Jonetta Rose Barras: D.C.: The capital of no consequences
By: Jonetta Rose Barras
Examiner Columnist
September 28, 2009
Raise your hand if you agree with D.C. City Administrator Neil Albert's vote against renewing Metro General Manager John B. Catoe Jr.'s contract.
Just as I thought, a whole bunch of you agree with Albert. But five other Metro board members didn't -- so Catoe will be around for another three years, raking in your money and mine. Reportedly, he will receive a salary of $315,000 a year; another $6,000 to augment his health insurance; and an annual housing allowance of $60,000. (Wait, wait: Where is the man living? Why can't he pay for his housing out of that very generous salary?)
Catoe makes nearly as much as the president. With such lucrative compensation and benefits packages, it's easy to understand why Metro always is short of cash. Instead of constantly bilking the public, raising bus or rail fares, the board and management might rehabilitate their spendthrift ways.
District residents should be particularly concerned about the money Catoe is stuffing in his pocket. The city's subsidy to Metro is larger than that of Maryland or Virginia.
But the most offensive thing about all of this is that Catoe isn't suffering the consequences of his mismanagement. The absence of penalty is as distinct to Washington as the Capitol and the White House. Congress and the president didn't believe corporate executives who stripped their companies of profits or made stunningly terrible decisions should be held responsible either. Instead, the corporations were bailed out, and some of those executives actually received bonuses.
As if he's doing the region a favor, Catoe announced he wouldn't accept a salary increase through 2013. He knows he's lucky he has a job.
Since the tragic collision on June 22 that killed nine individuals and injured scores of others, there has been ample evidence he may have been sleeping on the job. Catoe and his team have made flawed or downright foolish decisions. They have ignored the advice of industry experts, the transit union and federal safety officials.
Even now, after three warnings from the National Transportation Safety Board, Catoe insists on using 1000 Series rail cars, which contributed to the crash in 2004 near Woodley Park and to the one this year near Fort Totten. He has decided to repair the doors on the very cars the NTSB said don't use. Metro may claim to not have the money for new cars, no one should believe that.
Metro Board Chairman and D.C. Councilman Jim Graham recently said, "This is the test of [Catoe's] life."
Oh please.
The people who are really being tested are the families of the those who died this past summer, when a speeding subway car crashed into a stationary one, apparently the outcome of poor equipment maintenance, inattentive monitoring, the refusal to sideline risky equipment and generally bad management. The people who are really being tested are the taxpayers, who will fork over millions of dollars to settle lawsuits. The people who are really being tested are the current riders, who board trains with their fingers crossed and prayer cards in their pockets.
Jonetta Rose Barras, host of WPFW's "D.C. Politics with Jonetta," can be reached at rosebook1@aol.com
