The McKinney City Council voted at a special called meeting Nov. 20 to end the city’s contract with the Texoma Area Paratransit System for public transportation in the city because of a breach of contract.
The city is required to give 30 days’ notice to allow TAPS to fix the breach, which came into effect Nov. 16 when TAPS cut on-demand and fixed-route service. However, with routes unlikely to resume, the termination will be effective Dec. 20.
The cut in service reduced TAPS’ daily operating cost to a little more than $5,200.
During the meeting, council also voted to allow interim City Manager Tom Muehlenbeck to explore other public transit options and pursue direct-recipient status with the Federal Transit Authority and the Texas Department of Transportation, which could take up to one year. TAPS currently holds the direct-recipient status on behalf of the city, a process that took 18 months.
McKinney city officials said they would work quickly to get bus service back online but declined to comment on exactly when that could occur.
“No matter what, what we are hoping to do is find an interim solution for 90 or 120 days while we are going out and getting a permanent solution,” Muehlenbeck said. “We are working very hard. It’s hard to say, but I guess those who depend on public transportation are going to have to depend on alternate transportation. This is not something that we planned, but we are working very hard to find a solution.”
The city’s decision comes after the state’s Health and Human Services Commission pulled its Medicaid contract from TAPS on Nov. 12 because of an ongoing criminal investigation into the agency—namely its former Executive Director Brad Underwood, said Chris Hill, a Collin County commissioner and TAPS board chairman.
The North Central Texas Council of Governments announced it would slow reimbursements because of the investigation.
On Nov. 13, TAPS employees had gone one-and-a-half pay periods without pay, and during the Nov. 13 TAPS board meeting, it was revealed that there would likely be more pay periods lapsing before employees received pay.
On Nov. 18, TAPS laid off 62 percent of its workforce in an effort to remain in operation. The 116 employees laid off did not receive a final paycheck. According to TAPS, paychecks for those employees will be added to the list of those who have not yet been paid their final wage, which includes employees of TAPS Access, the Medicaid arm of the organization.
As of Nov. 20, employees had not received pay. On Nov. 23, TAPS held a press conference regarding the status of employees paychecks and announced 151 employees would be paid past-due paychecks. TAPS Access employees and TAPS administration have not received their checks.
