Metro’s board of directors has been too concerned with day-to-day operations such as picking train seat colors and hiring non-management-level workers instead of pursuing multiyear strategic plans, according to a new federal report. The Government Accountability Office report released Thursday said board members and senior officials “described a culture in which there is a lack of clarity about the roles of the board and individual board members, which has resulted in their overreach into management responsibilities.”
Metro’s board has 16 seats — four each for D.C., Virginia, Maryland and the federal government. Currently there are two vacancies, but the District is also looking for a replacement for D.C. Councilman Michael Brown.
| Feces cleaned up at transit station |
| Metro’s Franconia-Springfield station was cleaned of human excrement on Thursday, this time with power washers — some four days after a rider first started complaining. |
| The Washington Examiner reported Thursday that rider Austin Lasseter had been complaining about a pile of human feces in the pedestrian bridge between the Metro and Virginia Railway Express sections of the station since Monday. The Metro station manager had told him it wasn’t Metro’s problem, as the bridge belonged to VRE. |
| After contacted by The Washington Examiner, both agencies pledged on Wednesday to clean it up immediately. Metro said its crews got there first and took care of it. But Lasseter said much of it was still there Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning, with a yellow traffic cone placed in front of the feces-smeared walls. |
| A team of Metro maintenance workers removed the feces with a power washer on Thursday, with VRE crews watching. Metro spokesman Dan Stessel said the station was cleaner Thursday than probably at any point in its history. |
| It turns out the area of the stairway was Metro’s turf, according to VRE spokesman Mark Roeber. |
| Stessel said crews from both agencies plan to monitor the area more closely, fearing they have what he called “a serial pooper,” as he said some new feces was found on the bridge Thursday. – Kytja Weir |
The report detailed how some board members had “excessive contact with midlevel managers” rather than working through established channels, asking for changes to board presentations before meetings.
The board also meets more than nearly all of its peer agencies, the report said. From the end of April 2010 to May 2011, the board met 84 times in committee meetings, executive sessions and full board meetings. Only New York City’s transit authority met more frequently of the six other agencies the GAO reviewed. Such frequency can indicate that the board is too involved in day-to-day operations, board members told the GAO investigators. And, the report noted, preparations for the meetings eat into staff time better spent running the agency.
The board has had no way of assessing its own performance or procedures for investigating its own members, the report said. The agency suffered from a lack of formal orientation for new board members and a chairmanship that rotated annually, with board procedures changing alongside. It also hasn’t been involved in long-term strategic planning.
Board Chairwoman Cathy Hudgins responded that the board has been working on making changes and that half the members have joined the board within the last six months.
“Metro’s new board has and will continue to embrace change and advance many governance improvements that substantially strengthen our role as a regional policy and oversight organization,” she said.
Sens. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., and Patty Murray, D-Wash., had requested GAO make the independent review, concerned Metro’s existing governance structure was contributing to the safety and reliability problems plaguing the transit system.
It was the latest report critiquing the board’s role in governing the agency, but the GAO report noted that some of the recommendations made in earlier reports had benefits and drawbacks.
A task force created by the governors of Virginia, Maryland and D.C.’s mayor is looking into making broader changes to the board that would require legislation.
