Pictured above are MATA Board Chair Michael Fulton, Mayor Paul Young, Congressman Steve Cohen, Budget Council Chair Chase Carlisle, Council Chair JB Smiley and Council Transportation Chair Edmund Ford.

I firmly believe there is a cover-up of Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA) operations being led by the Young Administration and the Board of MATA. I further believe that the Memphis City Council is knowingly accommodating the cover-up.

Evidence:  

1. On 8/6/24, Mayor Paul Young announced that the City would be hiring PricewaterhouseCoopers International Limited (PwC) to do a forensic financial audit of MATA. As of 10/7/24, there is no contract in place between the City and PwC for auditing services of any kind. 

2. MATA is not answering public information requests.

3. Since 8/6/24, the Memphis City Council has not formally, through resolution, or informally, through requests on the public record, demanded that the Young Administration produce a financial audit contract between the City and PwC.

The PwC-City contract could potentially provide additional evidence of a conspiratorial cover-up in the areas where MATA was not to be audited. On 8/6/24, in City Council meeting, Mayor Young indicated that the purpose of the forensic financial audit was to find out how MATA got into its current state of deficient existence.

Recently, on Behind the Headlines, Mayor Young backed away from calling the audit a “forensic" financial audit, yet that appears to be need. Each year MATA publishes an external audit of its finances, so, to gather new information, this audit would need to go deeper and be targeted, which is what forensic audits do.

The huge negative draw of running empty 40 foot buses around town is a major known part of the problem. But there is also the issue of spent COVID money, the botched ERP technology implementation and multiple consultants including AllWorld. There are many questions about why so many consultants are involved, the ERP system, and why the $136M bus rapid transit system is six years behind schedule. And why did federally identified deficiencies jump from 15 in 2019 to 27 in 2023 with 5 of the repeat deficiencies occurring in procurement?

The Young Administration does deserve credit for taking steps to ensure the new MATA Administration efficiently uses public funds. Currently the Young Administration requires MATA to provide monthly documentation before the City releases operational funds to them.

However, without an audit of how MATA got into its current situation under MATA’s prior administration, the public is left in the dark. No public debate and discussion can be had without the needed information to systemically reform the public transit system. That information can likely only come from a forensic financial audit and MATA answering public information requests.

The Young administration and Councilors know that MATA, under the board leadership of Congressman Steve Cohen endorsed protégé Michael Fulton, is not answering public information requests. Congressman Cohen himself was publicly made aware of MATA’s failure to respond to a public information requests at an African Village and Cultural Center public meeting. The fact that Congressman Cohen is publicly asking for more federal dollars for MATA, while not demanding local public transparency, is foreign to me. 

And finally, at the 8/6/24 Council Transportation Committee meeting, Transportation Chair Edmund Ford said that he wanted to have this MATA inquiry wrapped up in 3 to 4 months. Well 2 months down the road, there is no financial audit contract in place. What gives? Then again MATA is not the only cover-up that seems to be happening.  

The recent decision to purchase the Sheraton was another City Council cover-up. See above video featuring Chairman JB Smiley in action.  Questions were posed regarding the Sheraton acquisition, committee meetings were then cut short, and there was no further discussion on the Sheraton matter to answer questions posed by Smiley regarding the City’s $30M acquisition of the Sheraton convention center hotel. Public coverups appear to have become standard operating procedure within local government.

Memphis will not move forward until informed public debates can be had and the concealment of public information in nonprofits and by public officials stops. Further, elitist public ripoffs must end or high crime rates and tax rates will persist.

Check The Facts

City Council Transportation Committee 8/6/24

City of Memphis FOIA Response

Daily Memphian 8/6/24