Trumbull transit administrator says votes might end system

By Ed Runyan

runyan@vindy.com

NILES

The administrator for Trumbull County’s public transportation system said the four “abstain” votes cast this week by Trumbull Transit board members may be the decision that ends the system.

“That means come July 1, Terry Thomas’s contract is done. We’re done with transportation here,” Transit Administrator Mike Salamone said moments after the Thursday vote. Thomas is the president of Community Busing Services, the longtime ride provider for the system.

Salamone was expressing concern that there may not be time to follow the required process and get a ride provider in place when the current contract with Community Busing expires.

It was announced Friday afternoon that Trumbull commissioners and Salamone will meet at 2 p.m. Monday with Dean Harris, Western Reserve Transit Authority’s executive director, “for a general discussion regarding transportation.” The meeting will be in the commissioners’ hearing room on the fifth floor of the county administration building.

Salamone was trying Thursday to get the six board members to vote for rebidding the next contract for the ride provider, but only two did, Carl Clemens and Marlene Rhodes. The four others – Bob Faulkner, John Fowler, Marlin Palich and Lee Seiple – abstained, meaning the motion failed.

The vote came after the commissioners, who created Trumbull Transit when they took it over from Niles several years ago, wrote a letter this week to the board, asking it to rebid the contract. Community Busing was the only on-time bidder out of 22 companies receiving a bid package.

The commissioners were hoping to provide competition for Community Busing and also felt the Federal Transit Administration, which has oversight of Trumbull Transit because of federal funding Trumbull Transit gets, would object to aspects of the bidding process.

Salamone has said Community Busing’s bid was incomplete because it did not include certain safety information. The commissioners also said another process – input from a committee separate from the transit board – was missing.

Thursday’s meeting, which took place at the Trumbull County Educational Service Center, broke down into angry outbursts after the vote failed.

After the meeting, Faulker and Seiple both said they didn’t agree to rebid the contract because they felt the bidding process used just needs to be completed and that Communitiy Busing’s bid was “valid.”

Mark Hess, who has operated the transit system during most of its existence until health issues forced his retirement, said it takes a long time to learn how to run a transportation system, which was a luxury neither former county Administrator Rebecca Gerson or Salamone have had.

Hess said the FTA needs to see five qualified bidders in the process. “It just needs to go back out to bid,” Hess said.

Dan Keating, legal adviser to the transit board, agreed with Salamone, Hess and the commissioners that the contract needs to be rebid.