Here’s some more detail on Athens Transit parting ways with the Summit Agency, for anyone who’s interested. JMac at Beyond the Trestle seems to have become obsessed with this issue, so maybe this background information can clear up some issues he and others have raised.

In a letter to Athens-Clarke Manager Alan Reddish, The Summit Agency President Laurie Rainey asked him to:

• Get rid of the $75,000 guarantee and split all revenue down the middle.
• More flexibility in what types of ads are acceptable.
• Allow the ads to be made of more types of materials (the contract calls for polycarbon).
• Have Athens Transit provide access to buses on Sundays to install ads.
• Assign one person at Athens Transit as the point of contact for Summit.

Reddish responded that:

• He can’t recommend renegotiating the contract unless the commission votes to trigger an early-termination clause.
• Summit knew about the advertising policy when it signed the contract, and the county attorney and commission would need to review and approve any changes to the policy.
• The contract allows ads to be made of “equivalent materials.”
• Athens Transit is closed on Sundays, so allowing Summit access to buses then would cost taxpayers unless Summit agreed to pay staff to come in.
• The contract designates the Athens Transit maintenance supervisor as the person to contact to install or do maintenance on an ad.

It should also be noted that A-CC and Summit inked the deal in June 2009, when the economy was even worse than it is now.

Reddish shared the correspondence with commissioners, and one asked why the county would consider terminating the contract early and agreeing to accept $6,250 less than it was promised, given that Summit should have know what it was getting into when they signed. Reddish said in an e-mail:

You are correct The Summit Agency (TSA) should have better understood what they were committing to do. It is clear they contractually committed to provide a service they had limited understanding about and now can not deliver the program. ACCUG (short for Athens-Clarke County Unified Government) could decide to offer no contract amendments and require them to adhere to the two year contract. However, having seen their financial information and heard their request for some relief I believe they would quickly default on the contract and leave us without an advertizing program The focus of our recommendation is to minimize our loses (sic) for the year, i.e. accept revenue of $68,750 rather than contracted amount of $75,000, and require them to activate the "wind down" provision of the contract between now and June 30th which will allow ACCUG time to review proposals from other providers beginning July 1st. Given this was ACCUG's first attempt at bus advertizing, I believe it is important to try to salvage as must as we can in order to posture our program in the best light possible for future potential providers.

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