A CATS committee meeting held today to begin reviewing recommendations recently made by an independent consulting firm ended without any action being taken. Isaiah Marshall, who sits on the CATS board of directors and the F&E Committee that met today, characterized it as “an overview meeting,” adding, “There was really no meat that was discussed in detail.”
The recommendations from TMG Consulting grabbed a lot of headlines, primarily those regarding potential changes to management of the public transit system. But CATS CEO Brian Marshall says most local media reports following the release of the recommendations were not entirely on target, which left the committee meeting today with a lot of questions as they began digging into the report for themselves.
“There were some real question marks as far as what the consultant was really saying,” says Brian Marshall, who is not related to Isaiah Marshall.
The recommendations do not include a wholesale replacement of top CATS officials, says the CATS CEO.
“The report said there should be some staff augmentation, that we should look at filling some vacancies,” he says, adding that the report suggests some of the positions could be filled with contracted help. “I think what the consultant was trying to say was that we need more administrative help, and we’ve always said that, too.”
The system head notes, “There were some very positive parts of the report that were also just overlooked by [the media].” He points to a recommendation in the report that CATS spend about 19% of its total budget on administration. The system currently spends about 8% on administration, he says. At the same time, complaints have fallen and CATS service has improved in recent years, he added.
Isaiah Marshall says the committee today discussed “a lot of the media speculation going on,” and concluded “that we all need to be committed to the process without allowing the speculation to drive the way things are going.” Additional meetings have been set for the coming weeks, he says.
“It’s difficult for any of us to make a decision (on any of the recommendations) at this point because we have not been provided a cost comparison” on possible changes, says Isaiah Marshall.
