New Tri-Met CEO expected in the morning
While Portland struggles to make sense of a tragic waste of two young lives under the wheels of a Tri-Met bus, the nursing home residents on the troubled transit agency's board are apparently going to name a new general manager tomorrow. The O is speculating that it's going to be the outgoing Seattle transit agency head, who's essentially being fired, but her appointment would be surprising.
The Tri-Met gig is a prime political patronage position -- outgoing Goldschmidt lieutenant Fred "Crocodile" Hansen was pulling down more than $250,000 a year, plus benefits, and who knows what his parachute will be -- and in Oregon, those kinds of appointments usually go to two kinds of people. It's either (a) a member of the Old Boy Network (e.g., Hansen, Tom Imeson, Matt Hennessee, Bernie Giusto), or the spouse or offspring of a member of said network; or (b) an up-and-coming elected official who's been making trouble for the old boys and needs to be bought off (e.g., Max Williams, Vicki Walker, Ted Wheeler).
With those being the criteria, I can't imagine a person with actual experience in transit management getting the nod. Remember, the Tri-Met board are all gubernatorial appointments -- "Hot Lips" Giusto was on that board until recently -- and they make the call on this one. Their choice seems as likely to be somebody like Jim Francesconi or Charlie Hales or one of the Metro clones as it does the gal from Seattle.
| Posted at 10:31 PM | Permalink |
|
Comments (11)
Hey maybe Creepy is on the list. Just think of all the money he could save riding Tri-Met with a free pass and his zipper down checking all the out of the way restrooms in town.
Posted by phil | April 28, 2010 5:26 AM
Stop the presses, Creepy just pulled his name off the list to replace Fred, he just found out the word "layover" in the driver's contract doesn't mean what he thought it did.
Posted by phil | April 28, 2010 5:51 AM
Whoever is next is going to have to deal more that just blood on the bus lines. TriMet has some major money problems:
http://theoregonpolitico.com/blog/2010/04/27/looming-liabilities-oregonians-owe-3-billion-in-post-employment-benefits/
Posted by Garage Wine | April 28, 2010 7:24 AM
No way somebody from Seattle -GASP!- would get the nod for the top job at TriMet.
Posted by dg | April 28, 2010 9:09 AM
Jack, there's one up and coming category you left out: Maybe it will go to an investigative reporter who knows too much....
Posted by lie2me | April 28, 2010 10:19 AM
So, would the Seattle candidate be Grace Crunican - she worked at the City of Portland, then was on Goldschmidt's team when he was in charge of the Federal Department of Transportation. I went to school with Grace; she was a smart cookie, so I would wonder about her taking this job. As I recall, her leaving Seattle had to do, in part, with being unable to unravel the mess known as I-5 that goes through downtown.
Posted by umpire | April 28, 2010 11:00 AM
I meant to add, her inability to solve I-5, in addition to the snowstorm debacle - though Portland didn't do any better. One wonders, given knowledge of Portland's internal politics, did she develop the reported vindictive management style in Seattle, or did she inherit it with little ability to get rid of bad managers.
Posted by umpire | April 28, 2010 11:07 AM
So, would the Seattle candidate be Grace Crunican - she worked at the City of Portland, then was on Goldschmidt's team when he was in charge of the Federal Department of Transportation.
If this is true, umpire, and she does get the job, part a) of Jack's maxim will sadly have been proven correct once again.
With all these new people supposedly moving to Oregon, you'd think there would be some fresh blood and ideas injected into our state and local politics. Instead, we get the same old has-beens, retreads, and Goldschmidt coatholders.
Posted by Eric | April 28, 2010 11:08 AM
Now on the Tri-Met website - Neil McFarlane - the current Capital Projects manager for Tri-Met. Oh, joy, will Jack have fun with this one! Onward by Max! and more streetcar lines! Can we get another Tram!
Posted by umpire | April 28, 2010 11:10 AM
This Grace Crunican is so bad she would be Neil Goldschmidt's choice.
Hmmm?
In fact, there is likely not a worse choice available. She mismanaged ODOT then Seattle's SDOT.
Perhaps Mike Thorne who gave our ship yards and dry docks away for nothing. And then went on to mismanage the Washington Ferry system. He would be a good fit.
Or how about Vera.
Whoever it is they must be willing to keep covering up the calamity at TriMet in order to avoid embarrassing the lofty elite on the TriMet board and the politicians who share the blame.
The unreported fact is TriMet is right now in fiscal collapse.
They are selling assets and cannibalizing their general fund to pay for rail boondoggles while piling up unfunded retirement and benefits commitments.
And where does one read about any of it in the press?
Posted by Ben | April 28, 2010 11:15 AM
And where does one read about any of it in the press?.
Oregonian, Tribune, Katu, Kptv, etc etc.
The retirement sucks btw.
The only thing we get that is better than some of the other transit agencies (not all btw, Trimet is only #7) is health benefits.
Of course that is not preventing us from
DYING YOUNGER THAN MOST AMERICANS.
Posted by al m | April 29, 2010 12:10 AM