BRTA Advisory Board Discusses New Administrator Contract
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The Berkshire Regional Transit Authority Advisory (BRTA) Board met Thursday to discuss the acceptance of the new administrator and their contract.
The board recently offered the position to Kathleen Lambert, former American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) project manager for Haverhill. Lambert has accepted pending contract negotiations.
The board met to discuss her three-year contract. Lambert is expected to start in December, and work with Malnati until mid-March.
The board discussed a salary range of $145,000 with room to negotiate.
The table also discussed if Lambert would have her own vehicle, which many thought wasn't needed. They also discussed reimbursing mileage or using agency vehicles. Ultimately, they referred to using the existing BRTA travel policy at the end.
During the conversation board member Rene Wood acknowledged she planned to file an open meeting violation complaint due to the contract discussion not being on the agenda.
Administrator Robert Malnati discussed the Link 413 project. The BRTA is expecting two buses. The retired busses are from Pennsylvania. These buses will help start two new routes: one will go from North Adams to Greenfield and the other will go from Pittsfield to Northampton.
Malnati also discussed BRTA ridership and said that numbers were higher than last year, also equating the higher number to the fare free program currently running. July had 67,000 riders, and August had 65,000. The BRTA plans to continue to be fare free through June next year.
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