RE:maintenance costThat was his point. The city can't complain about their budget not being enough to service their fleet of buses when they contracted someone who clearly underbid / underbudgeted the costs.
It's like if you hired a kid to cut your grass all summer for $20 and expected it to be cut, trimmed, edged and blown weekly. You may have a contract in principle, but you should know this is not realistic and shouldn't be expecting A+ service.