MBTA Board of Directors names new GM

http://www.boston.com/metrodesk/2012/09 ... story.html

MARTA's current GM will now be the MBTA's new GM, beginning this December. Keep it all here.

just what we need. the person who managed MARTA into a 1/2 billion shortfall this year is now going to apply that 'magic ' to mbta?

why don't we have railroad people on the mbta board ? why don't we have a gm from the private sector?

this doesn't make sense. ken patrick

Well, from reading the article, it looks like they were grading based on demographics rather than qualifications and work history. But then again, what did you expect from the MBTA?

KEN PATRICK wrote:just what we need. the person who managed MARTA into a 1/2 billion shortfall this year is now going to apply that 'magic ' to mbta?

why don't we have railroad people on the mbta board ? why don't we have a gm from the private sector?

this doesn't make sense. ken patrick

$$$, I suppose- the MBTA pays its GM less than even similar public agencies, let alone to be competitive with private sector salaries.

More details on the unsustainable financial condition at MARTA from which the T's newly hired GM recently departed (also, another T GM candidate was MARTA's #2, Dwight Ferrell, deputy general manager and chief operating officer). Doesn't bode well for the T and the Commonwealth.


MARTA's audit "highlights":

KPMG found that MARTA's current economic model is "unsustainable," therefore requiring the agency to cut expenses by $25 million annually, MARTA officials said in a prepared statement.

Other key findings included:

• MARTA is projected to exhaust its reserves by fiscal-year 2018 and fall below its mandated reserve levels by FY2016;

• The agency has $7.1 billion in unfunded capital needs through FY2021;

• High employee-absenteeism rates cost MARTA about $11 million in additional benefits; and

• Annual retirement costs are $22 million more than the national average in the public and private sectors.


http://www.progressiverailroading.com/p ... ays--32759

I wonder what could be their compelling reason to choose this candidate. It seems she is under-powered with her work experience ( I would say unqualified but this is the public sector ) , and has all the makings of being used as a puppet. Isn't there someone within the T that could have been promoted up, someone that has a more actual realistic working knowledge of what's what? These are trying times, every buck counts.

Teamdriver wrote:I wonder what could be their compelling reason to choose this candidate. It seems she is under-powered with her work experience ( I would say unqualified but this is the public sector ) , and has all the makings of being used as a puppet. Isn't there someone within the T that could have been promoted up, someone that has a more actual realistic working knowledge of what's what? These are trying times, every buck counts.

Interesting point, and I'm not exactly disagreeing with you. But I get the impression that the MBTA is "damned if they do, damned if they don't" when it comes to their management decisions. Imagine the headlines from a certain Boston publication if the T promoted someone from within:

"Insider Crony Appointed as Next MBTA Chief!"

The Authority (or the Board of Directors) is under pressure from all directions. Hire someone from the outside who will clean house and enforce a New World Order. Hire someone from the private sector, who will take a big pay cut as their reward for accepting one of the most demanding jobs in state government. Hire someone from the inside, who knows the system and knows how to get things done. None of these are necessarily bad ideas, but none of them are perfect either.

I like to joke that we should just appoint all the local newspaper comment sections to run the T. Clearly everyone posting in there knows how to run a transit authority better than the people who work in the industry.

I was just pondering what was the majority criteria in the appointment, whether it was political correctness for whatever reason , or say something off the wall as competence. There will always be second guessing as you say, but we the taxpayers of Massachusetts need this broken system fixed, not kicked around as some sort of social experiment / engineering , you know , dont paint over the rust, nuts and bolts stuff , with a splash of fiscal responsibility and fiscal integrity added in . If the job is too difficult for the Board of Directors to find the right person, maybe we need new Directors too.

Coupla things:
-For late-to-the-thread and non-delving readers, the "MA" of "MARTA" for the new T GM references "Metropolitan Atlanta" and not "Montachusett Area."

-PC may well be part of the reason for the appointment, but good ol' Machiavelli may well be there as well. In the event of difficulties, the Board has a scapegoat, even if it is the one of its own choice, and can buy itself some time and support for a "better" appointment. In the event of success, the Board can take bows. In the event of mixed reviews, the Board has yet again engaged in that schoolboy/politician practice of kicking the can down the road.

I'm actually happy they appointed someone with diversity in consideration. The MBTA has a diverse workforce, so why not a diverse management team?

mattl wrote:I'm actually happy they appointed someone with diversity in consideration. The MBTA has a diverse workforce, so why not a diverse management team?

Robert Prince (late-90's, pre- Davis + Davey + Grabauskas + Mulhern GM) was African-American as well. So it's not new for the top job. But the top job is rarely a leading indicator of whether the upper management ranks across the organization are truly "diverse" by crunching the percentages. Unfortunately that still tends to be the case in 2012 in the upper ranks of most large organizations, be they public or corporate.

Hmm.....?

http://www.ajc.com/news/news/marta-spen ... ent/nSXyF/

Article about new manager's counseling while at at MARTA:

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massac ... story.html

typesix wrote:Article about new manager's counseling while at at MARTA:

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massac ... story.html

Universalhub offers up a clarification and more detail: http://www.universalhub.com/2012/what-g ... gist-new-h

'What the Globe didn't tell you about the psychologist the new head of the T met with'
... In other words, while Doc may have a degree in psychology, how he really makes his money is as a management consultant. But "New T manager met with management consultant" probably wouldn't cut it as a front-page story in the Globe. ...



But there's a write up from Atlanta with even further detail than that, stating that the new GM's managerial tactics were harsh, severe, and bordered on harassment. So it would seem that we have a new GM who took a position as 'boss' a little too far. Employee complaints led to an investigation which resulted in sending the MARTA GM to get some suggestions on how to manage.

Finch wrote:

Teamdriver wrote:Imagine the headlines from a certain Boston publication if the T promoted someone from within:

"Insider Crony Appointed as Next MBTA Chief!"

So something, somewhere is the Herald's fault? How about the T just hire the right person,and you stop trying to score imaginary points against the hated enemy newspaper? The problem with MBTA management is not that the Herald criticizes them.