The San Joaquin Regional Transit District Board of Directors did not proceed with hiring a chief executive officer this week after the item was placed on the agenda for a public employee appointment.
After the Tuesday, June 16, closed session, San Joaquin Regional Transit District (RTD) counsel Julie A. Sherman read the closed session report and said there was nothing to report on the item.
The board met in closed session, which allows public bodies to discuss matters such as personnel, legal issues, real estate and labor negotiations. The law requires any final actions taken in closed session to be reported in open session.
The agenda did not name who the board of directors was considering for chief executive officer of San Joaquin County’s largest transit agency, which employs about 342 people and has annual ridership of about 2.6 million. More than 70% of riders are from Stockton.
The agency has been without a permanent chief executive officer since former CEO Alex Clifford was terminated “for convenience” at a Feb. 13 special board meeting after a board shakeup gave three new members a voting bloc. Clifford had been in the position since January 2022.
Since Clifford’s termination, RTD leadership has changed hands three times in two months. Former Human Resources Director Noel Mink served as acting CEO from Clifford’s termination until Feb. 23, when former Deputy CEO Kimberly Turner was appointed interim CEO. Turner later left the post for “personal reasons,” and Bernard Veasley took over April 17.
At the time, RTD officials said Veasley would receive $28,000 a month plus a one-time $10,000 moving stipend under his six-month contract. Officials said Veasley has led transportation operations across multiple large school districts, including Stockton Unified School District, where he oversaw service for more than 36,000 students and managed a 150-bus fleet and workforce.
During Veasley’s tenure at Stockton Unified, some employees in the district’s transportation department told The Record in July 2022 that Veasley created a toxic work environment that led employees to resign and harassed staff.
Veasley also addressed the agency’s financial condition at the June 16 board meeting. The agency has been without a chief financial officer since January, and expected grant revenues dropped from $24.6 million to $0.
The board of directors approved a revised fiscal 2025-26 operating budget May 15 on a 3-0 vote that used $20.4 million in reserve funds to offset a revenue shortfall. Board members Geneva Moorad, Aaron Edwards and Saiha San voted in favor of the measure.
According to board documents, the adopted budget assumed RTD would receive about $24.6 million in grant funding during the fiscal year, but the funds were not received. The agency also received about $2.1 million less than expected in Federal Section 5307 funding.
Although operating expenses are projected to come in under budget, the revenue losses created a projected $20.4 million shortfall. The board-approved budget revision authorizes drawing about $20.4 million from the agency’s reserves to balance the budget.
Under the revised budget, operating revenues decreased from $42.5 million to about $40.4 million, while the draw from reserve funding increased to $20.4 million. The revised budget projects total revenues of about $67.1 million and total expenses of about $60.8 million.
Vincent Contino, an RTD retiree and former Amalgamated Transit Union president and business agent who now represents union and nonunion retirees, criticized the board’s recent decisions at the May 15 meeting.
“I am beyond concerned about what has happened since you guys took office,” Contino said. “In just three months, you and your team have made decisions that appear reckless, damaging and completely contrary to RTD’s best interest. You took RTD’s reserve from $62 million down to $25 million in three months. That is an extraordinary drop, and it cannot be brushed aside.”
At the June 16 board meeting, Veasley said he was aware of concerns about RTD’s finances.
“There’s all these concerns about the money,” Veasley said. “I want to update everybody and let them know that we’re in the middle, maybe, of a forensic audit.”
Veasley said he wanted to provide a report to the public “so everybody knows how everything started” and “how everything ended.”
“If you have a concern about, ‘What happened to this? What happened to that?’ Well, I’m new here,” Veasley said. “I’m going to make sure we get everything down to the penny and we let the public know everything that happens to every dollar.”
Veasley added that RTD is also in the middle of a Federal Transit Administration audit and a state audit. He said a forensic audit is in phase one of four phases and that all phases must be completed before findings are released.
“I want to make sure as long as I’m here, we make sure we do it right,” Veasley said.
Record reporter Hannah Workman covers news in Stockton and San Joaquin County. She can be reached at hworkman@recordnet.com or on Twitter @byhannahworkman. Support local news, subscribe to The Stockton Record at https://www.recordnet.com/subscribenow.
This article originally appeared on The Record: San Joaquin RTD board does not move forward with CEO hiring after closed session
Reporting by Hannah Workman, The Stockton Record / The Record
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By Hannah Workman, The Stockton Record | USA TODAY Network
