Suwannee Valley Transit Authority (SVTA): Governing Bd Meets in Locked Building. Safety Issues Kept Under Lock and Key
Posted November 6, 2013 08:25 am | updated 09:04 am
SVTA parking lot. Vendors claim they are not being paid
enough to maintain their vehicles.
SUWANNEE COUNTY, FL – The Suwannee Valley Transit Authority (SVTA) Governing Board is comprised of two county commissioners from each of Columbia, Hamilton, and Suwannee counties. The SVTA is the tri county Medicaid and Transportation Disadvantaged provider, transporting those who qualify to medical appointments. The competency of the present management of the SVTA has been an ongoing contentious issue since 2011. At 6pm on Monday the Governing Board met for a special meeting. Nowhere was the meeting announced as a special meeting. Notices were not posted in plain sight. The meeting was held in a locked building.
Controversy is nothing new to the Suwannee Valley Transit Authority. Besides being challenged by the Sunshine Law, it has been challenged by Florida's public records laws. This North Central Florida agency is totally funded by tax payer dollars.
The SVTA Bd considers this adequate public notice for a
special meeting.
+++ Click to enlarge
It appears that sometime in the past a special meeting was called for Monday night. No agendas were made available to the public for this meeting. It is unclear who called the meeting.
Ralph Kitchens, a Local Transportation Disadvantaged Board member, found out about the meeting and attended. He told the Observer, "The topic of the meeting was non compliance with safety issues between the private transportation providers and the SVTA."
Mr. Kitchens continued, "The private providers complained that the SVTA wasn't paying them enough money to maintain their vehicles."
Mr. Kitchen, who spent 20 years in the trucking industry concluded, "Safety should always be number one. If this is true, this is a major problem."
The Observer emailed the following questions to SVTA Operations Director, Bill Steele; Columbia County Commissioners Bucky Nash and Ronald Williams, and to Suwannee County Commissioner Phil Oxendine. These three Commissioners sit on the SVTA Governing Board.
If you sent out notices to the media, please forward. I saw the notice in the
community calendar of the LCR. Do you feel that is where
public notices of special SVTA meetings should be
announced?
Did the LCR leave out the fact that
this was a special meeting, or did you not notify them
of this fact?
The doors of this meeting were
locked. Would you please explain how a meeting can be
public in a locked building?
Who at the SVTA is responsible for
contacting the media?
I have a copy of an email from Com.
Nash directing that the Observer be advised of the SVTA
meetings. I did not get notice of this meeting. Why?
Was the NCFRPC notified of this
meeting? Do you think it important that the Planning
Council know what is going on at the SVTA?
Was Alana Mckay notified? Do you
think ACHA, the funding agency, should be aware of your
meetings?
Considering the recent friction
between the SVTA and many other parties, do you think
the CTD should have been advised of this special
meeting?
If you have an agenda for this
special meeting, please forward.
After the
article was published to the web, the Observer received
an email response from the SVTA Director, Gwen Pra. That response is here.
An email was also received from the NCFRPC, which said,
"We did not receive notice of this meeting."
Only Columbia County Commissioner Bucky Nash responded. He told the Observer that the notice issues were going to be addressed at the next SVTA Governing Board meeting.
Sandra Buckcamp, another Local Transportation Disadvantaged Board member had arranged to drive to the meeting with Mr. Kitchens. That plan didn't work and Ms. Buckcamp drove herself and arrived after the meeting had begun. Ms. Buckcamp told the Observer, "I got there ten after six. The doors were locked. No notice was posted on the door of the Boardroom. I drove 50 miles roundtrip to attend."
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