Johnson County supervisors vote to send SEATS contract to cities

The Johnson County Board of Supervisors is one step closer to an agreement with Iowa City, Coralville and North Liberty over  SEATS funding, following a formal meeting Tuesday afternoon.

During the meeting, the board voted to approve a letter to the mayors of each city that lays out a funding contract for the SEATS program, which provides paratransit services to the elderly and disabled.

Under the contract, the county would enter into a five-year agreement with Iowa City, Coralville and North Liberty to pay $200,000 for the mandated paratransit services for fiscal year 2014, plus an annual increase of up to 3 percent. Either party is permitted to terminate the agreement with one year advance notice.

The contract also requires the municipalities to take over all maintenance requirements for their vehicles. All buses are able to provide service anywhere in the county regardless of which entity owns the vehicle, and the parties will meet to renegotiate the contract in July 2017.

Once each city has the contract, the entities will draft a 28E agreement that needs to be passed by the county and each city council. Supervisor Janelle Rettig said Tuesday that she does not expect the councils to have an issue with the proposed contract.

"Substantially, the cities have agreed to this. I don't know that there would be any problem with their city councils passing this, I would be surprised if there is," Rettig said, referencing a forum on Monday, and a work session last month in which they laid out preliminary terms for the contract. "Everyone indicated yesterday this was good to go."

The letter also indicates that, though the county understands changes in fare and scheduling may occur to cut costs, the board would consider terminating the contract if substantial reductions in service were to occur, or if the county began to cover a larger percentage of the cost of service.