The only time in which the topic came up was during the second round of public comment when an MSU student asked the board why full service had not resume now that classes were in-person. 

“I have heard rumors that it was actually not CATA’s decision to, it was more MSU’s decision,” the student said. “So, my real question is, is the CATA fully available to do that for MSU’s Spartan service?”

Other topics for discussion included the expansion of Route 12, which travels between Lansing Community College’s West campus and some of the downtown area. Kai Christensen of CATA's service planning and scheduling department explained the reason for the expansion would be to bring service to an industrial park with new employment opportunities. Among the companies in the park would be the new Amazon warehouse built in Delta Township.

Christensen said CATA has received a number of requests from both Amazon and Delta Township that they would like to see an expansion of the route. The expansion would continue a frequency of every 45 minutes, but become a longer route, requiring more buses and drivers on the route. This increase in service, Christensen estimated, would cost an additional $336,000 a year.

Some of the directors, such as Ingham County Commissioner Mark Grebner and Meridian Township Treasurer Phil Deschaine, expressed concern that CATA would be expanding its services into Delta Township despite Delta never paying a fair amount for the service.

“They really ought to have a millage,” Grebner said. “It’s crazy that a township the size of Delta, which is the same as Meridian essentially, the Meridian fee is 3.8 mills for property taxes and then Delta gets by with, I don’t know what they currently pay in millage– .5 or something?”

City of Lansing representative Derek Melot also said he wanted to put pressure on Delta to start paying more for the CATA services and said it was important to act early before Amazon starts making its own accommodations for its employees. He said he believes that Amazon will be less flexible in the future.

Bradley Funkhouser, the CEO of CATA, said he was looking at the expansion as a way to advance regionalism, connecting the capital region. He said CATA would not use millage money to put services outside the millage area, in response to the comments from the directors.

Grebner then responded and said that the millage money was in fact going outside of the millage area. He suggests that if Delta does not assist with the increased cost of the expanded route 12, CATA should double the fares at all of the Delta stops or turn to the companies in the industrial park and ask for them to help pay, similar to what Lansing Community College does.

The board then went on to discuss the budget for the 2022 Fiscal Year, before convening into a closed session for a strategy session related to collective bargaining over the contracts with the union for the CATA workers, the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1039.