PROVIDENCE — While the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority was holding public hearings on proposed service cuts, the most extensive in the agency’s history, the governor’s office was trying to schedule a meeting with former Providence Mayor Joseph R. Paolino Jr. about the multimillion-dollar bus hub project.

After several failed attempts at scheduling a meeting, Paolino referred to the agency as a “joke,” and said he would not attend future meetings on the hub, according to an Aug. 5 email obtained through a public records request and reviewed by ecoRI News.

RIPTA held public hearings last year and hired a firm to find a location for a new bus hub, narrowing it down to two locations near the train station in April, though a final locale for the hub has not yet been decided.

Paolino, who is the managing partner at Paolino Properties, which owns property next to the RIPTA bus hub in Kennedy Plaza, was set to meet with Rhode Island Department of Transportation director and RIPTA board chair Peter Alviti, RIPTA CEO Christopher Durand, and members of Gov. Dan McKee’s office on July 21.

Paolino has been a major proponent of moving the bus hub out of Kennedy Plaza over the years.

According to emails with the subject line “Transit Hub Discussion,” the meeting was then rescheduled and postponed to July 29, and then postponed again to Aug. 6.

Paolino replied to the scheduling email chain that he would be attending the Aug. 6 meeting.

RIPTA held two hearings on July 29 in Newport and another two hearings in Barrington on Aug. 6 to inform and get feedback from the public on the cuts, which will impact 58 of the authority’s 67 routes. They were four of several meetings the agency held around the state that week after proposing the cuts to fill in a $10 million budget gap.

The day before the hub meeting was supposed to take place, on Aug. 5, a member of the governor’s office asked again to reschedule.

“RIPTA has a conflict. Thank you for your patience as I try and find a time that works for everyone,” the email said.

In addition to the hearings, RIPTA had a special board meeting scheduled to potentially vote on the service cuts on Aug. 7, the day after the cancelled bus hub meeting.

“this is a joke . please let the governor know that RIPTA is a bigger joke .” Paolino wrote in reply. “i am not interested in going to any more meetings .governor told RIPTA to have a plan B .. they have nothing .. i am not interested in being a part of inaction. thank the governor for his attention and friendship but his administration is failing him on this issue. Joe [sic]”

In a phone interview with ecoRI News, Paolino said, “It’s frustrating when meetings are set up, and they keep on being canceled, and I don’t see any end in sight.”

“For six years they’ve been talking about the bus hub,” Paolino added. “It’s frustrating they can’t get any concrete plans in place.”

The former mayor then walked back some of his comments about RIPTA, saying that under Durand, the agency is in much better shape than before. Durand is “sincere in what he’s doing, but they have a bond issue that’s been sitting there since 2014.”

Paolino was referring to a bond that voters passed to invest in bus hub infrastructure.

Riders and advocates had been slow to endorse a new plan that would move the bus hub away from its current location in Kennedy Plaza, but the idea of putting the hub near the train station garnered some support last year for the multimodal benefits it offered. But when the operational budget of the agency was in question, groups and individuals called for a pause on the hub plans.

Paolino said that he supports moving the hub next to the Providence Train Station rather than making improvements to the current facility.

“It’s not going to be improved at Kennedy Plaza,” he said. “It needs to be next to the train station.”

He also described taking a bus trip with Grow Smart RI’s John Flaherty to the Pawtucket/Central Falls Train Station as a model for what a new hub could be.

“Why can’t they do it in Providence?” he asked.

Paolino said he’d like to see a safe and clean facility that complements the train station and for Kennedy Plaza to become a place for community activities.

He noted that the money for the hub from the bond is a separate pot of funding from what goes into RIPTA’s operational expenses, and said he wasn’t qualified to say whether shoring up RIPTA’s budget could increase support and the likelihood of moving forward with a new hub.

“That needs to be addressed by political leadership,” Paolino said of the funding gap RIPTA now faces, including finding better funding streams for the agency.

“Given the current situation, it’s difficult to imagine why anyone is concerned with the location of the bus hub in Providence. Riders certainly aren’t – their mobility, their jobs, their education access, and their independence is at stake,” Liza Burkin, board president of the Providence Streets Coalition and its Save RIPTA campaign, wrote in an email to ecoRI News.

“If Governor McKee and state leaders do not make RIPTA’s budget whole, there will be a crippling of transit service statewide,” she added. “Fast and frequent service is the most essential element of the passenger experience, and the key to growing ridership. The current financial crisis facing RIPTA will only further burden riders with brutal wait times and routes that disappear entirely.”

In response to questions from ecoRI News, RIPTA spokesperson Cristy Raposo Perry said that there had been no formal agenda for the meeting to discuss the bus hub and that it has not taken place since the scheduling issues.

“The meeting was rescheduled to accommodate CEO Christopher Durand’s schedule, as it was a priority for him to attend all public hearings and focus on addressing the budget deficit,” she wrote in an email, adding, “RIPTA has previously met with numerous stakeholders regarding the new transit center, including Mr. Paolino.”

On Monday, Laura Hart, deputy director of communications for the governor’s office, emailed ecoRI News: “The Governor has met with various stakeholders – including federal partners, Amtrak, Mayor Smiley, and former Mayor Paolino – regarding the progress of the transit hub project. 

“Both RIPTA’s financial stability and the progress of the transit hub are critical to the state’s transportation system. Relocating bus service closer to the train station will help expand RIPTA’s customer base, which in turn strengthens fare revenue. That’s one of the reasons why the Governor has made advancing the transit hub project a top priority for his transportation agencies.” 

RIPTA will hold its next board meeting on Aug. 28.

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