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MetroAccess Contract Extension Tabled After Lobbying Reports

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MetroAccess serves people who cannot travel on Metrobus and Metrorail.
WMATA Photography by Larry Levine
MetroAccess serves people who cannot travel on Metrobus and Metrorail.

Metro's board of directors was scheduled Thursday to grant a two-year contract extension to the company MV Transportation, which operates the MetroAccess service. According to several sources within Metro, the extension was almost a formality.

Now, the board has removed the extension from its agenda for Thursday after reports that MV hired Emeka Moneme, a former senior Metro executive turned lobbyist.

WAMU obtained a private email from Moneme's office in which he requests an in-person meeting with an advisor to Metro's Board to discuss the company and the MetroAccess program.

A spokesperson with MV Transportation says it hired Moneme to do "community outreach," not lobbying. Moneme refuses to comment.

Cathy Hudgins, the chair of the Metro board, says she wants answers about exactly what Moneme did and who instructed him to do it.

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