Transportation director: Transit vital to passengers’ livelihood

ALBANY — Anthony Brown sits at one of several conveniently placed Albany Transit bus stops along Oakridge Drive “almost every day,” waiting for the arrival of the “Brown Line” bus to take him to his job at the Checkers restaurant on Slappey Boulevard.

Brown is not alone.

Albany Transportation Director David Hamilton said the Transit System’s eight buses make “between 85,000 and 90,000 passenger trips” a month on the system’s 11 routes, taking riders to and from work or to shopping outlets like the northwest Albany Mall, which is the terminus destination of the Orange, Blue and Silver lines.

“A lot of transit systems in larger cities, like the one in Atlanta, are ‘choice’ transportation systems,” Hamilton said. “But the Albany system is unique. With our high poverty level, Albany’s transit system is more of a necessity for most of our passengers. It’s how they get to and from work every day and it’s how they get to shop.

“Our system is a big part of our passengers’ livelihood.”

Passengers like Brown, Frank Dacruz and Ed Williams are frequent users of the Albany Transit System, paying the $1.55 one-way fare to one of the several stops along the citywide system.

“Until I moved closer to my job (at the South Slappey Boulevard McDonald’s restaurant), I used the bus to get to work most days,” Dacruz said as he sat at a bus stop located beside the 1003 South Slappey restaurant. “I don’t ride to work as much now, but I do make regular trips across town to shop at places like Walmart.”

Like most of the tens of thousands of passengers who utilize the Transit System each year, Brown and Williams laud the city for providing the service.

“It’s convenient,” Brown said. “The buses are reliable, and I’ve had no trouble getting to work on time.”

With an annual budget in the $3.5 million range (more if new equipment must be added), the city’s transit system has been operating for the better part of four decades. Its current 11 “hub-and-spoke” routes — from the corner of Oglethorpe Boulevard and Jackson Street to Jackson Heights in East Albany, to Turner Job Corps, to Albany State University, through East Albany along Broad Avenue, to the former Cooper Tire Plant on the Sylvester Highway, to Darton State College, north-south along Martin Luther King Jr. Drive/Jefferson Street, by Albany Technical College on Slappey Boulevard and the three Mall routes — start their daily treks at 5:45 a.m. and pull into Transit’s home base at 712 Flint Ave. at 8 p.m.

“When I came here, I told the employees we want to be the best transit agency in the state of Georgia,” said Hamilton, who advanced from a Transportation Planner position with the city to Transit director in a little less than two years. “We’ve got a ways to go to get to that point, but I’m excited about our potential because of the staff we have here. I’m also excited about our new city manager’s (Sharon Subadan) vision.”

Subadan’s first government management position was in bus maintenance with the Miami-Dade County government. She was promoted to fleet manager for the city/county government before taking a transit job with Montgomery County, Md. There she oversaw the transition of the county’s transit vehicles to compressed natural gas. The city of Albany is moving in that direction and will have five new CNG buses delivered in September.

“Natural gas is not new technology, but it is clean, efficient and reliable,” Subadan said. “When I was first offered the job (as Albany city manager), I happened to be at the meeting where they approved the CNG buses. I think that’s going to be significant going forward because, not only are we utilizing this clean energy, but we’re building natural gas infrastructure as well.”

Subadan said that while naming Hamilton citywide Transportation director was a move made by her predecessor, she’s pleased with his performance in the position.

“David’s transportation planning background is helpful,” she said. “And while he had not previously worked with air transportation, I think his skill set will help him make the airport a bit more attractive. He understands economic development, and that’s a current concern at our airport.

“I believe a quality operations manager leads people and manages resources. David is a leader. He has the respect of the people he works with.”

Born and raised in Cordele, Hamilton attended Fort Valley State College but came home for a family emergency before he completed the requirements for his degree in business management. He “kept putting off” his planned return to college and eventually got a job with Nipro Georgia, a plastic injection molding company. He worked there for 10 years until, in April of 2002, he returned home from a Las Vegas vacation to find that the plant would be closing in June.

“I didn’t know what I was going to do because I’d left Fort Valley before I finished my degree,” Hamilton said. “I’d begun to feel my job would last forever, even when my dad (also David) was in my ear saying, ‘Don’t forget your degree.’”

Hamilton had been out of work for nine months when his aunt, Helen Lockette, told him about an opening in the city of Albany’s Planning department. He applied, got the job and went to work learning everything he could about the requirements of the department. He was a fast learner.

“I have to thank people like Tracy Hester, who gave me a chance, and people like Mary Teter who taught and trained me,” Hamilton said.

After he’d picked up the basics of the job requirements, Hamilton was moved from a zoning planner to transportation planner position. A short while later he was promoted to transportation manager, and nine months after that he was named deputy director of the city’s Transportation department. Less than a year later his direct supervisor left, and Hamilton was named interim Transportation director.

At the urging of then-City Manager Al Lott, Hamilton had taken classes at Georgia Southwestern (then) College and gotten his degree.

“I had management experience at Nipro,” Hamilton said, “but I was fortunate enough to have people like (current assistant Albany City Managers) Steve Collier and Phil Roberson take me under their wing as well. They’re still a valuable resource to me.”

When Tom Berry became Albany’s interim city manager in 2014, he called Hamilton in to talk about his future with the city.

“Tom called me to talk about the (Transportation) budget, then the conversation shifted,” Hamilton said. “He told me the airport director (Yvette Aehle) was leaving and said he had a vision of combining Transit and the airport under one umbrella. He said he was considering having a Transportation director with Transit and airport managers. I finally asked him where he was going with the conversation. I thought he might be going to kind of demote me back to one of the director positions.

“Tom asked me where I’d like to go with his plan, and I said, ‘I’d like a shot at the top.’ I told him up front that I had no experience running an airport, but he said something that I’ll always remember. He said, ‘You can manage people, right?’ I promised if I got the opportunity, that I wouldn’t let him down.”

After meeting with personnel at the airport and evaluating both transportation outlets, Hamilton surprised Berry by telling the city manager he didn’t think it would be necessary to hire the two managers.

“I felt comfortable leaving Transit mostly in the hands of the staff we had in place while I learned all I could about the airport because they’d proven themselves,” the Transportation director said. “I then spent as much time as possible with airport personnel, learning from them. Again, there was excellent personnel in place, so the transition was pretty easy.”

With his footing in both world’s now firmly established, Hamilton said he’s focusing on the future. Economic development efforts and structural improvements at the airport are among his priorities there, while he is working with Subadan on a rebranding plan for Transit. He also wants to improve on the 90-91 percent on-time record for Transit buses.

“Our goal is 98 percent,” he said.

With Subadan’s Transit background paying dividends, Hamilton said he sees a bright future for the city’s transportation department.

“I never thought I’d be here,” he admits. “But I was inspired by my father. He wanted to see me in a leadership role. I just hate that he didn’t live long enough to see this.”

Hamilton, momentarily overcome with emotion, pauses to collect himself.

“I love coming to work every day,” he said. “My mom (Patricia Robinson), who did a great job of raising her three sons, calls me every morning to get me going. She and my family (wife Wanda, a teacher, son David Brandon, 20, and daughter Brittany, 17) are very supportive. And then I come in here and have great personnel to work with.

“I’m human, and I’m going to make mistakes. But one of the things my dad always emphasized is learning from your mistakes. And, hey, the beauty of this is that I’m still learning a little more every day.”

Herald File Photo