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Rizer fired over Council on Aging financial woes

By Nick Blank
Posted 10/17/18

GREEN COVE SPRINGS – As the Council on Aging of Clay County continues to search for a plan to alleviate financial losses on its transportation services, the board announced the firing of Executor …

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Rizer fired over Council on Aging financial woes


Posted

GREEN COVE SPRINGS – As the Council on Aging of Clay County continues to search for a plan to alleviate financial losses on its transportation services, the board announced the firing of Executor Director Al Rizer.

Rizer, was fired by the Council Board on Oct. 16, helmed the organization for about two years, and previously served as executive director from 2008-2013. Rizer said the council suffered from a drop in revenue and ridership.

He also said staffing was issue. Chief Financial Officer Megan Villavicencio resigned Tuesday morning before the council’s meeting designed to hash out a revenue shortfall the agency is facing in its operation of Clay Transit.

“I felt like I have given a very good effort to this organization in the years that I’ve been here. That’s the decision of the board and I wish them the best. It’s a bad situation, but it is what it is,” Rizer said. “Revenues dropped off, the agency has been losing money for three years now and we just weren’t able to turn it around.”

Council President John Bowles said a change in leadership was needed in the organization with the serious accounting problems.

“It’s simply a business decision. It has nothing to do with personalities, because we all know each other and worked together for years,” Bowles said. “We hate that it comes down to this.”

Clay County Auditor Mike Price estimated the council’s transportation monthly losses at $15,000, in addition to about $160,00 in 2016 losses and $200,000 in losses last year. Bowles said senior services would not be affected by the transportation services’ deficit as the council considered cuts.

“[Price] told us we were in financial trouble and we needed to do some things immediately to get us out of that. One seemed to be a perceived change in leadership,” Bowles said. “Our issues are really in transportation, not in the delivery of senior services.”

As for next steps, Bowles said he and other council leaders will address county officials at the next county commission meeting Oct. 23.

The council oversees transportation provided by law to disadvantaged riders and a public bus system, Clay Transit. Bowles said the council currently had about 70 drivers and 40 buses. Cutting routes is a complex process, he added, with different regulations for Clay’s urbanized northern half and rural south.

“Our objective is to seriously consider the elimination of some bus routes,” Bowles said. “We’ve talked about the Teal Line and the Magenta Line.”

The Teal line, which has about 45 passengers a month, runs from Keystone Heights to Middleburg and Black Creek. The Magenta Line takes riders from Keystone Heights to Melrose and Gainesville.

Rizer told commissioners in May that losses totaled about $200,000 in 2017, and a report given at the May 22 meeting said the organization needed about $650,000 from the county’s general fund to maintain services for another year.

To succeed Rizer, the board appointed a five-person search committee to find an interim director.

At last week’s Board of County Commissioners meeting, ElderSource, an agency that provides resources to seniors, said if the Council does not meet payroll it could potentially end contracts between the two agencies. The Council on Aging was advanced two months of services worth about $144,000, ElderSource Chief Financial and Operations Officer JaLynne Santiago said.

“We want to know what these next 30 days look like,” Santiago said.