Voice of OC (https://voiceofoc.org/tag/darrell-johnson/)
While bus drivers and operations employees directly employed by OCTA get to keep their jobs and even their pay as some stay home, bus drivers employed through two private contractors the agency gives money to have been laid off, and will see their benefits follow their jobs out the door.
It’s the first round of cuts to bus service transportation officials have made responding to the public safety crisis, which has caused sharp drops in bus boardings for an agency that sees ridership fall year-by-year.
Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) managers secretly lowered performance standards for a bus contractor with a history of late buses and missed trips, effectively making the contractor look better in monthly performance reports.
With bus ridership continuing to decline, Orange County Transportation Authority officials say their bus program is at a crossroads.
Last month, Anaheim City Council members thought they had killed any and all plans for a streetcar in their city. But this week, the Orange County Transportation Authority’s board made it clear that a streetcar on Harbor Boulevard is still up for discussion.
Dubbed OC Bus 360, the program was a response to a 30-percent decline in ridership from 2008 to 2014. But early indications are that the declines are continuing despite the program, according to a preliminary report presented to the Orange County Transportation Authority board.
A February cyber attack on Orange County Transportation Authority servers resulted in the total shutdown of email, voicemail and numerous other services. Officials kept the attack secret, which could be a violation of the state’s open meetings law.
Emphasizing the public transit dependence of the city’s heavily working-class and Latino population, the City Council Tuesday night opposed Orange County Transportation Authority plans to cut two bus lines in the city.
A lobbyist for MV Transportation Inc., which is competing for a more than $140 million bus services contract, tried to obtain confidential information during the bidding process, according to a letter from the Transportation Authority’s CEO.
A simmering battle has heated up in recent weeks, as some members of the Orange County Board of Supervisors push back against staff and other OCTA board directors on key decisions.