From the corridors of City Hall and the Old Courthouse on Wright Square to a sprawling ballroom at the Savannah Convention Center, the same question reverberated this week: What is Chester Ellis doing?
What has prompted the bewilderment, among both critics and allies of the chairman of the Chatham County Commission, is his Nov. 13 letter to the board of directors of Chatham Area Transit notifying them that the county will withdraw from the system on June 30, 2026, the end of the current fiscal year.
In the ensuing furor, the CAT board described Ellis’ withdrawal plan as “unnecessary, shortsighted, and cruel folly” that would “punish all CAT riders, especially its most vulnerable ones.” Savannah Mayor Van Johnson chimed in, warning that any county reduction of funding to CAT would “weaken the very lifeline that so many rely on to live, work, learn and thrive.”…