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Sunday, April 03, 2011
Something's Fishy at Transit District
Something is definitely awry at the North Central Regional Transit District: Administrative costs are through the roof, cost of service per passenger likewise.
There's more: The district hasn't been able to get its financial house in order sufficiently to meet state audit deadlines for three years — in other words, pretty much since it began receiving funding. Plus, auditors describe its internal financial controls as dangerously inadequate — including a situation where top administrators could potentially access the district's $1.2 million bank account through a debit card.
As if that weren't enough, the transit district's director, who has presided over this administrative debacle more or less from the beginning, has received what amounts to a 33 percent raise over the past five years.
Now, the district and at least two of the four counties that comprise it are squabbling over funding for the project, which comes in part from a 2008 tax approved by voters in those counties. The district wants total control over tax revenue from Santa Fe County, which amounts to more than half of the district's total. Los Alamos County officials, on the other hand, now want a bigger say in how revenue from their area is used — they don't think the district has been responsive to Los Alamos transit needs.
It's worth noting that before the tax election, district officials — including that highly paid director — earnestly assured voters in Santa Fe County that they would keep a share of the revenues the new tax would bring in. Now, it seems, the district is reneging on that promise.
It's worth noting too that even before the tax was approved, critics had raised questions about North Central's management. On the eve of the tax election, Santa Fe County officials pulled out of the arrangement altogether, citing poor management of bus routes in their area, as well as concerns about the division of the tax revenues. (They later rejoined the district in exchange for a fixed percentage of revenues — the arrangement the district now wants to terminate.)
The district's response then — and as critics have gone on to question the high administrative costs, the audit problems and the continuing raises for the director — remains simply that it's a new agency and needs time to figure out how best to run things.
This is nonsense. There are similar regional transit districts all around the state, including the Rio Metro District that runs the Rail Runner commuter train that many of North Central's bus routes were supposed to link with. All appear to be better run than North Central and to have overcome initial organizational problems far more quickly and efficiently.
The North Central district may need to be reorganized under a smaller and more accountable board that will take its fiscal and managerial oversight duties seriously. Meanwhile, taxpayers are on the hook until the agency gets its financial act together.
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