T-R PHOTO BY ROBERT MAHARRY
During Monday night’s meeting, Public Works Director Heather Thomas discussed the Marshalltown Municipal Transit (MMT) budget for the upcoming fiscal year with the city council.
The Marshalltown city council spent about the last half hour of Monday night’s meeting discussing the future of the transportation levy amidst ongoing staffing struggles.
Public Works Director Heather Thomas stepped forward to the podium to explain some of the positives and challenges she has seen in the last year, which included the establishment of an insurance reserve fund, moving closer to a balanced budget by eliminating the purple/pink route and either a full-time or two part-time positions depending on which they could fill, stopping the non-seasonal fixed routes at 5 p.m. instead of 6 p.m. and continuing those service cuts going forward.
“We’re doing that a little bit because of staffing, but also for budgeting reasons as well,” Thomas said.
In terms of efficiency, she said Marshalltown Municipal Transit (MMT) saw a 7.2 percent increase in ridership with 27.9 percent less revenue hours and 13.5 percent less revenue miles. Thomas touted a strong relationship with the Marshalltown Community School District (MCSD) — in Fiscal Year 2024, 50,600 rides were provided for students, accounting for about 40 percent of ridership.
Elderly and disabled riders also make up just under a quarter of ridership, and MMT now has a partnership with Iowa Veterans Home residents for discounted bus passes. The city received a federal recognition for its ridership increase, and MMT was named the Iowa Department of Transportation’s (DOT’s) small urban transit system of the year.
Thomas expressed appreciation for bilingual staff members as all routes and policies are published in both English and Spanish. A transit driver, transit mechanic and public works manager are all bilingual, which Thomas called “very beneficial” considering their ridership.
From there, she moved onto challenges and said staffing shortages remain one of the biggest struggles, creating “a lot of long hours” for employees.
“Our mechanic and our transit superintendent are driving a bus almost every day right now, so that has led to some negative impacts on some other areas of the transit facility that we’re hoping to address through some increased staffing and hopefully filling some vacancy positions,” Thomas said.
If an employee goes on vacation or calls in sick, they have to arrange additional cancellations of routes. Another challenge she noted is bus conditions and inventory, with several of them at or past their end of life point. They are working to replace them using a federal cost share program, but there have been “significant delays” as the federal government has not signed any grant agreements since FY2022. They are also waiting on estimates for state and federal transit assistance for the upcoming fiscal year, causing Thomas to “make assumptions” as she put the budget together.
The city has not received any of the federal transit revenue, projected at $336,000, this fiscal year, and Thomas said there were “no guarantees” until the money is in the bank.
“While nobody from the state or the federal government has told us that that funding is in jeopardy, we’re seven months into the fiscal year and we’ve not received anything or a signed contract. So there is a little bit of uneasiness right now with what the future of federal transit funding may be,” she said.
Thomas recommended holding the current transit tax levy at $0.40 per $1,000 of valuation (Iowa Code allows a maximum levy of 95 cents), but she said that balancing the budget for FY26 without dipping into reserves would require a levy of 54 cents. Last year, the budget she presented had a deficit of $281,000 partially due to a bus purchase, but the budget she shared on Monday was actually in the black $99,000, she said, as they aren’t buying a bus this year and due to short staffing and lower expenses, including the mechanic delaying maintenance.
As she opened the floor for questions, Councilor Gary Thompson lamented a “double-edged sword” and said the city would take a hit budget wise if MMT got to full staff and got the mechanic back in the shop.
“How can you say hold the levy the same?” he asked. “Because we’re gonna have to buy another bus. We can’t put that off.”
She replied that she had accounted for the three buses already planned to be bought, and she didn’t feel the mechanic getting back in the shop was a double-edged sword, but rather a necessity.
“We don’t have, on certain days, enough buses that are operable to run, so we need those repairs to be made just to continue to provide service,” Thomas said.
Thompson suggested increasing the levy in case the federal money doesn’t come in, but Thomas said they would still be good for at least another year or two. Councilor Greg Nichols asked how soon they would need to revisit the budget if the federal funding doesn’t come through, and Thomas said it would need to be explored next year.
Councilor Jeff Schneider asked about the possibility of acquiring used CyRide buses from Iowa State University in Ames, and Thomas said they weren’t currently available as entities are holding onto their buses longer than in the past. Communication is ongoing, however, and she said there may be cases where they can acquire a bus for parts as a means of keeping other buses going.
Thompson wondered if all possible riders were being captured, and Thomas responded that they don’t currently have the buses or the staffing to do so. Councilor Melisa Fonseca sought clarification on the budget taking $140,968 out of cash reserves, and Schneider shared his support for bumping up the levy to avoid depleting the fund balance in order to keep MMT solvent.
He motioned to direct staff to bring projections at a $0.45 and $0.50 levy rate, and Thompson reassured Thomas that the heat would be on the city council, not the public works director, if the rate was increased.
“You’re trying to be optimistic. We’re trying to be, not pessimistic, but realistic, that if the bottom drops out of this, we don’t want to chase this year after year, so I don’t think $0.45 is enough,” Thompson said.
City Administrator Carol Webb then commented that the council had other levies to consider, and if they wanted to maintain the overall rate at $16 per $1,000, they would have to adjust something else to accommodate an increase in the transit levy. Councilor Barry Kell asked about rectifying a situation where a mechanic is driving and maintenance is being deferred as a result, and Thomas pointed to the challenge of hiring with two current staff members on light duty and another on medical leave.
They do have an offer out to one full-time driver, but that individual still needs to complete CDL training. Hiring is a challenge across the state, Thomas said, and the “ideal situation” from a budgetary standpoint is to hire another part-time driver.
Mayor Joel Greer joked that retiring Police Chief Mike Tupper could obtain his CDL and help the city as a driver, and the mayor commended both Thomas and Transit Superintendent Kevin Pigors for their work in keeping the service going amidst the aforementioned challenges. Fonseca then asked about the city covering the costs of acquiring a CDL, and Thomas said they will pay 100 percent upfront if the employee commits to working for the city for three years with Pigors able to complete much of the training in-house (some others are sent up to Mason City).
Councilor Mike Ladehoff said he would like to see projections at different levy rates presented, and during the public comment period, Linda Clark suggested a partnership with the MCSD and/or Marshalltown Community College to get more high school and college students to drive buses.
Thomas replied that they have had contact with MCC representatives about CDL training, but the existing programs they utilize are less expensive. The original motion from Schneider failed by a 4-3 tally with Schneider, Kell and Fonseca in favor, and a subsequent motion from Thompson directed staff to bring back multiple options they can analyze in conjunction with the overall levy. It passed by a unanimous tally.
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Contact Robert Maharry at 641-753-6611 ext. 255 or
rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.