4/2/09
Loyalty to the family of the deceased owner of Garcia Transportation Corp. was the reason why at least three of the company’s four bus drivers resigned just before the owner’s widow took ownership of the company.
The four resignations, which were delivered March 13 and 15, forced the Española School District and the company’s new owner, Española attorney Yvonne Quintana, to scramble to find replacement drivers the morning of March 16 as dozens of angry parents called the District’s Transportation Department to report that school buses had not come to pick up their children.
Quintana took control of the company March 13 just two days after she won a legal battle over two sisters of Garcia Transportation’s late founder Antonio Garcia. Quintana said the resignations were sent without any prior notice.
Former bus driver Jami Archuleta tearfully recounted how Garcia trained her as a bus driver.
“I don’t know the reasons for the other drivers quitting,” Archuleta said “Those were his wishes for his niece to have the company. And he made me promise that I would help her. I helped her the best I could. I feel that my promise is fulfilled, and I just can’t work for the new owner and ownership. I just can’t do it.”
Garcia’s niece, Roberta Salazar, resigned from the company after Quintana took over. In addition to being a bus driver, Salazar had been running the company since Garcia’s death. Salazar said she had never met Yvonne Quintana until the day Garcia died.
“He had always told me that the buses were mine,” Roberta Salazar said. “I was assisting him so that I could learn what needed to be done in the event that he was gone.”
Quintana said the sudden resignations jeopardized the safety of the children but was thankful for the assistance that she received from fellow contractors and the District’s Transportation Department.
“Needless to say that I’m disappointed,” she said. “I would have preferred for my late-husband’s legacy to remain intact.”
Former bus driver Ross Quintana said he resigned out of loyalty to Garcia and because he did not want to work for Quintana. The fourth bus driver, Darby Martinez, could not be reached for comment.
Quintana said she had never met nor worked with those drivers and questioned their intentions. She said she suspected those resignations were planned upon her taking over the company.
The Española School District has since taken over three of those four routes from Quintana. She said she gave up the routes because she could not find replacement drivers and because the company could not finance three buses it had purchased last September.
The decrease in routes cost Garcia Transportation $62,230 in lost annual revenue, and leaves it with six routes, District documents state. The lost routes serviced the middle and high school students in the Alcalde, Velarde and Riverside Drive areas.
With the approval and funding from the state Transportation Department, the District took over the purchasing of the three buses that Garcia’s company could not finance. Transportation Director Sennie Quintana said the three buses cost $229,668.
Sennie Quintana said the District will most likely use substitute drivers for the rest of the year. She will also advertise the open positions, though preference will go to drivers that are already on the District’s payroll.
Legal Fight
Yvonne Quintana had been in a legal dispute with Garcia’s sisters, Cathy Salazar and Darlene Armijo, over control of Garcia’s three bus companies. The sisters had maintained financial and operational control of Garcia’s three bus companies since his death in January.
The other two companies, Archuleta Student Bus Services and EPM Student Transportation Services, also have contracts with the District but were not affected by the driver resignations.
Quintana had married Garcia in December, about seven months after she divorced former Española planning director Marvin Vigil.
Roberta Salazar said the Garcia sisters met Quintana March 11 in state District Court in Santa Fe at the domestic relations hearing office.
Salazar said hearing officer Margaret Kegel heard both parties and sided with Quintana. Roberta Salazar said she resigned upon Quintana’s takeover of the company.
Audie Rivera, an employee for the domestic relations office, said the documents for that hearing have been sealed.