Though it has been less than 18 hours since Bob Mirabito publicly announced he will step down as CEO of the Capital Area Transit System, CATS board chairman Jim Brandt says he has identified an “excellent candidate” to serve as his replacement on an interim basis.
Brandt says the board had advance notice of Mirabito’s decision to resign and has been planning accordingly. During a special meeting of the CATS board that will take place this Friday, Brandt will present the interim CEO candidate’s name to the board for approval.
“I think everyone will be very pleased with the selection,” Brandt says. “It is the board’s selection. I am just presenting it.”
Also at Friday’s meeting, the CATS board will create a search committee to begin looking for a permanent replacement for Mirabito, who, himself, became CEO after first taking the position on an interim basis in the spring of 2013.
“That is not to suggest the interim is not a candidate for the permanent replacement as well,” Brandt says. “But we have some strong, internal candidates as well as others we’d like to consider who aren’t currently associated with the agency.”
Brandt declines to identify the candidate but he praised Mirabito for, among other things, bringing in a top-flight management team during his three-year tenure. Among Mirabito’s hires is Don Palmer, a former Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, transportation executive with years of experience in mass transit. In just six months on the job here, Palmer has developed a reputation for working well with multiple stakeholders, including system employees and leaders of the employee union.
Though Mirabito’s announcement late Tuesday took many in the community by surprise, those who know him well say the outgoing CEO’s frustration with mounting personal criticism of his tenure in office was taking a toll. Mirabito alluded to as much in his resignation letter to the board.
In his three years with CATS, Mirabito weeded out corruption and cleaned up the agency’s books. But his sometimes abrasive management style alienated some longtime employees and caused problems with union leaders. Though he successfully renegotiated a new union contract last fall, he endured many personal attacks in the process. He also took much of the heat for the poor condition of aging buses in the system’s fleet, problems with a new route system and low ridership of the Red Stick Trolley.
Whether, in the wake of his resignation, the board will consider farming out some of CATS management to an outside firm remains to be seen. Brandt says it’s worthwhile to explore partial privatization. But he says the issue of all-out privatization is dead.
“The privatization option should be part of any agency’s tool box, used appropriately in the right circumstances,” he says. “But as far as privatizing everything at CATS, we’ve examined that carefully in the past and concluded it is not cheaper, and is not a magic panacea. So I don’t think we will revisit that question.”
—Stephanie Riegel
