Agreement Reached on Transportation Contract

The Petaluma city council has awarded the contract for transporting the city’s elderly and handicapped to MV Transportation, after heated testimony at earlier meetings that doing so would result in a reduced quality of services for an estimated 22,000 riders a year that rely on “paratransit” buses to get around town.

Under the agreement, the Fairfield company will oversee the transport of the elderly and the developmentally disabled, but subcontract out to , which has provided the service for the past 29 years. MV Transportation will also pay the agency $2,729 a month (or about $33,000 a year) to help cover payroll and other costs.

Both parties called the compromise a “win-win,” although it will reduce the potential savings for the city by as much as half. MV Transportation argued that it could shave off up to $200,000 a year on paratransit operations by using the same dispatching staff for both regular city buses and the specialized routes that transport the elderly to medical appointments, grocery stores and social services.

“We’re as happy as we can be,” said Elece Hempel, director of Petaluma People Services, which offers counseling, Meals on Wheels, housing assistance and a variety of other programs. “When you boil it down, the service we provide is different from anyone else.”

“The compromise means some routes will take longer, but at least we known that our citizens are being taken care of,” Hempel said.

MV Transportation had argued that by taking over the contract entirely, it could make the service more cost-effective, saving the city up to $200,000 a year, which would be used to expand night and weekend service on regular city buses. They now stop running at 6:15pm Monday through Saturday and don’t operate at all on Sundays.