Taken for a (Bus) Ride / A French transit firm wins a no-bid deal with Phoenix, and taxpayers are left without a transfer
Source: By Sarah Fenske, Phoenix New Times (AZ), August 9, 2007
For years, people have argued about who really runs Phoenix. The mayor? The city manager? City Council? But when it comes to city buses, the answer is all too clear. It's a bunch of French businessmen. Seriously.
As it turns out, most of the municipal buses in Phoenix, as well as the shuttle service at Sky Harbor, are run by subsidiaries of a French-based conglomerate named Veolia. That company makes its living by handling the municipal details that typically bore politicians to tears: trash removal, transportation management, and shuttle service.
Naturally, the company does it all for a fee. And in Phoenix, that fee just got a whole lot bigger.
....... The upshot is that, this summer, Phoenix agreed to increase Veolia's management fees by a collective $7 million on its two contracts — without shopping around.
By my calculation, Veolia is getting a 79 percent raise.