Sarasota News Leader

02/28/2014

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"I have to voice some disappointment," Sarasota County board Vice Chairwoman Christine Robinson said Friday. "We had a meeting scheduled. They canceled the meet- ing … We asked them to continue to meet. And now we are in a position where we had made a decision to make a joint effort, and we can't even talk to them about it at a joint meet- ing because they canceled it. A joint meeting would have been a good way for us as policy- makers to understand what positions we are both in." Robinson added, "I'm not understanding who is driving the ship on this one right now." Actually, it is a bus, Commissioner Joe Barbetta joked. The Manatee County board has expressed a desire for hiring a single contractor to run the two separate agencies. It does not want to merge the systems because that would entail trying to keep straight who owns which buses and how to maintain federal fund- ing assistance. "They want to proceed with privatizing theirs, and we can come with them if we want to," Chairman Charles Hines summed it up. Under that plan, SCAT could lease its buses to a contractor for $1 a day in exchange for having the firm operate the vehicles. Commissioners wanted to find out if that plan would reduce costs. An aerial view shows the proposed location of the new county bus transfer station near the county Health Department. Image courtesy Sarasota County Sarasota News Leader February 28, 2014 Page 17

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