TBARTA faces an existential crisis

According to Pinellas County Commissioner Janet Long, the Tampa Bay Area Regional Transportation Authority (TBARTA) continuing to operate without a clear path forward is the definition of insanity.

Long wasted no time letting her fellow board members know how she felt regarding the authority’s future during Friday’s meeting. She served in the Legislature when the state created TBARTA in 2007 and said she has been at the forefront of trying to move the organization forward ever since. It now serves five counties throughout the region and the Cities of St. Petersburg and Tampa.

While she is an ardent supporter of creating actionable transit solutions, Long said she is also a realist. For her, the reality is that TBARTA is a planning agency without funding or direction, rather than a transportation authority.

“We don’t operate, and we don’t get ourselves involved in moving people from one place to another,” said Long. “And after the fourth out of five times we’ve asked for state dollars, it was vetoed again by Governor (Ron) DeSantis.”

Tampa Bay Regional Resiliency Coalition Co-Chair and Pinellas County Commissioner Janet Long. Photo provided.

Legislators appropriated $1.375 million for TBARTA’s operating expenses and a commuter transportation service during this year’s legislative session, despite a second, unsuccessful attempt by St. Petersburg Sen. Jeff Brandes to dismantle the organization via legislation.

However, for the third consecutive year, the governor vetoed the funding. Instead of addressing the situation, the agency canceled a previously scheduled board meeting “because there were no action items.”

Friday’s board meeting was the first since May.

“That was a huge red flag to me,” said Long. “To me, we had plenty of things we needed to talk about – and more important than anything was the future of TBARTA, given the experience that we’ve had the last five years.

“And quite frankly, isn’t that the definition of insanity? If you keep on doing the same things you’ve always done and expecting a different result?”

Long sits on the executive committee for the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council (TBRPC) and relayed that during a recent board meeting, she gauged interest in merging the two agencies for the betterment of the region. That proposal is now the only item on the agenda for TBRPC’s Sept. 12 executive committee meeting.

Since then, Long said she held several conversations with TBARTA’s community partners, and all were receptive to exploring a potential merger.

“Until we make that decision and can have that big, broader discussion about what are we doing and is there a better way,” said Long, “I am not inclined to support my county’s participation until we have some of those questions answered.”

Pinellas County Commissioner Rene Flowers said everyone on the board understood that the Legislature supported funding the agency. She said the governor’s staff “apparently advised” him to strike the less than $1.4 million allocated to the five-county organization.

Flowers believes the lack of funding is not indicative of the state’s attitude towards the organization – it just speaks to what the governor considered his top priorities this year. Without state funding, TBARTA will exhaust its money to operate by Sept. 30, 2024.

Flowers also expressed her dismay that executive directors from other organizations knew about proposed plans regarding the agency before TBARTA’s leadership. She proposed that the transportation authority conduct a workshop – with all board members present – dedicated to addressing ideas and proposals in advance of outside conversations.

People leave when rumors fly, said Flowers, and she does not want talk of a merger to cause staff to look for other jobs.

Pasco County Commissioner Kathryn Starkey thanked Long for her diligent work to keep TBARTA relevant. She believes everyone on the agency’s board struggles to identify the best path forward.

“And looking at the makeup of the board here today – I’m sorry, where’s Hillsborough?” said an exasperated Starkey. “Where’s Hillsborough this morning? Without them at the table, it’s just, I don’t know, it’s just like spinning a wheel.”

Board members agreed to an extensive workshop on Sept. 9 – just three days before the TBRPC meeting – which the Tampa Bay Partnership will help facilitate. Starkey said various community stakeholders, such as Tampa International Airport CEO Joe Lopano, should also participate.

Gubernatorial appointee Jim Holton expressed his support of a large workshop but said the fundamental issue with TBARTA is that it is structurally flawed. He blamed Hillsborough County for refusing to cooperate with its regional partners in the agency.

“And that’s the sense I get back from Tallahassee – is that you are not speaking with one voice,” said Holton. “So, I think we have to go back to the drawing board.”