Busing contract must be approved

By Harold Gwin

The business committee chairman said there is no attempt to bypass the commission.

YOUNGSTOWN — The chairman of the state fiscal oversight commission controlling city school district finances warned school officials that any transportation-management contract being considered must first be approved by the commission.

Roger Nehls, chairman of the Financial Planning and Supervision Commission, said he is aware the school board is looking at a proposal by Community Bus Services Inc. to provide management services for the district’s busing program, but how that contract will benefit the district financially isn’t apparent.

Details need to be explained to the commission before the board enters into any contract, he said.

“This commission needs to know and understand what the financial implications are,” he said, adding that he plans to meet with the superintendent and see a written copy of the CBS contract proposal.

The commission has been controlling district finances since Youngstown was placed under fiscal emergency by the state in November 2006 when the district began running a budget deficit.

School-board member Michael Murphy, chairman of the board’s business committee, which has been working on the transportation management issue, said there was never any intent to bypass the oversight commission.

The contract has to be resolved to the satisfaction of the business committee before it can be presented to the school board and the oversight commission, he said.

His committee has spent months trying to work out an acceptable agreement with CBS, but no contract would be ratified without prior approval by the commission, Murphy said.

The CBS proposal is guaranteeing the district a savings of $500,000 a year in busing costs. Youngstown is spending about $5 million this year for transportation services.

Nehls also asked why the management contract wasn’t put out for competitive bids as was done last year with the district’s special-needs busing program.

Youngstown did seek bids on that contract, but CBS, which had the service before, was the only bidder on a new three-year contact that lowered the district’s cost by about $350,000 a year to about $1.6 million.

Murphy said the transportation-management contract has become a competitive process.

The business committee is reviewing the CBS proposal, but the Western Reserve Transit Authority and the district’s own transportation employees, represented by the American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees union, both want to make a presentation to the committee on how they can reduce program costs, Murphy said.

Those presentations could come at Tuesday’s business committee meeting, he said.

gwin@vindy.com