LANTA Scrambles to Address Employee Concerns

I'm still waiting for LANTA executive director Armando Greco, as well as board members, to respond to an email I sent them on October 9 about its recent bus routing changes in Allentown. Hamilton Street merchants have heard nothing either, and Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski has ignored them, too. These small businesses, mostly minority-owned, are suffering badly as a result of recent bus routing changes. But LANTA board members and Mayor Ed must still be "dancing in the streets."

With LANTA employees, it's another story. Bus drivers actually sympathize with Hamilton Street merchants. And a group of rank and file employees made me aware of trouble at the top of this mass transit provider. "LANTA riders and employees, as well as taxpayers of Lehigh, Northampton and Carbon counties deserve new leadership at LANTA."

They've just sent me this email, and I want to share it with you.

Much has happened among the LANTA directors since the first LANTA blog posting on Lehigh Valley Ramblings on Friday October 12th. When LANTA’s board of directors met on Tuesday October 16th at LANTA’s Palmer Township facility, they voted to hold a directors meeting, scheduled to take place November 8th to investigate the topics outlined in Lehigh Valley Ramblings.

Since that time, LANTA directors have scrambled to generate paperwork to explain the outlined topics. Efforts have been made to inventory assets, as well as the release of a Request for Proposals for Information Technology services. Thanks to Lehigh Valley Ramblings, progress has been made on these fronts while directors are finally being held accountable for their actions.

One of the funding programs used to subsidize Metro Plus passengers titled the Medical Assistance Transportation Program has issued LANTA another ultimatum of Wednesday October 31 for LANTA to bill agencies for this reimbursement. As you may remember, the state informed LANTA on July 31st that they would be required to submit invoices and LANTA only estimated the costs they incurred.

With the deadline just two days away, LANTA’s directors do not appear to be the slightest bit concerned about the looming deadline, which is estimated to be generate around $100,000 for the authority. In fact, LANTA has failed to submit MATP data for Carbon County for over one calendar year, and has only submitted partial data for Lehigh and Northampton counties beginning in late 2006.

Only time will tell if the authority will submit accurate invoices, or simply estimate what they believe they are owed. While $100,000 may not be that big of a deal for LANTA, I’m sure the Hamilton Street Merchants would appreciate the extra cash if it were available to them. Perhaps the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare should offer the Hamilton Street merchants the money LANTA deems not important enough to pursue.