Moses Lake — Grant Transit Authority (GTA) welcomed their new general manager with a reception Thursday evening, Oct. 17, before a regular meeting for the board of directors. Greg Wright has previously worked as the general manager for GTA. He left GTA for four years to work for the Washington State Department of Transportation. He had been the general manager of GTA for seven years prior to that.

“It’s like I haven’t been gone,” Wright said. “It’s good to be back.”

During the meeting, Wright presented the board with reports from the operations manager and fleet manager, in addition to his own report and a plan with areas that he has identified as needing attention. The top two areas he sees that need immediate improvement are emergency preparedness and vehicle maintenance.

In other businesses, GTA’s budget continues to remain on track for 2019 fiscal year.

“I have good news to report,” said Amanda Walker, GTA’s accountant with Sutter, Kunkle & Thompson. “We had a good sales tax revenue month.”

However, next year’s budget isn’t looking good. GTA is looking at a possible $200,000 deficit in next year’s budget. Wright has instituted a hiring freeze of all positions, with the exception of drivers, until the budget can be balanced. The adoption of the 2020 budget won’t happen until December 2019.

The board voted to table a discussion regarding paying social security for employees until the middle of 2020.

“Currently, the employees do not participate in social security,” said Bruce Reim, GTA board chair. “Research shows that it could cost $150,000 a year.”

The social security discussion was first raised at the September board meeting after an employee had issues with their social security upon retirement. After the meeting, GTA staff sought council on the issue.

“It’s not easy,” Walker said. “There are too many individualized questions. What may affect one person may not affect another. It affects each individual differently.”

“I don’t want to let it go,” Reim said. “It is important to the employees. I would like to move it to another time of year so we can get more educated.”

Rachal Pinkerton may be reached via email at [email protected].