Tag: MATA board of commissioners

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City Council Replaces Entire MATA Board

Photo: Justin Fox Burks

All members of the Memphis Area Transit Authority’s(MATA) board of commissioners have been replaced following the recommendation of a consulting firm.

Mayor Paul Young announced Friday he was starting a “clean slate” on MATA’s leadership after a draft report from the consulting agency TransPro was released. TransPro said the previous board failed to “provide reasonable oversight.”

The previous board consisted of Michael Fulton, Angus Blair, Sara Burnett, Janice Holder, Anton Mack, Ed Stephens III, Shelia Williams, Martin Lipinski, and Courtney McNeal. It will be replaced with Brandon Arrindale, Cynthia Bailey, Emily Greer, Sandi Klink, Brian Marflak, Jackson McNeil, Anna McQuiston, Dana Pointer, and Maya Siggers.

Young told the council that replacing the board is an “aggressive action” and showed that this is not indicative of one person. His replacements include bus advocates, logistic, financial and legal experts, and more.

“[The MATA Board] has served nobly over the years and this is not an indication of them or their integrity,” Young said. “This is a hard reset.”

TransPro reviewed MATA from August 19 to October 11. During that time the board had passed a budget that not only included service cuts, but prompted the layoff of more than 200 employees. Board members said these cuts were made to ensure the viability of the agency, as officials had announced a $60 million deficit this summer.

During Tuesday’s council meeting, Young said they wanted an external analysis on how they were doing on an operational level, which is why they turned to TransPro.

“[The] existing MATA board fails to provide reasonable oversight,” the report said. “Just a month ago the MATA board unanimously adopted a budget with no questions…for a fiscal year that started more than 100 days prior.”

Councilwoman Jerri Green called the report “nothing short of scathing.”

“It talked specifically about how the board failed over and over again in finances,” Green said. 

John Lewis, principal at TransPro, said public transportation’s purpose is to give the community reliable service, and MATA has failed to do so. Lewis said the company has worked with the agency previously, however MATA failed to address their recommendations. As a result, TransPro “severed their agreement.”

“We find ourselves not surprised [by] the situation the agency finds itself in at this moment,” Lewis said.

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MATA Board To Be Replaced Following Transit Report

Photo: Justin Fox Burks

Memphis Mayor Paul Young is looking to start a “clean slate” in city transit by replacing all members of the Memphis Area Transit Authority’s (MATA) board of commissioners.

Young made the announcement Friday evening following the release of a TransPro draft report which comes after months of turmoil for the agency.

The mayor is looking to replace the current board with the following members:

Brandon Arrindale

Cynthia Bailey

Emily Greer 

Sandi Klink

Brian Marflak

Jackson McNeil

Anna McQuiston 

Dana Pointer

Maya Siggers

“This move is more about creating a clean-slate environment,” Young said. “After months of analysis, we received Transpro’s initial draft report today, which clearly spells out the challenges facing our transit system and the need to move with expediency.

“We believe the reset will help us to move more quickly toward our goal of creating a system that better connects our residents with jobs, healthcare, and essential services.” 

TransPro, a transportation consulting business, conducted their analysis from August 19 to October 11. During this time the board had passed a budget that not only included service cuts, but prompted the layoff of more than 200 employees. Board members said these cuts were made to ensure the viability of the agency, as officials had announced a $60 million deficit this summer.

“Existing MATA board fails to provide reasonable oversight,” the report said. “Just a month ago the MATA board unanimously adopted a budget with no questions…for a fiscal year that started more than 100 days prior.”

MATA’s board has been criticized by not only bus riders and community advocates, but city leaders as well. During a September Memphis City Council meeting, Council member Yolanda Cooper-Sutton condemned the board for not speaking up about a problem that had been 10 years in the making. 

“No one knew there was a deficiency coming down the pipeline? No one?” Cooper-Sutton said. “I’m going to tell you what my spirit is discerning — someone is lying and not telling the truth. You’re not going to tell me that the educated board with all those alphabets behind their name that no one knew and saw this coming for 10 years? It’s unbelievable.”

The analysis notes that public transportation has its share of financial challenges. MATA officials have continuously made note of this citing lack of funding contributing to their budget woes. However, TransPro said MATAs challenges “are further amplified by a lack of focus on the daily needs of customers, poor financial management and oversight, and the pursuit of major projects that are straining the limited staff and fiscal resources of the authority.”

The organization found only 26 percent of the community believed in the agency’s ability to efficiently handle public funds. In order to gain the public’s trust regarding management of funds, they recommend the entire board be replaced.

“The MATA board as currently constituted should be replaced with new members who will take seriously their responsibility to act as the policy and oversight entity of the agency,” the report said. “New board members should be trained on the expectations and responsibilities that membership on this board entails.

“Furthermore, performance metrics should be established on the operations, finances, and customer satisfaction of the agency for the leadership team to be held accountable to and provide true transparency to the community.” 

TransPro’s 117-page recommendation thoroughly summarizes recommendations for the agency, analyzes bus usage and ridership, and on-time performance amongst other things. They said a comprehensive financial review “is currently underway.”

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Public Still Unhappy With MATA’s Transparency After Public Meeting

Photo: Justin Fox Burks

While the city of Memphis has allocated $30 million to Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA) for fiscal year 2025 (FY25), questions remain regarding the organization’s $60 million deficit.

During the June 2024 MATA Board of Commissioner meeting on Wednesday, several members of the public expressed their concern for the deficit. Prior to the meeting, organizations such as Citizens for Better Service and Memphis Bus Riders Union said they were unhappy with the organization’s previous ways of addressing the issue.

“MATA owes the city of Memphis, especially bus riders, an explanation of how it is going to solve the deficit without hurting bus riders,” Johnnie Mosley, founding chairman of Citizens for Better Service, said.

These comments came after MATA administration presented their budget proposal earlier this month to the Memphis City Council for consideration.

During the meeting, the transportation agency did not directly address the deficit. Instead, MATA said they were committed to increasing revenue and “refining [their] process of spending.” At the board meeting, MATA interim CEO Bacarra Mauldin said the council would be “more involved” with all organizations and agencies receiving money from the city. 

Mauldin also said, with the city being their primary funding source, they want to make sure they are being as “transparent” as possible.

Shelby County government has allocated $1.2 million towards MATA for FY25, which Mauldin said is “consistent with where they’ve been for the past few years.” She noted that while it may seem like a small amount, their consideration in the budget means there is still the “opportunity to move forward.”

As the city has wrapped up its budget season, Mauldin said she is focused on building relationships with county commissioners and administration to procure a “higher level of funding” in the future.

“We know that the money that we have from the city of Memphis as well as Shelby County will not plug the entire hole,” Mauldin said. “We’re going to continue to work with those funding partners, but in addition we’re going to look into some other ways to get funding to close that gap. Most importantly, we’re going to look in the mirror and we’re going to tighten our own belts, and we’re going to spend smarter on the right things at the right time.”

She added that they are putting safeguards in place in order to ensure they’re being “good stewards of all the taxpayer’s money.”

Hamish Davidson of J.S. Held LLC has been retained by the organization as an external CFO and presented on “financial controls” during the board meeting. Davidson remarked that finance is “an area where if you don’t have the proper controls then your finance department can leak like a sieve.” To prevent this, Davidson said they are working to “spend smarter” and make sure they know where every dollar is spent.

Davidson said they currently have an understanding of MATA’s “historical processes and procedures” as well as their accounting systems. They also have gained the trust of employees.

However, he said they still need to identify their risk profiles and “current and future state of their budget and headcount,” and “determine the appropriate controls, reporting, and policies necessary.”

“A lot of these processes need to be updated,” Davidson said. “They’re totally out of date and more importantly they also need to be followed to the letter.”

Davidson said when he was retained in February, he thought they would be “long finished” by now in addressing these things, but he said it’s been put on the back burner due to more “pressing issues” related to MATA’s financials such as preparing the budget for FY25.

He said over the next few weeks they could create a timetable to present to MATA’s Board of Commissioners.

Close to the end of the meeting, the board opened the floor for public comment. They noted that this portion was for receiving comments and that they would not engage in a “spirited debate.”

Some participants made comments about bad service from both the agency and bus drivers; however, most complaints were about the agency’s finances.

Joe Kent of the Taxpayer Justice Institute criticized the agency for saying they lead with transparency when he said they are “anything but transparent.”

“If you want to collaborate with the public you need to answer questions,” Kent said. “How are you operating with a negative $10.1 million in cash? I just don’t understand that.”

Another participant suggested that the organization was “being investigated and some indictments were coming down.”

The board said that while they were not going to go back and forth with participants, they would follow up with them individually.