Butler County JFS Transportation: One Contractor Runs the Whole NET Program

Butler County, home to Hamilton and Middletown, does not run its Medicaid NET rides with county staff. Butler County Job and Family Services (JFS) hands the whole program to one company, Valley Transport, LLC, which takes the calls, checks who qualifies, picks the type of help, and keeps the records. For a ride company, the door is Valley and the five-year contract behind it, not the county office.

Who runs NET rides in Butler County

Each Ohio county job and family services office arranges the Medicaid rides a health plan does not have to give, under rule 5160-15-10. The Ohio guide covers the plans and their brokers, and county NET contracts in Ohio compares how other counties buy rides.

As of October 2, 2026, the Butler County JFS transportation page lists three kinds of help: bus tokens, mileage reimbursement, and contracted van service. To qualify, you must be on Medicaid and need a ride to a service Medicaid pays for. The page tells members to call their Medicaid health plan first. Members with no plan, or who have used up their plan’s trips, call Valley Transport at (513) 783-1335.

The county office is in the Government Services Center at 315 High Street in Hamilton, at (513) 887-5600, but riders do not book there.

The Valley Transport contract

On March 18, 2025, the Butler County commissioners adopted Resolution 25-03-00375, awarding a contract with Valley Transport, LLC for transportation services. It runs April 1, 2025 to March 31, 2030, and may not exceed $16,726,714.74. Two commissioners voted yes, and the third was excused.

The award came from a request for proposals, not a low-bid contest. On September 23, 2024, the board approved advertising RFP No. 24-11-585 for non-emergency Medicaid transportation services, with proposals due at the JFS office by 10:30 a.m. on November 25, 2024. Under section 307.862 of the Revised Code, JFS ranked the proposals against the criteria in the RFP, negotiated with the top-ranked one, and recommended Valley as the most advantageous to the county.

Butler bought the work the same way two years earlier. On March 27, 2023, the commissioners awarded Holland Park Investments, LLC, doing business as Universal Transportation Systems, a contract for transportation services of up to $7,500,000 for April 1, 2023 to March 31, 2025. That request for proposals was approved on September 8, 2022 and its proposals were opened on November 22, 2022. The ceiling now works out to about $3.35 million a year, against $3.75 million a year under the 2023 contract. A ceiling is the most the county may pay, not what it spends.

What the state audit found in Butler County

In June 2025, the Ohio Auditor of State audited Summit County’s NET program and compared it with five similar counties, Butler among them. Its findings on Butler:

• No county staff on NET. Butler JFS does not use its own employees for intake, eligibility, choosing the type of help, or record keeping. The audit called Butler the one peer that outsources the entire program.
• A 12-month eligibility period. Butler tracks each rider in its own database and renews eligibility automatically in the month the period ends.
• Trips across county lines. Butler pays for rides to appointments in the counties around it.
• A large Medicaid base. The audit’s peer table, drawn from 2020 to 2023 data, shows 113,546 Medicaid enrollees in a county of 388,420 people, or 29.2%, across 467 square miles.

By contrast, the same audit found that Stark County has four staff assigned to NET who assign every ride themselves. In Butler, the contractor does all of those jobs, and since April 1, 2025 the contractor is Valley.

Who Valley Transport is

Valley Transport, LLC has its corporate office at 4428 N. Dixie Drive in Dayton and a second office at 6171 Colerain Avenue in Cincinnati. Its company line is 1-800-541-6555, and the Butler County ride line is (513) 783-1335. Its site lists sedans, SUVs, and wheelchair vans.

Valley also holds one of Hamilton County’s two NET contracts, approved by the Hamilton County commissioners on July 16, 2026 (Resolution J131-26), and Hamilton’s request for proposals says some of those trips go to Butler. Hamilton allows subcontractors for adult rides once Hamilton County JFS approves each one in writing, so a partner company can ask Valley about work in both counties.

What Butler’s 2022 request for proposals required

The request behind the 2023 contract, Contract No. 22-11-559, issued September 12, 2022, sits with Resolution 22-09-01424 on the commissioners’ meeting portal. It holds the last terms the county has posted, and Valley’s 2025 contract may differ:

• One contractor, several programs. Most trips were NET, but the same contract covered pregnancy-related rides, group rides for children to day treatment, and rides for Butler County Children Services and JFS work programs. From July 2021 through June 2022, the county counted 82,388 completed trips, 67,482 of them NET and pregnancy rides, plus 13,521 no-shows.
• The contractor checks eligibility. It confirmed each NET rider’s Medicaid eligibility in the state’s MITS system before scheduling, and ran a toll-free call center open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
• Ride standards. A will-call return within one hour, no shared ride that adds more than an hour, and no more than 30 extra minutes on a dialysis or chemotherapy return. The county paid nothing for no-shows and no separate fare for a companion.
• Drivers. At least 19 years old with a license held three years, a 10-year BMV record reviewed every year, and BCII criminal and fingerprint checks at hire and every year after.
• Bonds and insurance. A bid bond of 5% of the first year’s budget, a performance bond of 10% of the contract amount, general liability of $1,000,000 per occurrence and $3,000,000 in the aggregate, and $1,000,000 each in auto, professional, and umbrella coverage.
• Scoring. Ability to do the work ranked first, then price, references, and responsiveness. Ohio Medicaid certification alone was worth 30 of the 450 points.
• Subcontractors. Allowed only with the county’s written consent. The contractor sent each subcontract to the county within 10 business days and paid its subcontractors directly, and a bidder that planned to use them without saying so lost 15 points.
• Billing. Invoices were due within 15 days after each month, and the county paid nothing billed more than 90 days after the service month.

What the contract file will tell you

The resolution gives the term and the ceiling. The rates, the service rules, and whether Valley may use subcontractors are in the contract itself, which the resolution says the county administrator signs in the form the prosecuting attorney approves. Section 149.43 of the Revised Code lets anyone ask for it, and the county may not make your name or your reason a condition.

Butler County’s records policy sets the practical terms:

1. Ask during business hours. Requests are taken Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and each county office has its own records custodian, so send yours to Butler County JFS.
2. Ask in writing, or not. The custodian may ask for a written request but must tell you it is not required.
3. Pay little or nothing. Emailed records are free when the office can email them, paper copies are 5 cents a page, and a CD is $1.00. The county may ask for payment up front when the cost passes $5.00.
4. Expect a reason for any denial. Every denial or redaction must cite the law behind it, in writing if you asked in writing.

Ask for “the agreement with Valley Transport, LLC approved by Resolution 25-03-00375, with all amendments, RFP No. 24-11-585 with the list of proposals received and each proposal’s rate sheet, and Butler County’s current form ODM 10241.” On that state form, item C shows who handles each step from intake to record keeping, and item F names each vendor, what its contract covers, its end date, and its projected cost. The 2022 request said the pricing pages of every proposal are public once the contract is signed.

How to get Butler County NET work

1. Read the contract first. Its subcontracting clause tells you whether Valley can bring you in, and its rates tell you what that work could pay.
2. Ask Valley about partner work. If the contract allows subcontractors, Valley chooses them, and under the 2022 terms the county also had to consent in writing. See running trips as a subcontractor before you sign.
3. Pass the state vendor checks. A private company that contracts with a county JFS for NET rides needs BMV driving records, Ohio criminal background checks, and exclusion list searches under rule 5160-15-14, at each contract start and renewal. See NEMT driver background checks.
4. Plan for the fall of 2029. If Butler keeps its pattern, the next request for proposals reaches the commissioners’ agenda around September 2029, with proposals due that November. As of October 2, 2026, the bid postings page lists no transportation bid. Sign up on the county’s notification page for updates to the bid page.
5. Work the plan side now. Butler riders call their health plan first, so plan members’ rides go through the plans’ brokers, covered in the Ohio guide.