Chatham County to end agreement with CAT for public transportation in the county

CHATHAM COUNTY, Ga. (WTOC) - The Board of Commissioners of Chatham County notified the Chatham Area Transit Authority’s Board of Directors they intend to end the current agreement with CAT for public transportation within Chatham County.

In the written notice, the County said they have, “decided that CAT is not focused on the true needs of the community through its lack of services in the special service district to include paratransit.” The notice went on to say they believe it is in the best interest of the citizens, “to focus on reliable transportation to include paratransit service and transportation services for citizens in the community that have the greatest need for public transportation access.”

The County writes they can not support, “CAT’s current focus on the tourist economy and ferry system to the detriment of the local citizens.”

The notice detailed recent changes to local law reducing the County’s representation on the CAT board.

“The County believes this reduction in representation, especially for the body that provides most of the financing for CAT through its millage and previous agreements, significantly impairs the County’s ability to effectively perform its Home Rule power under the Georgia Constitution to provide public transportation services,” detailed the County.

The agreement will end at midnight on June 30, 2026.

See full written notification below:

Chairman Chester Ellis says the county discovered too many instances of CAT riders being told their ride services would have to be cancelled.

He’s talked about CAT’s paratransit service, which is designed to transport people with disabilities in Chatham County.

He says they’ve asked CAT not to use paratransit funds for anything other than the program, yet claims CAT hasn’t been clear about how they’re spending that money. This is part of why they’re now stepping in with this notice.

“We must get people to their dialysis, we must get them to their doctor’s appointment, we must get them to their eye appointment, okay? We must get them to wherever they grocery shop. And it’s the responsibility, because the county pays 100% for paratransit,” said Chairman Chester Ellis.

CAT responds directly to Chatham County Chairman

Chatham Area Transit Board of Directors responded directly to Chairman Chester Ellis after the county said they plan to to end their agreement with CAT for public transportation in the county.

“Chairman Ellis: ‘If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nothin’ at all’ is a line that was made famous by the rabbit character Thumper in the 1940s Disney film Bambi. We, the members of the Chatham Area Transit Authority (CAT) Board, have followed this advice throughout the legal and political attacks you have leveled against this agency and our state legislative delegation following the passage of House Bill 756. That ends today,” began CAT in their response.

In their written response, CAT alleged since Governor Brian Kemp signed House Bill 756, the chairman has taken his frustrations with state legislature out on CAT riders.

“For months now, since Gov. Kemp signed House Bill 756, you have taken your frustrations with our state legislature out on CAT riders. Our riders didn’t ask for this fight. They don’t want this fight. We don’t want this fight.”

CAT called the November 13 letter, “an unnecessary, shortsighted, and cruel folly that will punish all CAT riders, and especially its most vulnerable ones, those who depend on paratransit service.”

Read statement in full below:

“If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nothin’ at all” is a line that was made famous by the rabbit character Thumper in the 1940s Disney film Bambi. We, the members of the Chatham Area Transit Authority (CAT) Board, have followed this advice throughout the legal and political attacks you have leveled against this agency and our state legislative delegation following the passage of House Bill 756. That ends today.  

For months now, since Gov. Kemp signed House Bill 756, you have taken your frustrations with our state legislature out on CAT riders. Our riders didn’t ask for this fight. They don’t want this fight. We don’t want this fight. Our community rightfully wants us to work together to ensure service is reliable, safe, and efficient.

Your November 13 letter threatening to cancel the Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) between CAT and Chatham County is an unnecessary, shortsighted, and cruel folly that will punish all CAT riders, and especially its most vulnerable ones, those who depend on paratransit service. Compounding this threat with a coordinated “sickout” last Friday by many of CAT’s paratransit drivers required CAT supervisors and other staff to scramble and change plans so that riders didn’t miss doctor’s appointments, dialysis treatments, and other necessary trips.

These two actions are just the latest attacks on our community’s transit system. Earlier this year, millions of dollars in needed capital projects were intentionally excluded from the SPLOST 8 list, casting real doubt on CAT’s ability to have local funds to match federal opportunities for bus replacement, bus stop improvements, and other basic needs in future years. And if that wasn’t enough, you recommended the Chatham County Board of Commissioners cut the CAT mileage rate in half, which would have blown a $9 million hole in the budget that would have resulted in severe route and frequency reductions. Thankfully, your fellow commissioners didn’t follow your lead, but even the $1.9 million reduction that was ultimately adopted significantly impacts the services CAT can provide Chatham residents.

The county’s legal strategy has failed at every turn. It is clear with this latest threat that the County now realizes its legal arguments will not prevail and instead hopes this obviously desperate action will result in some kind of “win.” To be clear, there are no winners here. Taxpayers are paying both sides of the legal bills and are getting absolutely nothing for it.

And to add insult to injury, your letter attempting to bully us with the cancellation of the IGA accused CAT of focusing “on the tourist economy and ferry system to the detriment of the local citizens.” This is laughable. We invite you to review all meeting minutes, recordings, and documents since we were sworn in on July 1 and find one single instance of this board favoring one part of CAT services over another. Here’s a hint: don’t waste your time, it’s not there.

And even if there were evidence of this (there isn’t), are you really suggesting that the 28,000 Chatham County residents who work in our visitation economy don’t deserve some attention and support? Tourism workers are not second-class citizens because they rely on CAT. The simple truth here seems to escape your comprehension: ALL of CAT’s services are critical to Chatham County’s economy and quality of life of our residents and neighbors. Our transit system is, and must be, a single, unified system, not a series of isolated service components. Your “either/or” mentality is shortsighted and does a disservice to your constituents who rely on CAT. And importantly, you ignore the CAT employees who could very well be laid off if the County continues to starve CAT of funding.

The hypocrisy of all of this is that since July 1, you have refused to seat the County’s three representatives on the CAT Board. How can you complain about anything this agency is doing when the County, which has more Board seats than any other entity, has no representation at meetings and in discussions because of its own intransigence?

We will no longer “say nothin’ at all” while you attempt to cripple CAT services and harm CAT’s riders in a petty, vindictive attempt to register your displeasure with the Legislature. We’ve had exactly zero conversations with you or any other representative from the County about your CAT service priorities since July 1. Instead, we get served with lawsuits, draconian funding reductions, and threatening letters. Frankly, we’d like to focus on improving CAT’s service and offerings. Instead, we are, yet again, forced to spend time and money dealing with nonsense.

Despite the fiery tone of our response, nothing we say here today is any more provocative or chaotic than the actions you have chosen to take, which could harm CAT’s riders and even threaten the livelihoods of CAT employees. Unfortunately, we are at a point where these actions are not a matter of if they harm folks, but when.

If you go through with the cancellation of the IGA, refuse to remit dollars owed to CAT, and do not offer solutions to the problems you created by the elimination of SPLOST 8 funds and reduction of mileage rate collections, this Board will have no choice but to drastically reduce public transit services, impacting the exact constituents you claim to represent and care about.

Our requests are simple: stand down with your frivolous litigation, appoint your County representatives to the Board, and let’s have a collaborative conversation about achieving our collective priorities in delivering public transit service. Our employers, our workers, our riders, and our CAT team members are counting on us to work together.

CAT Board of Directors

CAT provided WTOC with a second statement Tuesday afternoon.

CAT uses transit tax revenue to support the entire transit system.  This source of revenue acts as the Authority’s General Fund, which funds both capital and operating expenses.  The agreement with Chatham County covers the costs of Paratransit operations. Capital costs (vehicles) are grant-funded (80%) through the Federal Transit Administration.  No County funding is used for capital. There is a local match requirement of 20% and previously funded by SPLOST.  CAT did not receive any SPLOST VIII funding, which significantly impacts its ability to meet the local match requirements for federal grants.  Pertaining to fixed route 6, a field visit was conducted that exposed a safety concern that needed to be addressed immediately.  Utilizing the larger fixed-route bus was not safe, as it required backing up to make a turn.  A new, smaller vehicle assigned to Paratransit was used while awaiting the delivery of a smaller fixed route bus scheduled to be delivered the following week.  Safety is always first.

Services were temporarily suspended to Skidaway Island and Coffee Bluff in July 2022 (during previous leadership) due to low ridership.  Restoration will be restored upon funding availability and in response to ridership needs.

The cost of ferry services is funded partially by the general fund (transit tax), as are other CAT services.

If the County ends its support of transportation services at CAT,  services would be negatively impacted by route delays and suspensions.  CAT is a direct recipient of FTA funding for providing transit services.  As a direct recipient, CAT is required to provide Paratransit services to areas where fixed-route service is provided.  The loss of County funding for Paratransit service will impact the entire transit system.  The aftermath will result in service reductions system-wide, as the cost of Paratransit service delivery will continue as an operating expense of CAT.

CAT Board of Directors

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