Commissioner Wayne Guilfoyle opposed it.
“Clearly Mobility has not lived up to the standard that they need to as far as adequate transportation for Augusta-Richmond County,” Commissioner Alvin Mason said. “As we begin to move forward with expanding, extending transportation, one should not be rewarded for doing a bad job by being given more money.”
The commission last year warned Mobility of several contract violations related to late reporting, late payment of vendors and rider complaints.
Commissioner Bill Lockett, who has championed restoring a city-run transit system at least since Mobility took over in August 2011, said the Florida-based company hadn’t created the $400,000 annual savings it promised and has no local staff other than former city transit employees originally laid off in the outsourcing.
“This is something we’ve been working on for well in excess of a year, and we finally got the votes to do something about it,” Lockett said.
Those former city bus and paratransit drivers likely will be called on to operate the service when the city terminates the contract, he said.
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