Gainesville City Commission greenlights new UF bus contract

Gainesville Commissioner Casey Willits speaks at a January 2025 meeting, with Commissioner Cynthia Chestnut.
Photo by Seth Johnson

The Gainesville City Commission approved Thursday a new contract with UF over bus transit services that will last through 2027 following months of negotiations. The commission also gave high scores to all charter officers in annual reviews. 

The new UF contract, which will be executed by the city manager and UF, included four reduced routes on campus that started Jan. 1, and the city will also provide specific ridership numbers to UF that the university will use to make future route decisions. The equipment to track that ridership will be installed by the summer. 

UF will pay $88.35 per bus hour in the contract—up from $84. 

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The negotiations started in April after the city called a UF draft proposal unrealistic. The proposal showed a 50% reduction in UF’s payments, citing higher costs for the university versus other stakeholders.  

In a Thursday press release, the city of Gainesville and UF said the new contract is a win-win. The city gets higher payments to deal with the rising costs of running the Regional Transit System (RTS). UF will receive the data it needs to right-size the campus routes.   

“This contract represents a big step forward in terms of efficiency and cost-effectiveness for both the city and the university, which is good news for our students,” Brandi Renton, UF’s interim vice president for business affairs, said in the release. “We look forward to continuing the productive and collaborative conversation with the city as we work to further fine-tune our RTS partnership.”   

One of the new electric buses replacing diesel buses in the RTS fleet.
Photo by Lillian Hamman One of the new electric buses replacing diesel buses in the RTS fleet.

City Manager Cynthia Curry said this is a time of growth and transition for both entities. The city of Gainesville received a $26.4 million grant for RTS in 2024, while also celebrating its 50th anniversary last year.  

“As we celebrate the 50th anniversary of RTS . . . we do so with the knowledge that our university partners continue to recognize public transit as an essential service to the community,” Curry said in a press release.  

The new UF contract closely aligns with that of Santa Fe College and Alachua County government. 

During the meeting the City Commission also evaluated each of the city’s five charter officers and voted to increase charter officer salaries by 3%.  

All the charters—city manager, city attorney, city auditor, city clerk and equal opportunity director—received high marks on a grading scale of 0 to 5. The officers all landed between a 4 and 5, respectively designated as “exceeds job standards” and “outstanding.” 

“I just want to thank them because it’s not everywhere that you have people who stick with you, keep the morale up,” Commissioner Cynthia Chestnut said. “They work 24/7, and that is really, really appreciated.” 

Commissioners cited difficulties like changing and reduced budgets and decided on a 3% increase for the charter officers—an increase that was already budgeted. However, the path to the increase included one failed motion.  

Commissioner Casey Willits put forward a motion to tie the 3% increase to an identical 3% increase for all CWA Union employees. He said when the union 3% raise gets approved, then the charter officer raise will also go through and be retroactive to January. 

But other commissioners rejected this idea. Mayor Harvey Ward said he didn’t want to pit or compare one group of workers with another.  

A second motion by Chestnut passed unanimously, with Commissioner Desmon Duncan-Walker absent. 

Other bargaining units with the city also received pay increases.  

The firefighters’ union (IAFF) will get around a 4.6% increase. Earlier this year, the City Commission approved a $10,000 increase to the starting salary for police officers, and a step salary increase was waived to get that bump.  

The Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) for transit workers is still in negotiations. Laura Graetz, HR director for Gainesville, said the new UF contract will give clarity and move those talks forward.  

The CWA was hit hard by a new state bill, but the city decided to continue negotiating with the union despite changes in status with the state. That contract hasn’t gone through.  

Graetz said non-union employees were also budgeted for a 3% increase. She said that increase is variable based on evaluations and a couple other factors. 

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Derek

too bad folks on the east side (the ones that rely on public transportation the most) are getting the shaft.