Fate of Poughkeepsie city bus system up in air

By May 19, City of Poughkeepsie residents will learn the fate of the funding for the city bus service.

That’s the deadline for the city common council to override — with six of eight votes in favor — Mayor Rob Rolison’s veto of the resolution the council passed on April 19 to fund the city bus system through the end of the year. The city's 2017 budget only funds the city bus service through June 30, at which point Rolison hopes to implement his long-gestating plan to consolidate the city and county services.

On Monday, before the evening common council meeting at Poughkeepsie City Hall, opponents of that bus consolidation plan intend to march from the Family Partnership Center to city hall as part of Community Voices Heard’s event “Hudson Valley May Day Rally.”

ROLISON: Bus service restructuring vital to city's success: Valley Views

VETO: Rolison vetoes resolution to preserve city buses

RESOLUTION: Resolution to retain city bus service passes

Councilmember Chris Petsas, D-1st Ward, who’s led the opposition movement among the council, said he will likely not pursue that override vote on Monday, though he expects a crowd of city residents to show up in support of funding the city bus service through the end of the year.

Kevin Newman, 64, a City of Poughkeepsie resident who uses the bus system when inclement weather keeps him from riding his bike, plans to attend the rally.

“We need the two systems, and the two are complementary,” he said. “The city bus service provides that neighborhood service, and the county bus provides more of a corridor, or highway, service.”

On this issue, two camps have emerged on the city council: Those who support the mayor, who has called the bus consolidation plan a necessary measure to help bring down the city’s roughly $13 million deficit; and those who support the opposition movement that’s fueled by a belief that city bus funding continue and consolidation would weaken the service.

The resolution to fund the city bus service that Rolison later vetoed passed 5-3, with dissenting votes from Matthew McNamara, D-8th Ward, Mike Young, D-2nd Ward, and Lee David Klein, R-4th Ward. Overriding the veto would take six votes.

Rolison said on Saturday he was confident the common council, and in particular the dissenting members, will uphold his veto.

“My expectation is that they would not support overriding the veto since they didn’t support the action to begin with,” he said.

The decision to veto, Rolison said, was not one he took lightly. But he said he did it because of his belief that the city and council bus systems need to share services “both for a better transit system and for the fiscal health of the city.”

Part of that fiscal improvement, he said, would come in the form of a $300,000 local government efficiency grant the state has approved, contingent on the city sharing services with the county.

And, in terms of quality of service, Rolison said the city “doesn’t have the financial capability to grow our system any further than where it is now.”

“The city has to change; this has been discussed for far too long,” he said. “We have kicked and kicked that proverbial can down the road.”

However, Petsas said the solution to the city’s roughly $13 million deficit won’t come from taking away residents' bus service and replacing it with a service that won't always get them where they need to go.

Although Petsas acknowledges the new bus system would offer extended hours and service on Sundays, he said his main takeaway from the consolidation plan is that it covers less area, going from six dedicated routes to four dedicated routes and 54 city streets to 20.

“To rectify that financial problem on the backs of our most vulnerable residents,” he said, “is crazy and outrageous.”

Petsas said he plans to continue discussing the merits of retaining city bus services with council members until May 19.

If the council fails to override Rolison’s veto, he said they will continue trying to develop a plan to fund the city bus service before June 30.

Jack Howland: jhowland@poughkeepsiejournal.com, 845-437-4870, Twitter: @jhowl04