City council gets tough on MATA as agency announces cutbacks

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — City Council members pushed back hard on the interim CEO of Memphis Area Transit Authority on Tuesday as she presented plans for extensive layoffs and bus route cuts.

Major cutbacks to MATA’s bus network could go into effect November 3, Bacarra Mauldin told City Council on Tuesday. However, several council members took issue with not being presented with a detailed budget.

“We are just asking, where is our 20 million dollars? That’s taxpayers money,” Councilwoman Yolanda Cooper-Sutton asked, referring to a bridge loan that city council granted the struggling agency.

Memphis Area Transit Authority has proposed a balanced budget of $67.8 million this year, which is about $18 million less than what MATA says its current level of service would cost.

The budget, if approved, would mean about half the agency’s 512 employees would be laid off and several bus routes stopped.

“We recognize that these are radical changes, but you all are expecting radical results,” Mauldin told the council. “This is what those changes look like. It is not pretty.”

That’s in addition to the standstill on the downtown trolley lines, which came as a surprise when a brake issue in July posed a safety risk leading to a total shutdown.

Mauldin took over as interim CEO in February and inherited a situation that she said was “not ideal.” As costs have gone up, ridership has gone down and funding from governments has remained flat.

MATA’s revenue from passenger fares and advertising is only $3.7 million. To make up the rest, $30 million comes from the city of Memphis with smaller amounts from federal, state and county sources.

“It’s important for us to live within our means. So, those times call for difficult choices,” interim MATA CEO Bacarra Mauldin said. “Everything is on the table.”

Still, Mauldin said the tough budget presented MATA with the opportunity to “fix the system” in the long term.

“We have remained resolute in our efforts to turn things around,” she said.

As for the downtown trolley system, Mauldin said those lines will remain closed indefinitely.

Mauldin said a brake issue in July was the second in a year, and a fix would cost $200,000 per trolley — money that MATA just doesn’t have right now.

Eighteen employees have been laid off in the trolley division. But the trolley maintenance team has remained.

“We’re committed to one day bringing this back,” Mauldin said.

Councilwoman Pearl Eva Walker pressed Mauldin on whether MATA had a record of maintenance on the trolley.

Mauldin replied that there were records, but there was currently an ongoing investigation underway regarding trolley maintenance. “We are currently in an investigation with TDOT right now.”

Council members Jerri Green and Cooper-Sutton criticized Mauldin for not presenting a detailed budget to the council, including money owed by MATA.

“You’re cutting routes to poor people,” Cooper-Sutton said. “What happens when these routes are cut? What happens to these people?”

Green said she’s getting calls, not only from riders and bus drivers, but from people who MATA owes money.

“I think this council, this administration, the public who is here today, believe that MATA must succeed. Not that we want it to, that we must,” Green said.

Councilwoman Walker was more direct in her criticism.

“I wish you all the best with this mess, and my final comment is on behalf of the people.”

She then tore up MATA’s paper budget packet and threw it in the air. “The people have spoken,” she said.

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