Metro Councilmember says progress is being made on CATS committee

BATON ROUGE- 2022 was a year full of controversy for CATS, the bus system in Baton Rouge. 

The most notable incident happened earlier this year. The WBRZ Investigative Unit exposed CATS Comptroller John Cutrone tested positive for meth and initially maintained employment despite CATS having a drug free policy.

Because of all the issues, the CATS board decided to oust former CEO Bill Deville. 

Now, a Metro Council Committee is looking into what went wrong. Michael Adams, the lawyer appointed by the council, says he wants to know where the issues were. 

“Whether or not they had the best people in place doing what the public needs to have done, which is to run a first class transportation system,” Adams said. 

Trying to find answers seemed hard at first. Councilmembers like Carolyn Coleman, who is head of the committee, says she was frustrated with the cooperation from CATS. 

But Wednesday night, it seems like that is changing. 

“I would say that it’s moving in the right direction,” Coleman said. 

Coleman says there is still a lot of work the committee still needs to do, like finding a new CEO and new commissioners. 

But Coleman says she likes the progress that has been made in that area and hopes the committee will make CATS better, but the only way to see the progress will be at the next meeting. 

“That meeting will be one where we will get more information where we will be able to feel if we have got to a good place with this whole ordeal,” Coleman said. 

That next meeting will be March 1.