide behind a desk and behind your phone, but never actually handle your own battles. You give them to others to handle.
All of y’all up there just sit up there are like a bunch of puppets with someone elses hands up your rears telling you what to say.
Do none of y’all understand the problems YOU ALL are creating??
1. The people in the county will not be able to get transportation to dialysis, cancer treatment, medical appointments, pharmancy, grocery shopping, & etc.
2. What happens when severe storms comes to the people that live in the county? Who will transport them to the shelters?
3. OH, I FORGOT! THE MAYOR DOES NOT CARE!!! IT’S THE COUNTY’S PROBLEM!!!!!
As a client of MV transportation, I believe the mayor, the city manager, and all the county commissioners are making a huge mistake insourcing transportation. RTS does not take care of their passengers the way MV does. RTS does not have compassion for their passengers the way MV does. RTS does not have saftey the way MV does. RTS will not come out to the county and pick us up, like MV will. RTS will not guarantee are chair times like MV does. RTS will not guarantee us shelter like MV does. RTS will not show us the compassionate care the way MV does.
WE AS CLIENT’S LISTEN TO THESE RIDICULOUS SO CALL MEETINGS AND CLEARLY HEARD YOU MAYOR SAY WE THE PEOPLE IN THE COUNTY ARE NOT YOUR PROBLEM WE ARE THE COUNTY’S PROBLEM. That was rude as hell of you. Like we do not matter at all. Our health does not matter. SHAME ON YOU!!!!! You should be ashamed of yourself.
Do none of you understand how this affects us?