Pinellas County’s transit authority won’t be overhauled after all

The board of directors for the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority will keep its current 15-member structure, as a bill that would have overhauled the agency died in the Florida Legislature Thursday morning.

The bill, sponsored by St. Pete Beach Republican Rep. Linda Chaney, would have downsized the board to 11 members, among other measures. It passed the state House of Representatives on Monday.

But Chaney’s proposal was a local bill — it would have affected only Pinellas County — and such bills can be pulled from consideration by a single state senator after passing the House. Thursday, Sen. Darryl Rouson, D-St. Petersburg, nixed it.

In an emailed statement Thursday evening, Chaney criticized the legislative process for local bills, the transit authority’s ridership numbers and its continuing use of buses rather than smaller “micro transit” vehicles.

She also said she’d gotten some measures from her bill, including one that requires a two-thirds vote to approve lane eliminations, into a state transportation bill that applies to all public transit agencies. That bill has passed both houses.

Chaney had described her bill as an effort to increase transparency and accountability at the transit authority.

But it also would have reoriented power over the agency by taking away several seats, including those of appointed citizen members and some that are dedicated to elected officials from various cities, including St. Petersburg. The version of the bill Chaney filed in January would have also moved some power out of Pinellas by having Florida’s Senate President and Speaker of the House appoint members, though that measure was changed while the bill was in committee in February.

Rouson said Thursday that he’s open to future bills concerning the transit authority, but that they would need to be “more narrowly focused on business principles — meeting the demands of the ridership and increasing efficiency.”

“They need to be accountable and transparent, and I’m for all that,” he said. “I’m just not for totally upsetting the apple cart.”

The earliest version of Chaney’s bill, which she previewed in October, would have restructured the transit authority even more dramatically by reducing the board to nine members and giving county commissioners much more power over the agency. She narrowed its scope after backlash from people including sitting board members, some who said they saw the proposal as revenge for the SunRunner, the rapid bus line between downtown St. Petersburg and St. Pete Beach. Chaney’s district has been a locus for complaints about the route, particularly concerning its homeless ridership and the designation of some lanes as bus-and-turn lanes.

“PSTA will continue to have conversations with elected officials at every level on how to keep bringing the best possible public transit service to residents and visitors of Pinellas County,” Stephanie Weaver, a spokesperson for the transit authority, said in a statement Thursday.