Metro has taken action in the case of the tragic incident where two people doing track inspections were struck and killed by an out-of-service train. The train operator has been “permanently barred” from ever operating a bus or a train and will be reassigned when she comes off of workers compensation. It is unclear what position inside Metro she might find, but one would hope that it doesn’t involve any decision-making that might affect peoples’ lives.
Metro did an investigation of the incident and based this decision on that. Metro apparently wanted to wait until the National Transportation Safety Board had completed its investigation to make a decision on the train operator’s fate. The union wanted a decision to be made within the 20 working-day rule that is in the collective bargaining agreement and forced Metro to make a decision. Recall that in the case of the crash at Woodley Park in November 2004, the train operator was fired but then reinstated after arbitration found the Metro had not followed proper firing procedures. One of those was adherence to the 20 working-day rule.
This time Metro officials were not going to take a chance and took the disciplinary action they felt were warranted. A representative says that the operator can be reinstated to operator status if the investigation of the NTSB warrants it.
The hiring freeze at Metro is leaving a number of positions vacant. Several key positions are vacant because thestaffers who were put into them by Acting General Manager Dan Tangherlini during his short tenure have followed him over to the District government. One of them is assistant general manager of workforce development and administration, what is commonly called a personnel director. This position was filled without competition by Brender Gregory at a salary of $154,000. Gregory will now head the District’s Office of Personnel under the Fenty/Tangherlini administration.
Also moving on and up is Emeka Moneme who was Tangherlini’s chief of staff at Metro. Moneme will take over the reins of the city’s Department of Transportation, replacing Michelle Pourciau who was, interestingly enough, Tangherlini’s assistant director for many years and was given the title of full director of the agency just weeks before Mayor Tony Williams left office. That also means that Tangherlini’s former chief of staff at Metro will now be sitting on Metro’s Board of Directors as a representative of the District — talk about having inside information.
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