We have been asked several questions by Lake County citizens about the association between Lake County’s Laketran, and the Geauga County Transit.

Also, a question about Ohio’s Checkbook program was raised.

To get the complete and accurate answers, we contacted
Laketran’s Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Ben Capelle.

Brian Massie, A Watchman on the Wall

Ben Capelle’s response:

We are working on Ohio Check book, and we are still committed to using it.  There are a few reasons we are not there yet:  My Director of Finance’s father passed away recently and she was out of the office for an extend period of time.  She is back, but working on catching up.  She is in the middle of a Ohio Department of Disabilities Audit, once that is complete we plan to work on Ohio Check book.  We are also doing our best to make the information easy to read. 

We have been required by the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) to report to the National Transit Database (NTD) for decades.  This requires our finances to be on a accrual basis, most government in Ohio is a cash basis, this means our books don’t line up perfectly with how the Open Check book displays them.  We have contacted them to see how best to deal with it and we are working through the process.  The only other transit system using Open Check book right now is the Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority (SORTA) in Cincinnati and their data is very difficult to use, we are trying to avoid that situation and provide info people can actually use.

Ben Capelle’s Response:

I don’t think this is an accurate statement, Geauga Transit is not currently closed and hasn’t been in the recent past, they are still providing service out of their facility in Merritt Road in Geauga County.  Laketran assumed operations on July 1^st under contract with the Geauga County Commissioners.  We did not formally merge, we chose to use a contract, that way either party has an “out” clause.  The agreement is 5 years long, so we will re-evaluate if it is still desirable for both agencies at the end of 5 years.  Laketran is managing Geauga Transit we are not funding them in any way.  Their funding comes from the State and local contracts. 

We have established a separate bank account and budget to make it easy to review/audit and to keep the funds segregated.  No Lake County money will be spent on Geauga Transit. This we a cornerstone of the agreement, should Geauga funding not be sufficient for their service they would have to reduce service.  We do expect to be able to increase funding to both Laketran and Geauga Transit as a result of this agreement, traditionally the more you coordinate the more funding you can secure.  We were deliberate when we structured the agreement as a contract, it could be undone at any time with the proper notice.

Ben Capelle’s response:

One of our Board members asked a question about that last meeting.  We structured the agreement in a way that we would not need to change the Board of Laketran.  Geauga’s contract protects them and their interests.  We discussed this with the Geauga County Commissioners when we crafted the agreement and I told them we did not plan to change the Board.  Additionally, our Board does not have the authority to change our Board’s makeup, this power rests solely with the Lake County Commissioners.  This question could be discussed more, but based on how we structured the agreement I would recommend against adding a member to our Board at this time.

Ben Capelle’s response:

You are correct, he is still waiting on an answer.