The New Orleans Regional Transit Authority Board of Commissioners met Tuesday (April 23) for the first time in nearly two months, following a series of resignations — all related to a high-profile contracting scandal — that left the board short of the legally required majority needed to conduct business.
The meeting was possible after new appointees were sworn in Tuesday, allowing the gears of agency governance to begin moving again.
In late February, all three of the commissioners representing Jefferson Parish abruptly resigned from the board following an internal investigation into payments made to RTA contractor BRC Construction Group. The investigation, first reported by The Times-Picayune, found that a top RTA official had signed off on more than $1 million in payments to the company without board approval. A fourth member, former New Orleans City Attorney Sunni LeBeouf — one of five commissioners appointed by the mayor of New Orleans — followed suit in early March.
Blame for the problem with the BRC contract fell largely to one employee — John DiLosa — but the contracted firm that conducted the investigation also raised questions about how RTA CEO Lona Edwards Hankins responded after discovering about the overspending, The Times-Picayune reported. DiLosa was fired from the agency in October, months after Hankins became aware of the issue.
In an interview earlier this month, Hankins said mitigating the frequent breakdowns of aging buses due to record-high temperatures that summer took priority over dealing with DiLosa.
“August to October is a rapid timeframe for people to do due diligence,” Hankins said. “But if you tell me if I gotta weigh reprimanding an employee versus solving my fleet challenge that impacts my ridership in this heatwave — I’m going to pick that.”
The scandal led Jefferson Parish President Cynthia Lee Sheng to threaten to leave the authority, which provides limited service in the suburban parish. A bill currently moving through the Louisiana State Legislature would make it easier for local governments to opt out of membership.
The gap in meetings resulting from the departures delayed multiple approvals from the board, including a federal grant application for $27.5 million to purchase 25 low- or zero-emission buses.
But on Tuesday, the board swore in four new commissioners to replace those who had left. The three vacant Jefferson Parish positions were filled by Jefferson Parish Attorney Toni Hurley, Deputy Parish Attorney Brad Richard and Assistant Parish Attorney Colin Cisco. The one open Orleans Parish position was filled by former RTA board chairman Flozell Daniels, Jr.
The grant application — due on Thursday — was one of the items on Tuesday’s agenda. Board members voted unanimously to approve it.
Dwight Norton, RTA capital projects officer, said the buses are needed to make up for several years when the agency was not ordering new vehicles. Maintenance delays on the system’s old buses resulted in recent schedule cuts to bus lines across the city.
According to Norton, the RTA still has 59 buses that were purchased between 2007 and 2009 in operation. The general lifespan of a bus is 12 years.
“We’ve been aggressively working to replace these vehicles and also get back on a normal replacement cycle,” Norton said. “Normally, you don’t have 50% of your fleet purchased in one or two years.”
The RTA has purchased 21 new buses with COVID-19 relief funds, and Hankins has said those vehicles are expected to be on the road this fall. Assembly on an additional eight buses is expected to begin in early 2025.
Norton said that if the RTA receives the grant, the 25 additional buses could be delivered in 2026. He said a Federal Transit Administration grant of $83 million last year was used to purchase 20 fully electric buses and to create infrastructure to support the vehicles. Norton said those are set for delivery in 2027.
Also delayed was a presentation to the board showing an analysis how the bus schedule changes affect lower-income and minority residents, required as part of an agency policy meant to ensure compliance with the federal Civil Rights Act. That analysis was supposed to be presented to the board on Feb. 27, but was sent to the operations and administration committee, which did not meet due to a lack of quorum. It will be presented in full at an upcoming meeting.
The analysis found a “small disproportionate burden and disparate impact for low-income and minority communities,” but added that the negative impacts would be offset by improved reliability. Officials also stressed that the service cuts were intended to be temporary.
In January, the RTA reduced bus service in 15 out of the agency’s 30 lines, impacting thousands of riders. Scheduled wait times between buses increased by as much as 40 minutes on some routes. The trade-off, Hankins said, was that customers would experience greater reliability.
In the summer before the cuts, bus riders had grown frustrated with unscheduled service interruptions already happening due to frequent breakdowns of aging buses.
An operations presentation by Chief Transit Officer Justin Cayless on Tuesday showed that 96% of buses scheduled to deliver service did so in February. On-time performance in February was 74%.
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