MetroRiders.Org

MEMORANDUM

To: Debra A. Johnson, Board Secretary

From: Marlene C. McGuirl

Date: November 13, 2006

Subject: Comments on Governance Task Force Draft Action Report

Task Force Members & Leadership Vacuum

At least three representatives of the Governance Task Force should be immediately replaced. They have long out-lived their usefulness, if they ever had any, on the METRO Board. They are: Gladys Mack (guardian of the Budget Committee), Dana Kauffman and Charles Deegan. They should be given their “gold watches” and sent home. Other members, not on the Task Force, who should also be given their “gold watches” are Jim Graham, Marion Barry, and Chris Zimmerman. A further problem is that those individuals on the WMATA staff working on this draft report haven’t been around long enough to know anything about METRO or it’s history, with the exception of “Let them take a taxi” Jack Requa. What a sad state of affairs! When the General Manager’s position is vacant and The Board appoints Jack Requa as Acting GM, you know that there is a leadership vacuum in the organization. Jack has been one of the leading non-performers for years. How has this happened? The Board has never bothered to establish goals for senior management and reviewed management’s effectiveness and performance on at least an annual basis. The draft report does not address that issue.

Intent of Draft Report

The intent of the action report is “intended to fine-tune, rather than radically reform WMATA’s structure.” In order to fine-tune a machine, the machine has to be in working order to begin with. At METRO the machine stopped working years ago. The aim, in this case, should be to radically reform the METRO structure. First the elimination of at least $10,000,000 of useless positions which The Board protects. The report states that the recommended action steps are designed to be highly practical and easily implemented without a great expenditure of time and money. This is a typical Board response. The company is in a financial crisis brought about The Board’s mismanagement. Now The Board wants to do something easy which will be window-dressing and result in no change. The extraordinary expenditure of public money is what The Board has always favored. In return for the outrageous expenditure of moneys, the benefit to METRO and the taxpaying public has been zero. By the way, how much has the outside consultant for the governance initiative cost the taxpayer?

The Board Track Record

The initial premise of the governance initiative is erroneous. The report refers to The Board’s “solid track record.” It is indeed a record, but it is not solid. What is solid about putting METRO in a state of financial extremis. One of the problems is that The Board members treat such membership as an HONOR, rather than a RESPONSIBILITY. The Task Force talks about developing “even stronger governance.” However, since the majority of Task Force members are all new to METRO, they can only speculate that governance can be “even stronger.” Governance should include oversight, but at METRO it does not and never has. In fact, there is no governance to begin with. The most noteworthy act of governance on the part of The Board over the past five years was the firing of Richard White. This was illustrative of Board decision-making granting Richard White a Christmas tree of pay and benefits based on several unheard of, highly impractical, though benevolent, contracts which The Board could not retract. After neglecting to review Richard White’s performance for years, The Board finally woke up. The Board does not act as if it is accountable to the taxpaying public, a problem not addressed by the Task Force.

The Critical Problem of METRO Governance

Indeed, the most critical problem with WMATA Board Governance is the lack of healthy turnover in Board membership. The draft Task Force Report ignores this problem completely. The WMATA Compact should be amended to provide for staggering Board membership terms (thus limiting a members’s term) while still maintaining continuity. With frequent new blood, The Board may not be as easily hood-winked by the staff who routinely mislead The Board and traps The Board into irreverent (always costly) decision- making. The draft report does not address the issue of The Board getting enough information of the right kinds, at the right time from the right members of management to effectually perform their responsibilities.

Without these issues being resolved the draft Task Force Report is a White-wash.

cc: Board Members

Rep. Tom Davis

Rep. Chris Van Hollen

Washington Post

The Examiner

Metro Riders