After a lengthy bidding process, the University is expected to pick First Transit of Cincinnati as the University’s new bus service, ending its more than 20-year relationship with the Capital Area Transit System.CATS Board President Christopher Tyson said in a news release Thursday that CATS’ initial contract renewal proposal is 10 percent less than First Transit’s proposal. But CATS didn’t participate in the recent bidding.”CATS chose not to participate in the bid process as CATS was unable to meet some of the initial bid requests and because CATS submitted its first proposal for a contract renewal directly to LSU prior to the closing of the bid process,” Tyson said in the release. University and CATS officials met March 25, April 8 and April 29 to discuss issues like costs, value and customer service.  “We have heard LSU’s valid concerns and have presented and implemented improvements to our service in the sincere hopes of retaining LSU’s very valuable business,” Tyson said. Tyson said the University can legally award the contract to CATS on the grounds that the bus service is a public entity that can provide students and staff access to the entire CATS system at no additional fee. “It was our opinion that for these reasons a bid submittal was unnecessary,” Tyson said. “We sincerely appreciate the time LSU staff has taken to hear our proposals and commitments for change over the course of our several meetings.”Tyson said the CATS proposal includes new-fuel buses, GPS capability, enhanced video monitoring, LSU-branded buses, new customer service initiatives and an on-campus supervisor. The plan would also save the University $301, 256 a year. Tyson said he is hopeful LSU will continue its relationship with CATS and wants to include the University community in the company’s search for a new CEO. Former CATS CEO John Denman recently retired. Denman told The Daily Reveille on July 1 that if the University decided not to renew its contract with CATS, “major, major” adjustments would have to be made — like layoffs of CATS employees and restructuring.  “The LSU service is very valuable to CATS and the loss of this service would result in a reduction of transit services system-wide,” Tyson said. “We regret that recent problems have threatened this decades-long partnership.  We sincerely hope to continue this relationship and appreciate the opportunity to have our proposals received and considered through this decision-making process.”—-Contact Kyle Bove at [email protected]