In an under-the-radar move, Memphis City Council members gave a thumbs up to a resolution offering free rides from MATA for a month.
Janika White’s resolution was approved without discussion during the Tuesday, Sept. 23, meeting. There were no opposing votes. No start date has been set for the pilot program.
The resolution follows the council’s decision to hand control of the agency to a city trust during the Tuesday, Sept. 9, meeting.
The intention of the resolution is to gauge public interest in using the hard-pressed transit system by removing economic barriers. The extent of the offer and the length of its implementation will be ironed out by MATA leadership. Up to $2 million will be spent on the offer.
Council members are eager to overhaul operations at the transit authority, after growing dissatisfied with the direction cast by an interim leadership team of transit consultants.
The TransPro team attempted to correct MATA’s course by restoring basic services and improving the reliability of its fleet. However, many of its bargain acquisitions were diesel-burning 40-foot buses. Many on the council want the fleet to be restocked with shorter, less cumbersome vehicles.
Council members let the consultants’ eight-month contract expire at the end of August. The move followed the resignation of five of the nine-member MATA board. They resigned after Mayor Paul Young called off a meeting to meet two candidates for the vacant CEO position, after three other candidates had withdrawn from consideration.
In October 2024, Young had appointed a whole new board after the previous team was dismissed. The mayor called it a “clean slate.”
The tumult was instigated by a $60 million budget shortfall discovered in July 2024. It wasn’t a one-off. A recent forensic audit by PricewaterhouseCoopers uncovered years of financial mismanagement, including $144,000 in company credit card expenses on lavish office furnishings, foreign trips and catered suites at Memphis Grizzlies games.
Former interim CEO Bacarra Mauldin was fired in late March for her part in the matter. Much of the questionable spending occurred under the direction of former CEO Gary Rosenfeld. He resigned Feb. 1, 2024.
MATA has been without a permanent leadership team ever since.
