A New Jersey public transit veteran is expected to be named Metro’s interim general manager this week, according to Metro officials.
Richard Sarles is the pick to fill the slot of John Catoe, who resigns April 2, according to board members who interviewed Sarles last week.
However, Chairman Peter Benjamin said Tuesday Metro doesn’t have an agreement finalized with him yet, and the board of directors still needs to formally vote on the pick.
Metro has hired back a top executive seven weeks after he retired from the agency, the second employee within a week to be reinstated after a shake-up.
Jack Requa was appointed as assistant general manager of bus services effective Monday, the agency said Tuesday. The 63-year-old had retired as assistant general manager of operations Jan. 11 after a 12-year stint at the agency and more than 30 years in the industry.
The initial retirement came as the first of a two-part management shake-up that General Manager John Catoe touted as a cost savings measure. But now Catoe himself is resigning.
Requa has run Metro’s bus division in the past and served as interim general manager. He also held key management positions at transit systems in Boston, Houston, St. Louis and Saudi Arabia. As of last April, he earned $175,100. Metro would not comment on his new pay rate. — Kytja Weir
“Richard is a good guy,” Benjamin told The Examiner. “He has experience in all the areas and will be able to step in right away. … If we are able to get Richard, we will get a top-level executive.”
Two other officials also confirmed the pick was a done deal among board members.
Sarles, a professional engineer with a master’s degree in business administration, worked at Amtrak and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey for more than 20 years, then became executive director of NJ Transit in 2007. He announced his retirement in January, the same day an incoming governor named a replacement at the state’s largest transit agency.
Metro’s board next meets Thursday to discuss options for closing an $189 million budget shortfall. The directors are expected to formally vote then on Sarles. Benjamin said they hope he could start shortly before Catoe leaves.
Mortimer Downey, a new federal appointee to the Metro board, worked with Sarles about 35 years ago at the Port Authority. “He’s a good hands-on manager,” he said. “He’d be a good pick for the job.”
Board members had been looking for someone from the outside with significant transit experience who could lead the troubled agency for what could become a protracted search for a permanent head. “Our agreement with him so far is that he is an interim, and he is not a candidate for the permanent position,” Benjamin said.
Sarles has experience with both long-term planning and running a system about Metro’s size, the chairman said. He would also be “very heavily focused on safety,” Benjamin said.
