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It Was Right Decision To Put This 'Dog' Out Of Its Misery

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 7, 2008

PLANT CITY - I don't own a dog, but I've listened to all the stories that dog owners tell. The kids plead for a puppy, go wild when it arrives, and after a while, they discover the mutt only eats and sleeps, leaving them with the job of cleaning up after it.

Government subsidized programs are often that kind of dog.

Plant City's "subsidized dog" nicknamed Strawberry Express, our ill-conceived and bungled public transportation system, will take the taxpayers for a last costly ride June 27.

At a recent commission meeting, the decision was made by City Manager David Sollenberger to eliminate public transportation that has hammered commissioners and taxpayers since its inception in 2001.

In its seven-year history, this government program has developed such a putrid performance record that sometimes you just have to look the other way and hold your nose.

From the beginning, public transportation in Plant City was an experiment doomed to failure.

It began with high expectations and a $1 million federal public transportation grant. City commissioners chose to buddy up with Hillsborough Area Regional Transit, then known as HARTline. After three years and a depleted federal grant HARTline took its hulking underutilized bus system and went home; in 2004 city commissioners voted 3-2 to municipally fund public transportation.

Never have we tried so hard, given so much and failed so miserably as we have in operating the Strawberry Express.

After seven years of failure, it has become a glaring waste of taxpayers' money.

"Staff has done everything in the world to make it work," Mayor Rick Lott has said.

Oh, really. Then why was the system so deficient?

Could it be staff did too much by frequently changing bus routes, too often changing bus schedules that confused riders and offering buses running limited routes that provided no useful service?

"The transit system has been very near and dear to me," Commissioner Mary Yvette Thomas Mathis said at the May 27 commission meeting. "But it really hasn't brought the revenue we anticipated."

Admitting that public transportation probably won't pay for itself is no admission of defeat. Public transportation will almost certainly be a losing proposition requiring a subsidy, but that doesn't necessarily make it a bad proposition.

Operating a public bus system is a service just as water, streets, police and fire protection are services. It meets a critical public need - getting people who don't have cars to their jobs, medical centers, homes and grocery stores.

Unfortunately, the engine of Plant City's public transportation system was fueled by bureaucratic inertia and disabled by a series of poor choices, and, ultimately, it needed to go.

Commissioners left the hot-button decision to Sollenberger.

In the city manager's report at the May 27 commission meeting, Sollenberger wrote, "One of the recommended cutbacks is termination of the bus service. I would propose to do that effective Friday, June 27. Net savings by elimination of the transit system is $182,500. In addition, the buses will be sold."

After years of commitment to public transportation by city commissioners, it was gone with a city manager's report.

The slumping economy and revenue crunch brought about, in part, by tax reforms mandated by Florida's Amendment 1, has forced municipalities into spending your tax dollars more prudently.

Which brings us to a simple truth concerning Plant City's public transportation system: Florida's Amendment 1 is working.

Jerry Lofstrom can be reached at jdlmcl@aol.com.

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