Mayor D.C. Reeves said that he respects Veo’s request for a two-month extension, but his primary concern is how city residents feel about the shared scooter service.
- “You’re darn right, we polled the residents because I represent the residents first and foremost,” he said. “Whether they ride Veo or they don’t, that should always be my primary concern—how do the residents feel about, or whether they consider something an amenity or a detriment, first and foremost.”
He added, “Second, while I applaud their ability to go engage the community and listen to the community, I just failed to understand why that started after those efforts only when we’ve said we aren’t going to renew.”
June 4 Meeting
The mayor met with Veo representatives on June 4. “I shared with them that there has been no investment in speaking to our residents. As they were collecting revenue from visitors and city residents, they were leaving the mayor’s office to go meet with neighborhood associations and explain why there’s scooters all over their sidewalks.”
He believes that the lack of community engagement put the city at an unfair disadvantage. “This is not a revenue stream for the city, and it may be a revenue stream for them. So while again, I always appreciate people engaging the community, at the end of the day, none of the surveying of our residents had started (in June).”
- He continued, “And so I think it’s a case of too little too late. I wish they cared about what our citizens thought during the contract, and instead of at the end of the contract.”
Residents First
Reeves reiterated his primary obligation is to city residents. “When our residents say overwhelmingly that it’s more of a detriment than an asset, that is something that I believe the business should have been minding the store on well before the end of a three-year contract.”
- The mayor added that if Veo had tried to bond with residents and the users together months ago, “We’d be having a different conversation right now.”