1 00:00:08,935 --> 00:00:11,785 Paul Comfort: Hi, I'm Paul Comfort and on this episode of Transit Unplugged. 2 00:00:12,295 --> 00:00:16,225 I'm joined by a man who has done just about everything in city government and 3 00:00:16,225 --> 00:00:20,605 keeps coming back for more After a 26 year career with the Louisville Metro 4 00:00:20,605 --> 00:00:26,425 Police Department, rising all the way to Deputy Chief Ozzie Gibson retired in 2016, 5 00:00:26,875 --> 00:00:28,675 but that retirement didn't last long. 6 00:00:29,035 --> 00:00:32,755 From animal services to public health, fire to public works, and 7 00:00:32,935 --> 00:00:36,655 even overseeing the city's parks, Ozzy has taken on 11 different 8 00:00:36,655 --> 00:00:40,435 leadership roles across city government working under four different mayors. 9 00:00:41,005 --> 00:00:42,925 Talk about a public service Allstar. 10 00:00:43,495 --> 00:00:48,565 And then in December of 2023, the mayor Craig Greenberg tapped Ozzy once again. 11 00:00:48,805 --> 00:00:51,355 This time as interim executive director of tarc. 12 00:00:51,745 --> 00:00:56,995 Louisville's Transit system, the Transit Authority River City, and in July of 2024 13 00:00:56,995 --> 00:01:00,685 with the city's full confidence behind him, he was named the permanent executive 14 00:01:00,685 --> 00:01:05,575 director ready to guide TAR through a time of big change and big opportunity. 15 00:01:05,935 --> 00:01:09,205 And in this conversation we talk about a major network redesign and 16 00:01:09,205 --> 00:01:13,100 what it means for riders updates to paratransit policy that improve service. 17 00:01:13,620 --> 00:01:16,950 Partnership with a local school system, and when is the right 18 00:01:16,950 --> 00:01:18,690 time to roll out big change. 19 00:01:18,870 --> 00:01:22,980 Get ready for some great stories, some practical wisdom, and a few surprises from 20 00:01:22,980 --> 00:01:24,900 one of Transit's most versatile leaders. 21 00:01:25,170 --> 00:01:28,890 Ozzy Gibson on this episode of Transit Unplugged. 22 00:01:29,190 --> 00:01:30,810 Let's dive into the conversation. 23 00:01:32,909 --> 00:01:34,829 Ozzy, , great to have you on the show with us today. 24 00:01:35,519 --> 00:01:37,469 Ozzy Gibson: Thank you very much for having me, sir. 25 00:01:37,559 --> 00:01:37,979 Paul Comfort: Yeah. 26 00:01:37,979 --> 00:01:41,279 As I mentioned, I was down there a few years ago for a podcast with your 27 00:01:41,279 --> 00:01:45,089 predecessor, Carrie, who now is a, I think, region seven administrator 28 00:01:45,089 --> 00:01:47,579 for FTA, so, uh, I believe it is. 29 00:01:47,639 --> 00:01:48,029 Yeah. 30 00:01:48,029 --> 00:01:48,329 Yeah. 31 00:01:48,329 --> 00:01:49,619 So, uh, congratulations. 32 00:01:49,619 --> 00:01:53,249 How long you been in the role there as executive director at TAR in Louisville? 33 00:01:53,879 --> 00:01:58,259 Ozzy Gibson: I have been here, , they put me in in December of 23, and 34 00:01:58,259 --> 00:02:02,219 then, um, they were trying to do a search and then I came on full time. 35 00:02:02,609 --> 00:02:04,289 Uh, in July of 24. 36 00:02:04,589 --> 00:02:04,949 Paul Comfort: Okay. 37 00:02:04,949 --> 00:02:05,609 So, yeah. 38 00:02:05,609 --> 00:02:07,709 So going on a year and full-time in the position. 39 00:02:07,709 --> 00:02:07,799 Yep. 40 00:02:07,799 --> 00:02:08,189 That's great. 41 00:02:08,189 --> 00:02:11,219 What do you think so far, how is it, 'cause you kind of spent your career 42 00:02:11,219 --> 00:02:12,989 in law enforcement and government. 43 00:02:12,989 --> 00:02:14,279 You were the parks director and all that. 44 00:02:14,429 --> 00:02:17,759 What's it like, just, you know, kind of from a third person perspective 45 00:02:17,759 --> 00:02:19,769 coming in to be transit after all that? 46 00:02:20,759 --> 00:02:21,419 Ozzy Gibson: Absolutely. 47 00:02:21,419 --> 00:02:22,829 So the first is, uh. 48 00:02:23,489 --> 00:02:26,489 All the red tape around the federal guidelines. 49 00:02:26,579 --> 00:02:26,609 Ah, 50 00:02:26,819 --> 00:02:27,599 Paul Comfort: um, 51 00:02:27,599 --> 00:02:31,789 Ozzy Gibson: as far as, , how you can use grant money, how you, uh, all that 52 00:02:31,789 --> 00:02:35,809 stuff, uh, the different audits, uh, that was all stuff that I had to come 53 00:02:35,809 --> 00:02:38,119 up to speed on, uh, the best I could. 54 00:02:38,119 --> 00:02:38,419 But 55 00:02:38,449 --> 00:02:38,719 Paul Comfort: yeah. 56 00:02:38,819 --> 00:02:40,319 , Ozzy Gibson: Very important role here. 57 00:02:40,319 --> 00:02:43,289 You know, I've always been here, I've worked with past directors 58 00:02:43,289 --> 00:02:46,769 here on projects or if we had some type of an emergency, but 59 00:02:46,769 --> 00:02:48,089 as far as getting in the weeds. 60 00:02:48,464 --> 00:02:51,824 And looking at, um, what all they do and how often they do it. 61 00:02:51,824 --> 00:02:54,784 Uh, , I was drinking water through a fire hose, as they 62 00:02:54,784 --> 00:02:57,094 say, uh, the first few months. 63 00:02:57,334 --> 00:02:57,814 Paul Comfort: Yeah. 64 00:02:57,844 --> 00:02:58,534 Well, that's good. 65 00:02:58,534 --> 00:03:00,244 Well, welcome to the industry. 66 00:03:00,244 --> 00:03:02,944 You've got a great agency that you're heading up there, but you 67 00:03:02,944 --> 00:03:04,984 spent 26 years in law enforcement. 68 00:03:04,984 --> 00:03:08,254 Tell us about that and, and kind of what you did there and how you grew through 69 00:03:08,254 --> 00:03:09,724 the ranks and ended up with this job. 70 00:03:10,999 --> 00:03:13,909 Ozzy Gibson: Uh, there again, I started my career like in 1989 71 00:03:13,909 --> 00:03:17,629 with the, uh, the police department here and, uh, was been a detective. 72 00:03:17,879 --> 00:03:19,679 , Spent eight years on a SWAT team. 73 00:03:19,709 --> 00:03:22,704 Um, worked my way up to the assistant chief. 74 00:03:23,444 --> 00:03:27,404 Um, did all the budget, their fleet, everything like that, got promoted to 75 00:03:27,404 --> 00:03:30,134 Deputy Chief, which was their car two, 76 00:03:30,694 --> 00:03:33,844 , Paul Comfort: I salute you for your service, uh, and I'm really 77 00:03:33,844 --> 00:03:36,514 happy you're in our industry now because I'm sure you've got a lot 78 00:03:36,514 --> 00:03:37,654 of lessons you brought with you. 79 00:03:37,894 --> 00:03:39,904 But first, how did you go into parks? 80 00:03:40,084 --> 00:03:42,484 Because like, were you retired and then the mayor asked you to come back and 81 00:03:42,484 --> 00:03:43,804 become the head of parks or something? 82 00:03:44,164 --> 00:03:44,944 Ozzy Gibson: Oh Lord. 83 00:03:44,944 --> 00:03:48,154 So like when, when, when they called me and asked me to come back, I actually 84 00:03:48,154 --> 00:03:50,344 took over the, our animal shelter here. 85 00:03:50,399 --> 00:03:50,429 Okay. 86 00:03:50,819 --> 00:03:54,539 'cause it was in such disarray and they needed to build a new shelter. 87 00:03:54,539 --> 00:03:57,239 So, uh, I said, look, I'll jump in. 88 00:03:57,239 --> 00:03:59,759 I think it'll take us about three years to turn it around. 89 00:03:59,759 --> 00:04:01,409 We'll, we'll do some fundraising. 90 00:04:01,739 --> 00:04:05,489 We ended up building like a $12 million state-of-the-art facility. 91 00:04:05,729 --> 00:04:09,989 Um, worked hard with some people there, turned it into a no kill shelter 92 00:04:10,259 --> 00:04:12,659 for the first time in like 30 years. 93 00:04:12,989 --> 00:04:14,819 And I actually started liking it. 94 00:04:14,819 --> 00:04:19,289 And then, um, we actually had, uh. 95 00:04:20,249 --> 00:04:24,239 My boss, like about two, almost two and a half years in, who 96 00:04:24,239 --> 00:04:26,069 was over like six departments. 97 00:04:26,069 --> 00:04:27,419 He was like a deputy mayor. 98 00:04:27,689 --> 00:04:31,529 Well, he up and retired and they asked me to take his role and I'm 99 00:04:31,529 --> 00:04:32,939 like, man, I don't wanna be that. 100 00:04:33,029 --> 00:04:34,619 I don't sure that's what I wanna do. 101 00:04:34,619 --> 00:04:37,679 I really kind of like this, but I, I'll, I'll do it in, 102 00:04:37,949 --> 00:04:39,449 uh, until you find somebody. 103 00:04:39,449 --> 00:04:44,669 So at that time I was over corrections fire department, um, 104 00:04:44,669 --> 00:04:46,619 fleet facilities, public works. 105 00:04:47,009 --> 00:04:48,149 Um, wow. 106 00:04:48,304 --> 00:04:50,039 9 1 1. That's a big portfolio, man. 107 00:04:50,459 --> 00:04:51,539 It was a big one. 108 00:04:51,539 --> 00:04:54,839 And then we, I did that for about five months and we found a lady, they 109 00:04:54,839 --> 00:04:59,429 actually hired the, a lady named Amy Hess, who was the like number, uh, 110 00:04:59,429 --> 00:05:01,679 the highest ranking female in the FBI. 111 00:05:02,459 --> 00:05:02,669 Paul Comfort: Oh wow. 112 00:05:02,669 --> 00:05:03,029 And, 113 00:05:03,059 --> 00:05:04,739 Ozzy Gibson: um, she came into town. 114 00:05:05,009 --> 00:05:06,959 I transitioned out in 30 days. 115 00:05:06,959 --> 00:05:09,749 I got to go back to the animal shelter and covid hit. 116 00:05:10,214 --> 00:05:15,464 Um, and then they, uh, I have an IMT background, obviously 117 00:05:15,464 --> 00:05:16,334 from the police department. 118 00:05:16,334 --> 00:05:17,834 So you, we set all that up. 119 00:05:18,254 --> 00:05:21,284 Month later, they said, Hey, will you be the chief over the health department? 120 00:05:21,284 --> 00:05:22,514 I'm like, uh, sure. 121 00:05:22,514 --> 00:05:23,984 Always wanted to be over a health department. 122 00:05:23,984 --> 00:05:24,464 Why not? 123 00:05:24,464 --> 00:05:28,514 So, wow, Ozzy, I kind of took that on and stayed with that mayor. 124 00:05:28,514 --> 00:05:31,284 His name was Greg Fisher, and, , finished out that row. 125 00:05:31,284 --> 00:05:35,214 I actually ended up getting public works and fleet facilities back and 126 00:05:35,214 --> 00:05:37,914 then took on Riverport authority here. 127 00:05:37,944 --> 00:05:42,234 So I kind of did all of that through the end of, uh, that administration. 128 00:05:42,234 --> 00:05:45,804 When I met our new mayor, Craig Greenberg, a man who's doing a great job. 129 00:05:46,164 --> 00:05:49,614 Um, he asked me, would you go take over to parks department? 130 00:05:50,304 --> 00:05:53,394 So I'm like, okay, uh, you know, I'm assigned to the animal shelter, 131 00:05:53,394 --> 00:05:54,504 but I'm gonna help you out there. 132 00:05:54,504 --> 00:05:56,034 And, uh, it was great. 133 00:05:56,034 --> 00:05:59,274 Uh, there about a year and a half and he come to me and said, look, I need you. 134 00:05:59,274 --> 00:06:01,464 Will you go to TARC and take over that? 135 00:06:01,464 --> 00:06:03,174 And I had always told him. 136 00:06:03,594 --> 00:06:07,074 You know, I'll do anything I can to help you to make our city great. 137 00:06:07,344 --> 00:06:09,264 If that's where you need me, that's where I'm gonna go. 138 00:06:09,264 --> 00:06:10,974 So here I sit. 139 00:06:11,064 --> 00:06:11,514 Paul Comfort: That's fine. 140 00:06:11,514 --> 00:06:14,544 A true public servant willing to go where you're as to man. 141 00:06:14,874 --> 00:06:15,324 Wow. 142 00:06:15,324 --> 00:06:16,314 What a great story. 143 00:06:16,314 --> 00:06:19,704 Ozzy, you, you and I were talking, sharing offline here that I, I 144 00:06:19,704 --> 00:06:22,224 have a background in, in government too, local county government. 145 00:06:22,224 --> 00:06:24,684 So I really appreciate all those jobs you held. 146 00:06:24,684 --> 00:06:25,584 That's amazing. 147 00:06:25,794 --> 00:06:29,334 What, uh, what did you take from all that coming into tarc? 148 00:06:29,334 --> 00:06:31,344 I mean, do you have any leadership lessons or thing? 149 00:06:31,344 --> 00:06:32,034 'cause you've done. 150 00:06:32,379 --> 00:06:34,599 You know, just about everything there is to do in local government. 151 00:06:34,839 --> 00:06:36,519 What do you bring into that to transit? 152 00:06:37,103 --> 00:06:41,063 Ozzy Gibson: Well, you know, if I was to describe myself, I don't like to lose. 153 00:06:41,573 --> 00:06:45,743 And that's how I look at things, man, as I, if you pay me, I work and I 154 00:06:45,743 --> 00:06:49,283 hold myself, uh, to a high standard. 155 00:06:49,283 --> 00:06:51,953 I run it like I own it, and my life depends on it. 156 00:06:52,283 --> 00:06:54,203 Um, I ask a lot of questions. 157 00:06:54,563 --> 00:06:56,873 Um, I believe in holding people accountable. 158 00:06:57,233 --> 00:07:00,563 Um, you know, because people say, well, how can you do those many jobs? 159 00:07:00,563 --> 00:07:04,103 I said, well, once you've done many jobs as you know yourself, 160 00:07:04,421 --> 00:07:07,391 down in the weeds, it's always gonna be the same little issues. 161 00:07:07,396 --> 00:07:11,976 Whether, whether it's an employee issue, it could be, you, the same little problems 162 00:07:11,976 --> 00:07:15,666 will occur in all places, but if you seek out what are you supposed to be 163 00:07:15,666 --> 00:07:17,586 doing at all those agencies to be great. 164 00:07:18,000 --> 00:07:21,480 that's what you have to seek out and you have to make those things important 165 00:07:21,630 --> 00:07:23,280 throughout the whole organization. 166 00:07:23,610 --> 00:07:27,881 So like when I, when I come here, all kinds of stuff to learn, but we are 167 00:07:27,881 --> 00:07:31,361 supposed to be putting service out and we need to make sure that service 168 00:07:31,361 --> 00:07:33,401 goes out and we need to be on time. 169 00:07:33,431 --> 00:07:36,401 If we can't do those two things, we're gonna fail. 170 00:07:37,061 --> 00:07:40,240 And it's just that simple, a lot of working things to make that happen. 171 00:07:40,240 --> 00:07:44,200 But when I got here, that to me was, Hey, we gotta, you know, plus 172 00:07:44,260 --> 00:07:47,080 you were in the political world, so you talk to other people like, Hey, 173 00:07:47,080 --> 00:07:48,700 what do you hear about this agency? 174 00:07:48,700 --> 00:07:52,300 And if you create a good working relationship in your community 175 00:07:52,570 --> 00:07:55,630 with your local politicians, you're gonna get a lot of information that 176 00:07:55,630 --> 00:07:57,640 comes up through them from citizens. 177 00:07:58,150 --> 00:08:00,850 And then you can start, how do you, how do you build something back? 178 00:08:01,644 --> 00:08:03,774 Paul Comfort: Uh, so what did you, what, what was your biggest challenges 179 00:08:03,774 --> 00:08:06,804 when you got there and, and, uh, have you been able to resolve them? 180 00:08:06,804 --> 00:08:09,769 It sounded like, you came in and you were, uh, you had like a, a 181 00:08:09,769 --> 00:08:12,799 vision, a focus of what you felt like the most important things were. 182 00:08:13,849 --> 00:08:16,909 Ozzy Gibson: Yeah, so the biggest thing here is we were, we, like 183 00:08:16,909 --> 00:08:20,449 everybody or many other cities are facing a big financial cliff. 184 00:08:20,801 --> 00:08:23,291 I knew we had one and it was, uh, when I come in it was 185 00:08:23,441 --> 00:08:25,181 estimated at about 30 million. 186 00:08:25,511 --> 00:08:28,451 And once I got here and started studying up on this field, it sounds 187 00:08:28,451 --> 00:08:32,501 like there's other cities that are, have bigger financial cliffs coming. 188 00:08:33,011 --> 00:08:37,061 So when I started drilling down and people ask me questions, well, you know, as well 189 00:08:37,061 --> 00:08:40,521 as I do if when you're in government, when you're talking that kind of money, to get 190 00:08:40,521 --> 00:08:42,561 that, you're talking about a tax increase. 191 00:08:42,651 --> 00:08:42,921 Okay. 192 00:08:42,951 --> 00:08:45,141 Especially as a small town like Louisville. 193 00:08:45,351 --> 00:08:45,471 Yeah. 194 00:08:45,501 --> 00:08:48,261 And you know, you look at the cities that are thriving. 195 00:08:48,891 --> 00:08:52,821 Well, they all did things back in 2018 around me. 196 00:08:52,821 --> 00:08:58,161 2018, 2020, got indie sensing and Nashville obviously packs packed one. 197 00:08:58,161 --> 00:08:58,401 So what I, the. 198 00:08:59,976 --> 00:09:03,726 That was the biggest hurdle is trying to get my arms around that and what it was. 199 00:09:03,726 --> 00:09:07,716 Because, you know, the first thing people say that don't know public 200 00:09:07,716 --> 00:09:09,846 transit is, well, what happened? 201 00:09:09,846 --> 00:09:11,106 How do you, how are you that short? 202 00:09:11,106 --> 00:09:12,276 You know, we give you money. 203 00:09:12,276 --> 00:09:13,086 What happened? 204 00:09:13,236 --> 00:09:14,226 What are you doing with the money? 205 00:09:14,226 --> 00:09:15,786 And it's like, well, not really here. 206 00:09:15,816 --> 00:09:18,696 Let me show you some numbers here on revenue hours. 207 00:09:18,696 --> 00:09:20,549 And when I kind of look at this. 208 00:09:21,105 --> 00:09:24,735 ridership, it seems like across the country since 2012 it started 209 00:09:24,735 --> 00:09:28,305 slipping and it did it here probably a couple years sooner. 210 00:09:28,635 --> 00:09:31,185 And you know, at that point you can't undo time. 211 00:09:31,185 --> 00:09:36,495 But we've probably operated too big here too long and probably should have 212 00:09:36,495 --> 00:09:38,625 made some cuts every couple years. 213 00:09:38,955 --> 00:09:40,605 And we, we didn't do that. 214 00:09:40,605 --> 00:09:42,585 And now we gotta pay the piper. 215 00:09:43,084 --> 00:09:44,914 Paul Comfort: Well, when we come back, I'll ask you about that. 216 00:09:44,914 --> 00:09:47,884 I'll ask you to tell us about your network redesign that you had, 217 00:09:47,884 --> 00:09:51,364 the great consultant Jared Walker work on, and some other updates 218 00:09:51,364 --> 00:09:52,744 that you've done to policies. 219 00:09:52,744 --> 00:09:56,314 I think it'll be fascinating now for our listeners to hear, you know, what 220 00:09:56,314 --> 00:09:57,814 did you do about those challenges? 221 00:09:57,814 --> 00:09:58,054 Right? 222 00:09:58,054 --> 00:10:00,094 When we come back after this with Ozzie Gibson, 223 00:10:00,394 --> 00:10:01,624 executive director of Tar 224 00:10:03,324 --> 00:10:06,444 Julie Gates: Hi, I am Julie Gates, executive producer at Transit Unplugged. 225 00:10:06,474 --> 00:10:07,794 Thank you so much for listening. 226 00:10:08,154 --> 00:10:12,264 You may have noticed Transit Unplugged has a brand new logo and a refreshed look. 227 00:10:12,684 --> 00:10:16,704 After nearly a decade of telling Transit's greatest stories, we've made a number of 228 00:10:16,734 --> 00:10:18,714 upgrades to keep pace with the industry. 229 00:10:18,714 --> 00:10:20,574 This changing faster than ever. 230 00:10:21,234 --> 00:10:26,184 Whether you listen to Transit Podcast for executive conversations, watch transit, 231 00:10:26,184 --> 00:10:30,624 unplug TV for food, travel and transit adventures, or get your headlines with 232 00:10:30,624 --> 00:10:32,029 the Transit Unplugged News Minute. 233 00:10:32,559 --> 00:10:36,549 We're committed to telling transit story in bigger and better ways. 234 00:10:37,059 --> 00:10:37,929 Stay tuned. 235 00:10:37,959 --> 00:10:39,939 There's even more coming later this year. 236 00:10:40,449 --> 00:10:43,659 Thanks for being on this journey with U.S. and thanks for 237 00:10:43,659 --> 00:10:44,379 listening to Transit Unplugged. 238 00:10:45,100 --> 00:10:48,206 Paul Comfort: We're back with Ozzy Gibson, who was the executive director 239 00:10:48,206 --> 00:10:50,216 of the Transit Authority of River City. 240 00:10:50,456 --> 00:10:51,986 So you guys are on a river, right? 241 00:10:51,986 --> 00:10:52,286 Ozzy? 242 00:10:53,276 --> 00:10:53,966 We are on a river. 243 00:10:54,506 --> 00:10:55,526 What river is that? 244 00:10:56,156 --> 00:10:57,266 That's the Ohio River. 245 00:10:57,326 --> 00:10:58,556 The Ohio River, that's right. 246 00:10:58,556 --> 00:10:58,766 Yeah. 247 00:10:58,766 --> 00:11:02,306 I've been there actually, when I was there last time, I was there for a 248 00:11:02,306 --> 00:11:04,136 conference of some type and I missed it. 249 00:11:04,136 --> 00:11:07,946 We were gonna go to where the Kentucky Derby is held and have like a reception 250 00:11:07,946 --> 00:11:09,566 there or something and I, I had to leave. 251 00:11:09,566 --> 00:11:09,866 I couldn't. 252 00:11:10,196 --> 00:11:11,306 Man, I was so bummed out about it. 253 00:11:11,306 --> 00:11:12,716 But that's the big thing out there, right? 254 00:11:12,716 --> 00:11:14,006 You got, you just had it. 255 00:11:14,006 --> 00:11:16,256 I mean, when we're recording this, you just had it a couple weeks ago. 256 00:11:16,946 --> 00:11:17,486 Ozzy Gibson: We did. 257 00:11:17,486 --> 00:11:17,996 Awesome. 258 00:11:17,996 --> 00:11:22,226 I can tell you this, unfortunately, I had to, I was a policeman for 26 years 259 00:11:22,226 --> 00:11:24,626 and I got to work 26 of straight derbies. 260 00:11:24,711 --> 00:11:24,931 Oh. 261 00:11:25,271 --> 00:11:26,156 Paul Comfort: So, oh man. 262 00:11:26,816 --> 00:11:27,986 How many people come to town? 263 00:11:28,106 --> 00:11:28,226 Bad. 264 00:11:28,496 --> 00:11:29,336 Ozzy Gibson: How many people come to 265 00:11:29,336 --> 00:11:30,446 Paul Comfort: town for the Kentucky Derby? 266 00:11:30,446 --> 00:11:31,016 Ozzy Gibson: Do you know? 267 00:11:31,106 --> 00:11:31,646 Oh Lord. 268 00:11:31,646 --> 00:11:36,116 They average anywhere from 140,000 up to 175,000. 269 00:11:36,446 --> 00:11:37,136 Paul Comfort: Wow. 270 00:11:37,136 --> 00:11:37,226 So, 271 00:11:37,226 --> 00:11:39,206 Ozzy Gibson: uh, it's a big deal for Louisville. 272 00:11:39,206 --> 00:11:43,406 You know, it's, uh, what this was the hundred and 51st Kentucky 273 00:11:43,406 --> 00:11:45,446 Derby, so it's 151 years old. 274 00:11:45,446 --> 00:11:48,716 And you know, when you look across our country at other big events, there's just 275 00:11:48,986 --> 00:11:51,566 very few that's been going on that long. 276 00:11:51,626 --> 00:11:52,166 Paul Comfort: That's right. 277 00:11:52,166 --> 00:11:52,346 Yeah. 278 00:11:52,346 --> 00:11:55,886 Part of the Triple Crown for those people who watch it here in Baltimore, we've got 279 00:11:55,886 --> 00:11:58,376 a piece of that action, uh, with Pimlico 280 00:11:58,376 --> 00:12:00,356 . And then, uh, where's the other one up in New York? 281 00:12:00,356 --> 00:12:00,626 Right. 282 00:12:01,316 --> 00:12:01,466 Ozzy Gibson: Yeah. 283 00:12:01,466 --> 00:12:02,066 Belmont. 284 00:12:02,186 --> 00:12:03,056 Paul Comfort: Belmont, that's right. 285 00:12:03,056 --> 00:12:03,266 Yeah. 286 00:12:03,266 --> 00:12:03,926 The Triple Crown. 287 00:12:03,926 --> 00:12:07,076 Last time we had one of those, been a while, a winner, but, um, 288 00:12:07,286 --> 00:12:09,686 I'm, I'm assuming obviously in law enforcement you were involved, 289 00:12:09,686 --> 00:12:11,126 but does Transit get involved too? 290 00:12:11,126 --> 00:12:13,706 Do you guys add extra service and things for those big events? 291 00:12:14,486 --> 00:12:19,136 Ozzy Gibson: We actually, um, do not, they contract out a lot of that, uh, okay. 292 00:12:19,136 --> 00:12:24,506 Around the track because they, they, uh, move people to the football 293 00:12:24,506 --> 00:12:28,376 stadium is where people, uh, gather and then they, 'cause that's not, 294 00:12:28,376 --> 00:12:32,366 that's only like, uh, maybe about a. Half a mile or a mile from the track. 295 00:12:32,366 --> 00:12:37,976 So it disrupts our service because they block all the streets around the track. 296 00:12:37,976 --> 00:12:41,066 So we have to make a lot of adjustments, do a lot of community 297 00:12:41,066 --> 00:12:42,416 outreach to let people know. 298 00:12:42,416 --> 00:12:45,386 But most people that live here use public transit. 299 00:12:45,386 --> 00:12:48,626 They know exactly what's gonna happen when the Kentucky Derby's going. 300 00:12:49,251 --> 00:12:52,191 Paul Comfort: so let's talk about, you had mentioned right before the break 301 00:12:52,191 --> 00:12:57,489 that, You really analyzed your service and realize that ridership was maybe less 302 00:12:57,489 --> 00:12:59,589 than what the service was out there doing. 303 00:12:59,589 --> 00:13:02,439 And I know I've heard people in the past, you know, say, well, what do you 304 00:13:02,439 --> 00:13:04,179 got these buses running half empty for? 305 00:13:04,179 --> 00:13:04,869 And things like that. 306 00:13:04,869 --> 00:13:07,809 And so you're constantly working on efficiency of the routes. 307 00:13:08,019 --> 00:13:10,989 Tell us what you've done, uh, to redesign your network. 308 00:13:10,989 --> 00:13:12,399 'cause a lot of cities have done this. 309 00:13:13,464 --> 00:13:16,614 Ozzy Gibson: Yeah, so like when I took over, I think they had gotten 310 00:13:16,614 --> 00:13:18,204 a grant from the federal government. 311 00:13:18,204 --> 00:13:23,574 They, uh, they're getting, uh, Jared Walker and Associates, uh, won it and they 312 00:13:23,574 --> 00:13:26,004 were gonna come up with like two concepts. 313 00:13:26,244 --> 00:13:27,984 They were hoping to grow actually. 314 00:13:28,339 --> 00:13:32,989 , But I think as we know now to grow, when you talk, if you're gonna increase 315 00:13:32,989 --> 00:13:34,489 taxes, you just don't go do that. 316 00:13:34,489 --> 00:13:35,899 It's a longer process. 317 00:13:36,259 --> 00:13:38,539 So we had two, when I got here, there was two maps. 318 00:13:38,539 --> 00:13:42,799 There was one that was a 50% cut constrained network that 319 00:13:42,799 --> 00:13:44,599 would've, uh, really gutted tar. 320 00:13:44,869 --> 00:13:47,179 And then there was a growth plan that was gonna require 321 00:13:47,179 --> 00:13:48,919 like 50 million to grow to that. 322 00:13:49,369 --> 00:13:54,289 So I was able to sit down with Jared Walker and another guy to scutter wag. 323 00:13:54,664 --> 00:13:58,204 Um, who is, uh, on this project with us and said, look, I, I, 324 00:13:58,234 --> 00:13:59,434 we gotta have a better option. 325 00:13:59,824 --> 00:14:02,794 So we was able to come back to the table and I said, look, we gotta 326 00:14:02,794 --> 00:14:04,084 come up something we can live with. 327 00:14:04,444 --> 00:14:09,183 So, like, uh, in our community right now, people with the CDL is a premium and we 328 00:14:09,183 --> 00:14:11,613 struggle to get, uh, school bus drivers. 329 00:14:12,063 --> 00:14:17,163 So at the same time, um, our school district, uh, this is over a year ago 330 00:14:17,163 --> 00:14:20,163 because there again, if I do a constraint cut, I got a $30 million budget. 331 00:14:20,553 --> 00:14:22,173 Uh, that was layoffs. 332 00:14:22,263 --> 00:14:23,793 Well, nobody wants to lay nobody off. 333 00:14:23,793 --> 00:14:26,583 You lose a CDL driver and you, nobody wants to do that, so. 334 00:14:26,583 --> 00:14:26,763 That's 335 00:14:26,763 --> 00:14:27,003 Paul Comfort: right. 336 00:14:27,003 --> 00:14:27,123 Yeah. 337 00:14:27,183 --> 00:14:27,423 We was 338 00:14:27,423 --> 00:14:31,803 Ozzy Gibson: able to partner with the schools and we actually, um, I reduced 339 00:14:31,803 --> 00:14:36,453 some service to free up drivers to buy me time in the budget, which was 340 00:14:36,453 --> 00:14:38,671 like saving, eight to 10 million. 341 00:14:38,761 --> 00:14:42,811 And we leased our bus drivers to the school system so they didn't have to, 342 00:14:43,116 --> 00:14:45,726 They didn't have enough bus drivers that they were gonna tell kids, Hey, we 343 00:14:45,726 --> 00:14:47,616 can't get you to these magnet schools. 344 00:14:48,036 --> 00:14:50,946 So we worked out agreement with the Teamsters, uh, a TU 345 00:14:50,946 --> 00:14:52,836 Union, everybody come together. 346 00:14:52,836 --> 00:14:54,456 The mayor, politicians, we leased them. 347 00:14:54,486 --> 00:14:55,566 They brought back some schools. 348 00:14:56,151 --> 00:14:59,781 And then as I talk, started talking to, uh, Jared Walker and 349 00:14:59,781 --> 00:15:03,951 Scudder, it's like, look, how do we design some type of network 350 00:15:03,951 --> 00:15:05,721 within the amount of money we have? 351 00:15:05,841 --> 00:15:09,381 We know we're gonna have, that will get us to some of these schools. 352 00:15:10,011 --> 00:15:13,633 Because it seemed like across the country, a lot of public transportation, they 353 00:15:13,633 --> 00:15:15,343 intertwined with the school systems. 354 00:15:15,838 --> 00:15:18,448 And I don't think we have done a very good job of that here in 355 00:15:18,658 --> 00:15:19,978 Louisville over the last 20 years. 356 00:15:19,978 --> 00:15:23,818 So he come back with a good plan that we can implement. 357 00:15:23,848 --> 00:15:30,808 Uh, it is probably, hopefully next August of 26 that is better than for our riders 358 00:15:30,808 --> 00:15:34,648 that we're on now and get us to those magnet schools that we took it a step 359 00:15:34,648 --> 00:15:38,758 further that we could go to all of our high schools here in Jefferson County. 360 00:15:38,788 --> 00:15:41,548 So, um, appreciate their work. 361 00:15:41,548 --> 00:15:42,928 We made that happen and. 362 00:15:43,288 --> 00:15:45,628 Looking forward to finishing that project up. 363 00:15:46,018 --> 00:15:46,618 Paul Comfort: That's great. 364 00:15:46,948 --> 00:15:50,908 Louisville has around 625,000 people, I think, in the city proper. 365 00:15:51,058 --> 00:15:53,008 Of course, you serve even a larger area, right? 366 00:15:53,008 --> 00:15:54,478 You go some into the suburbs there. 367 00:15:54,478 --> 00:15:54,538 Yeah. 368 00:15:54,778 --> 00:15:57,028 Tell us about the size and scope of your system. 369 00:15:58,078 --> 00:16:01,438 Ozzy Gibson: Yeah, so like right now, we probably, when I took over, we were 370 00:16:01,438 --> 00:16:05,848 operating on about 600,000 revenue hours. 371 00:16:05,938 --> 00:16:06,598 Okay. 372 00:16:06,598 --> 00:16:06,599 Okay. 373 00:16:06,688 --> 00:16:09,358 On $114 million budget. 374 00:16:09,658 --> 00:16:16,018 So like when I compare us to like just Indianapolis, um, they are doing 375 00:16:16,078 --> 00:16:24,328 about, they were doing 590,000 revenue hours with $146 million budget. 376 00:16:25,228 --> 00:16:29,128 So we were getting a bang for our buck, but we're, we're going in a hole. 377 00:16:29,128 --> 00:16:34,468 So we've reduced now down to about 400, uh, thousand service hours, 378 00:16:34,858 --> 00:16:36,628 and I still have the same ridership. 379 00:16:37,258 --> 00:16:39,748 Wow for boardings per month. 380 00:16:39,748 --> 00:16:44,458 So yeah, that tells me, going back to what I said earlier, that we should 381 00:16:44,458 --> 00:16:50,818 have probably cut many, many years ago, uh, and redesigned our network. 382 00:16:50,818 --> 00:16:54,658 And so as long as we keep our boardings up, and we do anywhere from 383 00:16:54,658 --> 00:16:58,348 475,000 to 530 boardings a month. 384 00:16:58,828 --> 00:17:02,698 Um, in 2012, as I mentioned, they were doing a million, and 385 00:17:02,698 --> 00:17:04,558 then covid hit obviously in just. 386 00:17:05,713 --> 00:17:07,033 To apart across the country. 387 00:17:07,273 --> 00:17:07,573 Paul Comfort: Yes. 388 00:17:08,653 --> 00:17:09,283 Interesting. 389 00:17:09,733 --> 00:17:14,053 And, uh, how are you doing, uh, your pre, you know, like 2019 ridership 390 00:17:14,053 --> 00:17:15,523 just before the pandemic to now? 391 00:17:15,853 --> 00:17:17,233 Do you know what percentage you're at? 392 00:17:17,293 --> 00:17:19,303 A lot of 'em are like 70, 75%. 393 00:17:20,173 --> 00:17:20,323 Ozzy Gibson: Yeah. 394 00:17:20,323 --> 00:17:21,763 I don't think we've got that back yet. 395 00:17:21,793 --> 00:17:21,823 Okay. 396 00:17:21,823 --> 00:17:26,023 I think we're, we, we haven't, it hasn't come back as bad like that. 397 00:17:26,113 --> 00:17:26,263 Um. 398 00:17:27,388 --> 00:17:28,678 But it is what it is. 399 00:17:28,768 --> 00:17:29,128 Paul Comfort: Yeah. 400 00:17:29,248 --> 00:17:29,428 Yeah. 401 00:17:29,428 --> 00:17:30,058 That's interesting. 402 00:17:30,268 --> 00:17:31,468 You got anything new you're doing? 403 00:17:31,768 --> 00:17:34,678 any new services or you, you're doing something on paratransit, right? 404 00:17:34,678 --> 00:17:35,908 You got some new policies there? 405 00:17:36,778 --> 00:17:39,238 Ozzy Gibson: Yeah, because I started looking at that, you know, I'm a, 406 00:17:39,238 --> 00:17:43,093 one thing I brought from me from the police department was I. Um, 407 00:17:43,453 --> 00:17:46,213 you know, they do, you've probably heard of louis sta com stat where 408 00:17:46,213 --> 00:17:47,653 they compare the numbers nationally. 409 00:17:47,653 --> 00:17:47,713 Yeah. 410 00:17:47,713 --> 00:17:48,703 You get to FBI. 411 00:17:48,913 --> 00:17:53,173 Well, I'm, I was big into that, so, uh, there again, I compare us to other places 412 00:17:53,173 --> 00:17:58,123 and what I learned is obviously the, you know, the federal guidelines are the 413 00:17:58,123 --> 00:18:01,903 three quarter mile that you, you don't have to go off of that or out of it. 414 00:18:02,173 --> 00:18:03,553 A lot of guidelines around that. 415 00:18:03,553 --> 00:18:06,793 When I started looking, I think we've been very gracious and 416 00:18:06,793 --> 00:18:08,113 we've never done that, ever. 417 00:18:08,173 --> 00:18:09,853 Whenever we made service changes. 418 00:18:10,213 --> 00:18:16,363 And like right now we're doing 31,000 trips a month and I compare us to Sensei 419 00:18:16,363 --> 00:18:18,763 and Indy and they're doing about 14 or 15. 420 00:18:18,763 --> 00:18:23,413 So we are work working with them to get their policies. 421 00:18:23,743 --> 00:18:27,643 I'm gonna be bringing on, I brought out bringing in a, a, a lady in our community 422 00:18:27,643 --> 00:18:33,163 that, um, is an attorney and, and she is disabled and she's gonna help us look at 423 00:18:33,163 --> 00:18:38,563 all the, um, other cities to see what, what should we be incorporating because. 424 00:18:39,148 --> 00:18:43,318 Um, there again, I'm spending I think approximately $20 million a 425 00:18:43,318 --> 00:18:46,408 year and it's growing at about 8%. 426 00:18:46,828 --> 00:18:50,278 Um, and you know, I told you what our budget was, was 114. 427 00:18:50,278 --> 00:18:55,063 And realistically, after we do this, um, I. Route changes and we bring 428 00:18:55,063 --> 00:18:58,753 it all in to where we're operating in, in the green, I call it, we're 429 00:18:58,753 --> 00:19:01,603 gonna be about $102 million tar. 430 00:19:01,903 --> 00:19:07,333 So when you look at $20 million out of our budget, obviously that's 20%. 431 00:19:07,333 --> 00:19:11,164 So, what happens here every time, if we don't have money, we can't 432 00:19:11,164 --> 00:19:14,824 keep cutting the fixed routes or we're not gonna have nothing left. 433 00:19:15,724 --> 00:19:16,054 Paul Comfort: Yeah. 434 00:19:16,474 --> 00:19:18,844 So you're gonna look at all that and you brought in a, a, a 435 00:19:18,844 --> 00:19:20,404 community advisor to help you do so. 436 00:19:21,259 --> 00:19:21,559 Ozzy Gibson: Yep. 437 00:19:21,559 --> 00:19:23,449 Brought her in as that she'll be on contract. 438 00:19:23,479 --> 00:19:26,359 Um, and that way it, it's everybody. 439 00:19:26,479 --> 00:19:30,919 I, I look, you know, I've, I've tried working with our DI disability 440 00:19:30,919 --> 00:19:34,549 community is, I just wanna be upfront and honest and just, you 441 00:19:34,549 --> 00:19:36,283 know, and my goal here is that I. 442 00:19:36,538 --> 00:19:41,098 If 31,000 is the number, then we need Louisville. 443 00:19:41,098 --> 00:19:43,078 Kentucky needs to learn to budget for that. 444 00:19:43,318 --> 00:19:43,618 Paul Comfort: Yeah. 445 00:19:43,803 --> 00:19:44,093 Ozzy Gibson: Yeah. 446 00:19:44,938 --> 00:19:46,978 Paul Comfort: And do you contract that work out or do you operate 447 00:19:46,978 --> 00:19:48,388 it in-house, your para transfer? 448 00:19:48,388 --> 00:19:49,108 We do contract 449 00:19:49,108 --> 00:19:50,308 Ozzy Gibson: that out through mv. 450 00:19:51,218 --> 00:19:53,528 Paul Comfort: Any other things you wanna bring out that you're working 451 00:19:53,528 --> 00:19:54,788 on or what you're hoping for? 452 00:19:55,762 --> 00:19:58,612 Ozzy Gibson: there again, you know, what I've done is just got back to the. 453 00:19:58,741 --> 00:20:02,341 Basics here and from, uh, you know, I, I explained it real simple. 454 00:20:02,341 --> 00:20:07,621 Everybody that gets paid by TARC needs to be contributing to our on time performance 455 00:20:07,861 --> 00:20:09,781 and making sure work gets out every day. 456 00:20:10,081 --> 00:20:16,201 Um, I think when I took over, we, we were trending in 24 at 67% on time, 457 00:20:16,531 --> 00:20:19,111 and we've got increased that to 77. 458 00:20:19,471 --> 00:20:25,021 Um, our work not going out of pieces of routes or whatever was trending at 5%. 459 00:20:26,086 --> 00:20:29,986 I told 'em, I said, lookie and them, they're all at 0.20 0.40. 460 00:20:29,986 --> 00:20:30,916 I said, that's taboo. 461 00:20:30,916 --> 00:20:33,526 You can't, you say you're gonna put a route out, you gotta do that. 462 00:20:33,526 --> 00:20:37,606 You gotta, your community has to respect you and wanna ride, and 463 00:20:37,816 --> 00:20:40,906 you'll never get riders back if you can't be where you're supposed to be. 464 00:20:40,906 --> 00:20:46,246 So we've cut that down to about 1.45 now, and we're gonna continue that. 465 00:20:46,246 --> 00:20:48,556 And everybody's engaged now and understanding that, 466 00:20:48,556 --> 00:20:49,816 hey, we have to do this. 467 00:20:50,326 --> 00:20:52,336 And, uh, very proud of that so far. 468 00:20:52,336 --> 00:20:56,236 And, uh, if we can get these routes redesigned, uh, next year, that, 469 00:20:56,236 --> 00:21:00,436 uh, we'll, you know, Jared Walker is saying it's gonna be a better service. 470 00:21:00,736 --> 00:21:03,466 When I look at our maps, I call it spaghetti because we've got a lot of 471 00:21:03,466 --> 00:21:04,966 routes out there that make no sense. 472 00:21:04,966 --> 00:21:05,176 I. Yeah. 473 00:21:05,359 --> 00:21:07,819 and that's when you hear that from people, like, I see buses 474 00:21:07,819 --> 00:21:08,779 all over the place empty. 475 00:21:08,779 --> 00:21:12,289 Well do understand though that we do exchange out on the street and 476 00:21:12,379 --> 00:21:16,099 empty bus goes out, takes over, and a lot of people don't understand. 477 00:21:16,159 --> 00:21:16,519 But 478 00:21:16,549 --> 00:21:16,939 Paul Comfort: yeah. 479 00:21:16,969 --> 00:21:18,709 Uh, no, that's a really good point. 480 00:21:19,129 --> 00:21:22,399 A lot of those routes, Ozzy, that I've seen, like in Baltimore, they 481 00:21:22,399 --> 00:21:26,809 were, um, adjusted over the years through individual requests, you know. 482 00:21:26,809 --> 00:21:28,279 Oh, can you bring a bus stop over here? 483 00:21:28,279 --> 00:21:28,369 Yes. 484 00:21:28,399 --> 00:21:29,479 Can you bring one over there? 485 00:21:29,704 --> 00:21:31,444 And eventually it looks like spaghetti. 486 00:21:31,444 --> 00:21:32,464 It's not a straight line. 487 00:21:32,464 --> 00:21:34,984 So you gotta go through every now and then to straighten things out, don't you? 488 00:21:35,644 --> 00:21:36,424 Ozzy Gibson: A hundred percent. 489 00:21:36,424 --> 00:21:39,514 You know when I asked when Scooter, when I met Scooter Wag, Jerry Walker, I 490 00:21:39,514 --> 00:21:41,284 said, you guys have been here one month. 491 00:21:41,284 --> 00:21:42,214 Tell me what you see. 492 00:21:42,214 --> 00:21:43,744 I said, because I see empty buses. 493 00:21:43,744 --> 00:21:45,484 He goes, Ozzy, I'm gonna tell you what I see. 494 00:21:45,484 --> 00:21:47,434 Every time we do a project, there's gonna 495 00:21:47,434 --> 00:21:50,150 be 10 to 12% of your routes that make no sense. 496 00:21:50,390 --> 00:21:51,890 And they're called political routes. 497 00:21:51,980 --> 00:21:52,550 Paul Comfort: That's right. 498 00:21:52,555 --> 00:21:53,025 That's right. 499 00:21:53,025 --> 00:21:53,028 And they've been 500 00:21:53,180 --> 00:21:54,800 Ozzy Gibson: added over the last 20 years. 501 00:21:54,800 --> 00:21:55,970 That make no sense. 502 00:21:56,345 --> 00:21:58,385 And now we're gonna clean all that up. 503 00:21:58,565 --> 00:21:58,925 Paul Comfort: Yeah. 504 00:21:58,925 --> 00:22:02,255 And then my encouragement to you would be to consider standards so you 505 00:22:02,255 --> 00:22:05,375 don't make adjustments in the future unless they meet certain criteria. 506 00:22:05,495 --> 00:22:08,855 And that way it doesn't end up being, you know, messed up in five or 10 507 00:22:08,855 --> 00:22:10,055 years from now after you leave. 508 00:22:10,655 --> 00:22:11,405 Ozzy Gibson: Absolutely. 509 00:22:11,405 --> 00:22:12,125 Absolutely. 510 00:22:12,130 --> 00:22:12,140 Paul Comfort: Yeah. 511 00:22:12,305 --> 00:22:12,485 Yeah. 512 00:22:12,485 --> 00:22:13,055 That's good, man. 513 00:22:13,055 --> 00:22:15,635 Well, Ozzy man, this is great getting to know you, my friend. 514 00:22:15,635 --> 00:22:18,695 I think, uh, you're the right man for the right time and the right place to help 515 00:22:18,695 --> 00:22:22,565 things that tark, uh, really even, even get better and, and straighten things out. 516 00:22:22,565 --> 00:22:23,585 And that's wonderful. 517 00:22:23,585 --> 00:22:24,875 You got good stuff going on, brother. 518 00:22:25,745 --> 00:22:26,045 Thank you, 519 00:22:26,045 --> 00:22:26,915 Ozzy Gibson: sir very much. 520 00:22:26,915 --> 00:22:27,335 Anytime. 521 00:22:27,335 --> 00:22:27,395 Yeah. 522 00:22:30,783 --> 00:22:32,763 Julie Gates: Thank you for listening to this week's episode 523 00:22:32,763 --> 00:22:34,743 of the Transit Unplugged Podcast. 524 00:22:34,773 --> 00:22:35,973 We're so glad you're here. 525 00:22:36,333 --> 00:22:37,653 My name is Julie Gates. 526 00:22:37,653 --> 00:22:40,743 I'm the executive producer of the show, and our goal is to create 527 00:22:40,743 --> 00:22:43,983 programs that promote the great things going on in the transit industry 528 00:22:44,103 --> 00:22:47,583 by providing you with behind the scenes access with industry executive 529 00:22:47,583 --> 00:22:51,813 leadership so we can work together to find innovative industry solutions. 530 00:22:52,293 --> 00:22:55,713 We would love to have you be a part of the Transit Unplugged community by 531 00:22:55,713 --> 00:22:57,363 having you sign up for our newsletter. 532 00:22:57,723 --> 00:22:59,733 Head to the show notes to find the link. 533 00:23:00,093 --> 00:23:03,873 Thanks for listening to Transit Unplugged with Paul Comfort, our favorite transit 534 00:23:03,873 --> 00:23:05,943 evangelist, and we'll catch you next week. 535 00:23:06,243 --> 00:23:07,113 Thanks for tuning in.