Three days after the school bus hearing, there's still no recording. What the council's own record already shows about Transdev

The city still had not posted a recording of Monday's three-hour Education Committee hearing on school buses as of Thursday morning, Nov. 5. Our meeting page for the hearing has no video or transcript, and the city's Legistar listing for it shows no video link. The notice for the hearing said it would be recorded and streamed at boston.gov/city-council-tv.

That matters to families because the hearing is where BPS and its bus contractor, Transdev, were asked on the record about late and missing buses. Without a recording, residents have to rely on news accounts of what was said.

At Wednesday's council meeting, the order behind the hearing, from City Councilor Erin Murphy with eight co-sponsors, stayed in the Education Committee (docket 1920). It was referred there Oct. 7, 29 days ago. Staying in committee means the chair, City Councilor Julia Mejia, can hold more sessions on it or report it back later.

What was reported from Monday

Boston.com reported that BPS transportation director Dan Rosengard told the committee on-time performance reached 91% in October. Records obtained by Boston.com showed 86% of morning buses and 83% of afternoon buses were on time in the first month of school. City Councilor Ed Flynn said, "We're paying $200 million for a broken and failed system," Boston.com reported. Our Nov. 3 story has more from that coverage, and our story on WBUR's data covers class time lost to late buses.

What earlier hearings show

Our transcripts of this year's earlier bus hearings help put Monday's figures in context.

March 31, Education Committee. Rosengard said that for three years, fewer than 0.2% of scheduled trips had gone uncovered, but that starting in December the number of uncovered trips each day rose sharply, which he called a "very concerning regression" (watch at 1:11:24). He said BPS had consolidated routes, had about 25 drivers in training and had Transdev's regional leaders on site. By March, he said, morning uncovered trips were half what they had been in the prior three months (1:13:05).

April 16, Ways and Means Committee. A councilor asked whether BPS had used the contract's fines for late or missing buses. The district's answer was that it began assessing "nonperformance damages" for uncovered trips at the beginning of March, and that the amount for March was about $105,000 (watch at 1:24:00). BPS said on-time performance was higher than in any prior year (1:24:41).

April 23, Ways and Means Committee. Asked about liability for bus crashes, a city official said the city had resolved its own claims from a recent fatal crash, and that claims were still active against Transdev as the drivers' employer, which the official called an unusual arrangement for a city service (watch at 1:29:40).

Boston.com has reported that the contract lets BPS fine Transdev $500 for each "blown" trip, meaning one that is more than an hour late or has no bus assigned.

Other bus items on the council's books

• Murphy's August resolution supporting state and federal oversight of Transdev's safety records, co-sponsored by Flynn and City Councilor Enrique Pepén, has been in the Education Committee for 92 days after an objection kept it from a same-day vote (docket 1554).
• On July 17, Murphy asked the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education for independent oversight of BPS transportation, including driver certification, crash reporting and special education transportation. She filed the letter with the council in August (communication).

What's next

• The recording. We will add timestamped links to Monday's hearing as soon as the city posts it on our meeting page.
• Nov. 9. The Education Committee's next hearing was scheduled on BPS staff cuts and students with disabilities, but that hearing has been canceled and replaced with one on a special education audit (our story).
• Nov. 18. The council's next regular meeting, where the committee could report the bus order back.