Getting ECAT on Track Part II: This is What Might Prevent The County from Taking ECAT in-House.....

The transit union and Escambia County are now playing a high-stakes game of Chicken.  If nobody blinks then ECAT riders lose....

So with all the recent drama surrounding ECAT ---and the future of mass transit in Escambia County seemingly on the brink—I was hopeful after our last meeting on the subject that the Board could look seriously at bargaining with the drivers in an attempt to get a realistic work agreement with them which could lead  us, possibly, to bringing them back in-house.  

After all, the agreement we have with First Transit is ridiculous…..They get their payment and overhead and fees, they are “made whole” –then THEY get to go and bargain with the union (and the County has no say in these negotiations, thank you very much)—and then the County foots the bill for whatever gets negotiated.  We pick up the tab, the union and drivers win, First Transit wins, and the taxpayers who expect fiscal responsibility lose...  

Ridiculous, right?  

That’s what I said at the meeting and right here on this blog.  There would have to be lots of concessions from the drivers on overtime, holiday pay, the pay scale and how quickly new hires reach the top of it, health insurance subsidies, etc. etc.  There would have to be some significant changes before this Commissioner, Jeff Bergosh, would ever vote to bring these drivers in house.  But after the last meeting, and after discussions about getting a better collective bargaining agreement were had—I felt somewhat confident that we could at least start the process.

But then came this letter from the Union’s Lawyer.  No dice.  Union protections will remain no matter what, end of discussion.

Along with the letter came a lot of history that explains the strange nature of this evolved agreement that all but assures that the county MUST have a third party run transit locally.

You can read it all here— and I encourage you to because it is enlightening---but here’s the cliff notes:

Any company that wins the bid to run our transit system (we only had one respond in the last RFP we put out)—or even the County if we chose to bring the operation in house—is required to honor this 30-year old agreement which has tremendously onerous provisions that are much too favorable to union members (my opinion).  That’s right—no employee of the transit system “shall suffer any worsening of his

Angry ECAT Drivers say "FDU!"

ECAT bus operators began circulating flyers to the transit passengers on their buses today.

The message is pretty straightforward:    FDU!

But what does FDU mean?  According to the flyer, below, this means "Fight Doug Underhill!"

 



The drivers are more than likely reacting to a very long and protracted discussion last Tuesday evening where the BCC discussed the ECAT contract renewal. 

The discussion was focused and all of the commissioners expressed significant concern with the inefficiency and excessive costs of this transit operation.  We voted to send the ECCT service back to the state, and we kicked the can on taking any official action on the First Transit contract for the fixed route service.

Commissioner Underhill did mention some specific issues with ECAT that troubled him greatly----but so did the rest of us.  I know I was pointed in my criticism of the structure of the ECAT system- at the meeting and on this blog. Commissioner Barry expressed frustration about the contract with First Transit as well.

So this new development and this distribution of flyers  has led to many persons contacting our office today...According to my aide Debbie Kenney, we have received at least 22 messages as of 4:00PM --- all of them expressing support for ECAT.

We had at least one message on the voicemail box that was polite yet extremely pointed.

But why use the acronym FDU in this flyer?  I'm concerned that this acronym might be altered to
mean something else that is much less polite toward the BCC in general and towards Commissioner Underhill in particular.  If an acronym against one particular commissioner absolutely must be used--a tactic which I absolutely do not support, by the way--Then the union should use one that is less likely to be misinterpreted--otherwise--just imagine what might come next......

 S-T-F-U?   Start-To-Fight-Underhill?

What is the Future of Mass Transit in Escambia County?

Mass transit in Escambia County is about to run into a roadblock.  Maybe it will only be a detour.  Could it become an Autobahn though?

One thing is for sure, the current system is untenable and there will be changes coming.

WHERE THINGS STAND NOW

At Tuesday’s special meeting of the BCC, the issue of transportation employees merging into the county to become county employees was discussed at length. 

The goal for the union and the drivers was to bring Escambia County Community Transportation (ECCT) and ECAT under the umbrella of the county.  This, had it been done, would have allowed for enhanced pay and benefits for the ECCT drivers who currently do not enjoy high salaries, paid sick days, or benefits that are affordable given their low pay.  ECCT drivers provide transportation for disabled and elderly citizens that have no other workable transportation options. 

ECAT employees, by contrast, enjoy good salaries, excellent benefits, and these employees work subject to a collective bargaining agreement that is extremely worker friendly.  Both classes of employees currently operate under management contracts Escambia County has in place with First Transit of Ohio.  ECCT’s contract runs out at the end of June, ECAT’s contract runs through September 30th.

So at last Tuesday’s meeting, the BCC decided to return the functions of ECCT back to the state via this notification of termination of services letter.  This course of action was approved by a 4-1 vote.  I had hoped we could work out a 1-year bridge contract with First Transit to do a less hurried hand-off of this important service back to Tallahassee, however only two of us on the Dais supported that.  Therefore, beginning July 1^st, the Community Transportation function will revert back to the state of Florida to manage.  (Note, this is and has historically been a state-run service that Escambia County had recently taken on—however with costs approaching $2.8Million for this service alone-