# Help Wanted: New WMATA GM



## Ryan (Mar 4, 2015)

I thought that I started a thread when Sarles announced that he was finally leaving DC, but I can't find it.

Turns out that WMATA is handling the search for his replacement in their usual wildly incompetent way.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/trafficandcommuting/some-metro-board-members-want-to-refocus-search-for-new-system-chief/2015/03/02/49c3b604-c113-11e4-9271-610273846239_story.html



> Days after Metros search for a new general manager took an odd turn, with the three finalists for the job withdrawing from consideration, some members of the transit authoritys board of directors said Monday the setback could be a blessing in disguise.
> 
> The process of finding a replacement for retired general manager Richard Sarles began in the fall. Since then, problems with the agencys financial structure have become highly evident, and a fatal smoke incident in a subway tunnel Jan. 12 revealed serious shortcomings in Metros emergency readiness and safety culture.
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> Now, with the board forced to start from scratch in seeking a leader, some members said they want to shift the emphasis of the search. As part of the reboot, they said, they want to focus on a fresh batch of candidates whose skills are more suited to fixing problems that have come to light in the transit system in recent months.


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## OBS (Mar 4, 2015)

Unreal!


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## afigg (Mar 4, 2015)

RyanS said:


> I thought that I started a thread when Sarles announced that he was finally leaving DC, but I can't find it.
> 
> Turns out that WMATA is handling the search for his replacement in their usual wildly incompetent way.
> 
> ...


Somebody on the WMATA board or maybe the executive search firm talked too much to the reporter, which threw the whole search process out the window. Stupid thing to do. That the 3 finalists were currently working at other transit or transportation agencies says that they at least had experience in running or working in transit systems.

What concerns me is this bit in the Washington Post article: "In searching for a new general manager, one board member said, “we’re looking for someone not just with a transportation background. We should cast a broader net, one that would catch people who are financial turnaround specialists.”"

The financial problems with WMATA are almost entirely political and due to a dropoff in weekday ridership leading to lower fare revenue. The dropoff in weekday ridership can be largely attributed to the failure of Congress to restore the commuter tax benefit for transit riders to the same level as for parking for 2015. What that is about is rather complicated, so i won't get into it, but my point is how the heck could a financial specialist get Congress to fix the tax code? What WMATA needs, IMO, is a manager who can deal with and dive into correcting the maintenance, operations, and safety departments and the transit agency culture. Fixing a corporate culture is usually a very difficult thing to do, so finding the person who might be able to do that won't be easy.


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## jis (Mar 4, 2015)

They can always pick up ex-NJT boss Weinstein  just like they did with Sarles. Or if they can stretch it out a couple of years, they could even have Ronnie Hakim


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## Ryan (Mar 4, 2015)

No thanks.


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## Bob Dylan (Mar 4, 2015)

Or Joe Boardman may soon be available, he wouldn't even have to move and already knows all the players involved!


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## jis (Mar 4, 2015)

I think they might have to wait at least a couple of years for Joe Boardman. I don't think he is going anywhere soon just because someone at Trains Magazine thinks he should


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## afigg (Mar 5, 2015)

There is more info coming out on a big disagreement on the WMATA board on the search for a new General Manager. I wondering if the leak to the TV reporter about the 3 finalists was intentional to sabotage the selection process and force a restart. If that is the case, it could get nasty.

Washington Post: Major rift in Metro’s board disrupted search for new chief executive. Excerpt:



> A major rift within Metro’s leadership has disrupted the transit agency’s search for a new chief executive after board members from the District and Maryland objected that the initial three finalists for the job weren’t the kind of executive needed to fix the organization’s problems, District and Metro officials said.
> 
> The District government, led by Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D), and a Maryland board member are pressing for a financial turnaround specialist who can address not only safety issues but also what critics see as the agency’s deep fiscal difficulties.
> 
> The internal battle has aroused concern that the dispute will hurt Metro’s reputation and make it harder to attract good candidates for the top job.


WMATA may be facing a cash shortfall, but it has little debt compared to NY MTA and MBTA. Maybe a "turnaround specialist" is a good idea, but what good is a financial specialist going to do with regards to the maintenance and operating issues?


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## Ryan (Mar 5, 2015)

afigg said:


> The internal battle has aroused concern that the dispute will hurt Metro’s reputation and make it harder to attract good candidates for the top job.


Too late!


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## Bob Dylan (Mar 5, 2015)

How can an already Bad Reputation be hurt any farther by political wrangling among the various members of WMATAs Board?

Its the Beltway, Politics rules all!!!!

( that's one reason I suggested Joe Boardman as a potential cantidate, he knows the ropes in the Washington jungle!)


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## MARC Rider (Mar 9, 2015)

afigg said:


> RyanS said:
> 
> 
> > .
> ...


I wonder how much the commuter tax benefit has to do with this. As a Fed, I still get $130 a month, even though my personal commuting cost is over $200. But I commute from Baltimore, which includes a $175 monthly MARC pass. And the MARC trains aren't showing signs of being empty (even though I don't know the ridership stats.) If you're riding only the Metro system, peak fares range from $2.15 to $5.90. For a 20-day month (or 40 rides), the monthly cost ranges from $86 to $236. Your $130 monthly allowance would cover any station pair with a fare of $3.25 or less. That would only cover the trip between Takoma or Friendship Heights and Metro Center, So yes, it is true that the current Federal employee transit subsidy is insufficient to fully cover the cost of a Metro commute for people living outside the District. On the other hand, we Feds get no parking subsidy, and I shudder to think what a monthly parking pass in downtown DC costs. Plus DC area traffic is atrocious. I've worked in DC for 15 years, and I have never, not once, driven my car to work.

I'm willing to think that the cutback in the tax benefit/transit subsidy may have affected some riders, but I think there are other factors at work. Personally, as someone who has been riding Metro off and on since the 1980s (and who became a regular rider around 2002), the quality of what's offered in terms of reliability and comfort have gone down the tubes. It's just not the same value proposition that it was 20 years ago, especially considering the fare increases. On the other hand, the trains running through the District are packed like sardines, especially the Red Line between Dupont Circle and Union Station. And somebody needs to do something about those #@&^%! doors. There's no reason for a door to open and close 3-4 times before the train leaves the station. 3-4 minute dwell times at a subway stop is not acceptable. We wont talk about smoke issue. Last week, they offloaded us a Gallery Palce because of that. Who needs that sort of thing? No wonder ridership is falling off.

As far as the topic of the thread, I agree with afigg, this has nothing to do with finance, and the new GM should be focusing on operations issues, and have enough political skills to wok the Maryland, Virginia and the District to build a political coalition with other states that have heavy transit use to restore the transit subsidy/tax break, and provide capital funding to rebuild the system. True, your average Member of Congress may not care so much because he or she has their own parking spot on the Hill, but their staffers don't have that luxury, and they have to get to work, too. But in the end, I think that the leadership should be focusing on operations and maintenance issues. If the system were run reliably and not pack 'em in like sardines only to get offloaded somewhere inconvenient, ridership would increase, and the financial situation would improve.


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## afigg (Mar 13, 2015)

The WMATA board and dispute over what the board should do has turned into an all-out political fight. Wash Post: Metro halts hunt for leader, rethinks expansion plans. One caveat about the headline is that I have often found Wash Post articles on the more technical side of the Metro system, such as capital projects, system operation to be lacking in understanding and perspective by the reporter(s) and often bordering on alarmist tones (such as many articles on the problems with Silver Line Phase 1 that were resolved without the collapse of the project which the Post articles sometimes seemingly implied was imminent).

The upshot is that WMATA is having cash flow problems due to delayed payments from the FTA which in turn were due to sloppy management, while the Metro 2025 capital plans will be delayed by maybe a year, the option for 220 Series 7000 cars will be exercised for a total order of 748 cars, and Tom Downs, former WMATA chairman & president of Amtrak is getting booted from the board by Mayor Bowser who wants her people representing DC on the board. Since most of the failure to file FTA paperwork happened while Downs was Chairman, he should take a lot of responsibility for it.

Excerpts:



> Metro has suspended its search for a new general manager while it figures out what kind of leader it needs and will rethink how it handles its long-settled plan for a major expansion of subway capacity, officials said Thursday.
> 
> ....
> 
> ...





> Metro officials have said that Hogan shares Bowser’s view that Metro, given its money woes, should hire a financial turnaround specialist as general manager.
> 
> As for the board shake-up, Bowser would replace Downs with Corbett Price, a health-care financial consultant.


A health care financial consultant to sit on the board of a transit agency? That does not give me much assurance. Still, perhaps better than getting someone who used to work at NJ Transit.


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## Ryan (Mar 13, 2015)

I'm losing faith in the new Mayor by the minute.

At least they are going to try and exercise the option on the new cars (hopefully they can do that without screwing it up).


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## tp49 (Mar 13, 2015)

Maybe it's just me but wouldn't a financial turn around specialist be better in the CFO spot? I'm guessing WMATA still hasn't filled the CFO position after the prior one resigned last year. Being a financial wiz is great and all but if they are operationally clueless it would seem that the agency would be right back where they started. I'd rather have someone in the position who has a good understanding of budgeting and all that it entails but just being a financial turn around specialist leaves too many holes in other areas. However, politics almost always throws needs out the window.


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## Ryan (Nov 2, 2015)

Ask and ye shall receive, tp49. A financial turnaround specialist we shall have:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/trafficandcommuting/for-new-leader-metro-appears-focused-on-shoring-up-its-bottom-line/2015/10/31/9ae1ed0a-7f02-11e5-beba-927fd8634498_story.html



> Coping with the revenue squeeze in the last budget cycle, the board instructed Metro’s financial staff to drastically reduce non-safety-related spending, and members are almost certain to do the same this year. Cutting costs is a Cohen speciality. In helping guide US Airways and then Northwest Airlines through bankruptcies, he acquired a reputation as a financial “cleanup artist” who wields “a big old machete,” as one former colleague put it.


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## jis (Nov 2, 2015)

The net result of having financial turnaround specialist at a public transit agency historically has been disastrous. So good luck guys....


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## Bob Dylan (Nov 2, 2015)

Yep, Bean Counters generally don't make good CEOs!

As has been said, no-one ever cut their way to prosperity!


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## afigg (Nov 2, 2015)

Put the Help Wanted sign out again. Contract negotiations with Mr. Cohen have been broken off.

WTOP: Metro: Search is still on for general manager

Just how screwed up is the WMATA board? They announce their new GM before the contract is signed and done? Could having gone public with his name - along with the other several recent finalists - made Cohen decide to break it off? A few days ago, it was stated in a news article that the board was close to hiring the current head of BART back in February/March when the (new) DC and MD representatives on the board decided that they wanted to go with a financial type to address the financial issues. At which point, the WMATA board entered new levels of dysfunction and open disagreement. Personally, I think they should have hired the person at BART to oversee the agency & deal with the maintenance and operation problems and then hired a CFO to deal with the finances.


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## Bob Dylan (Nov 2, 2015)

Yep, the gang that can't shoot straight strikes again!


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## afigg (Nov 4, 2015)

The saga of the search for a new GM continues. The board, which continues to leak to the press like someone who can't stop talking, is reportedly now offering the job to the runner-up to Cohen. The new contender was most recently the top manager for BWI Airport, ran the Maryland Transit Administration for 2 years, and was a vice president for Parsons Brinckerhoff. So he has a transportation & construction industry background and should be familiar with the political landscape (minefield) and issues facing WMATA.

Washington Post: Metro plans to offer GM job to its second pick, D.C. Council member says. Excerpt:



> Metro plans to offer its general manager job to a candidate who initially fell short in the selection process but now is in line for the position because the agency’s No. 1 choice backed out, D.C. Council member Jack Evans said Tuesday.
> 
> Several people familiar with the situation identified the new front-runner for Metro’s top management job as Paul J. Wiedefeld, who was a Maryland transportation official for 11 years, mostly under two Democratic governors.


Now they have to get him to take the offer and settle on contract terms. This after the debacles with the last 2 GM candidates the board made offers to.


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## Bob Dylan (Nov 4, 2015)

"I"m #3!! I'm #3!!"

Real confidence Builder eh?!!

Reminds me of the old Groucho Marx joke:"I wouldn't want to be a member of any club that would have me for a member!"


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## Ryan (Nov 4, 2015)

Sounds like the same crack team in charge of hiring Bud Black Dusty Baker as the next Nats manager.


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## CHamilton (Nov 5, 2015)

Paul Wiedefeld named WMATA CEO



> Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) has named Paul Wiedefeld general manager and chief executive officer. Wiedefeld will be formally appointed at WMATA's next board of directors meeting November 19.


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