GREEN COVE SPRINGS – The Clay County Council of Aging’s transportation woes are much clearer than they were a month ago. Leadership has changed, finances are in the open and the Council’s board has a plan for stability.

The county commission and staff, which subsidizes funding for the Council’s Clay Transit program, favored cutting bus routes as a means of continuing to lose money.

County Auditor Mike Price said the Council’s losses totaled $238,912 in 2017 on the public transportation lines, though the transportation disadvantaged side of funding, individual trips with no schedule with four times the ridership compared to flex line routes, had a profit of $13,220.

Council officials presented two options. The first would slash Flex Lines altogether to save more than $250,000, and the second would reduce the number of Flex Lines from five to two. The council recommended reducing the Flex Lines. Changing the routes would require multiple public hearings, but officials said the change would reduce expenses by about $280,000 though it would lower the number of trips and services offered.

“What it would do is combine as many riders as possible,” said Renee Knight, interim Council executive director.

Council Board Vice President Wendell Davis said by Jan. 30, the board’s goal was to retain an attorney for the board, hire an executive director and director of finance, and add new financial software. The Teal Line, which takes about 45 riders per month from Keystone Heights to Black Creek, was discontinued Nov. 21.

A hitch for county commissioners was an expectation that the Florida Commission for the Transportation Disadvantaged would reduce funding for the Clay program next summer. County Commissioner Wayne Bolla directly asked Price which option he would choose.

“I would select option A (cutting all Flex Lines),” Price said, though he added the transportation disadvantaged side could still fail.

He said the county commission had an important decision to make, since commissioners provide a large chunk of the council’s funding. With option B, he said the county may have to prop up the Council with an additional $200,000 and, from a financial standpoint, it presented a significant risk. The Council also has about $300,000 in debt and the county agreed last month to provide an extra $45,000 a month for fuel and services.

“I’m not an enemy of public transportation. I believe in public transportation, but public transportation needs to be heavily subsidized,” Price said. “Now it becomes a value judgment for the Board of County Commissioners, because (the board) are the ones that have to subsidize this.”

Price cited numerous personnel changes and complexities of the organization’s accounting were other reasons to recommend the cancellation of Flex Lines.

“It’s an uphill battle,” Price said.

ElderSource is a state agency that provides funding and services for seniors in seven counties including Clay. Linda Levin, ElderSource’s CEO, said her organization only found out of Council’s financial woes recently when the organization struggled to fulfill its payroll obligations. Knight, who once served as the Clay Council’s executive director, is ElderSource’s Director of Community Services and was also “loaned” back to the council after the firing of Al Rizer.

“Our hope has been we can help the Council on Aging be successful, because if they’re successful, your seniors are getting what they need,” Lovett said. “If that’s not possible, however, we at ElderSource have an emergency procurement procedure that we will contract with another nonprofit who will deliver the services under those contracts, and your seniors will continue to get the services they need in this county.”

Commission Chairman Mike Cella said the Council should focus on the transportation disadvantaged and senior services rather than Flex Lines. He said it seemed the Council requested more from the county in each meeting.

“It seems like we never get to the bottom of the well,” Cella said.

Davis, as a former county commissioner, said he understands the problem facing the commission and the chance they were taking. He said the Council’s board had taken steps to right the ship and needed a few more months and a serious cash infusion to become stable.

“The mess is bigger than anyone knew,” Davis said.

Commissioner Gavin Rollins said it wasn’t the county’s role to micromanage nonprofits, but the council should have dealt with its problem a year ago. While Cella and Bolla were open to the council cutting Flex Lines immediately, Rollins and commissioner Diane Hutchings, who both agreed with option A, asked for the commissioners to wait until December for the Council to make a decision and to gather more information.