Oak Harbor Mayor Scott Dudley made good on his promise to seek the removal of members of the Island Transit Board of Directors.

On Monday, he took his case to the Langley City Council.

Dudley asked city leaders to demand better representation. His call for sweeping changes to the transit board included a request to ask “tough questions” of the city’s transit representative, Councilman Jim Sundberg.

“Even in the short time your representative has been on the board, Island Transit is not in good shape financially,” Dudley said.

A report from the Washington State Auditor’s Office concluded that one of the causes of the financial woes was poor monitoring of finances by the board.

Dudley cited the audit as he addressed Langley Mayor Fred McCarthy and the Langley City Council during the public comment section of the council meeting. He also raised the issue of Island Transit not discussing other means of revenue, such as advertising on buses or collecting fares from the historically fare-free commute.

“There’s no vision. There’s no mission. There’s no business plan,” Dudley said.

Sundberg never broke his gaze from Dudley.

Councilwoman Rene Neff defended Sundberg’s position on the transit board, saying she understood the difficulty of serving on a board that meets once a month and is bequeathed with great responsibility. Neff questioned the efficacy of the board’s makeup, saying that perhaps a subcommittee of financial experts would be a better way of monitoring the budget moving forward.

“We should look at a whole different system,” she said.

“This is not a good model because you’re a mayor and don’t have time,” she added.

Sundberg countered several of Dudley’s claims about the mismanagement and financial outlook of Island Transit near the end of the council’s more than two-hour meeting.

During the council reports, Sundberg said the transit board has a financial plan in place that shows recovery of revenues and reserves.

“We do have a six-year funding plan,” Sundberg said. “We adopted that a couple months ago.”

Refuting Dudley’s claim that Island Transit’s outlook is bleak, Sundberg pointed out that IT already has about $700,000 cash-in-hand for operations, and expects to have another $500,000 in reserves by the end of the year.

“The hope is, if we can obtain additional grant funding, we can restore some suspended routes,” Sundberg said.

The Langley City Council approved McCarthy as Sundberg’s alternate in the event he is unable to attend a transit meeting.

McCarthy emphasized that he was not subverting Sundberg as the city’s representative, but is an emergency fill-in.

McCarthy said he supported Sundberg’s role on the transit board for his “institutional knowledge.”