The selection committee charged with picking a new CEO to lead the Capital Area Transit System is interviewing two finalists for the position over the next two days and is expected to make its recommendation to the full CATS board Wednesday.
After a nearly six-month search process, the selection committee has narrowed its list of finalists to Jonathan Davis, a retired executive from the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, and interim CATS CEO William Deville.
Davis arrives for his interview today and will have dinner with Deville and other CATS board members tonight. On Wednesday, the selection committee will conduct a formal interview with each candidate, followed by a meeting in executive session to vote on which candidate to recommend to the full board.
“I think we’ve had a very broad based and inclusive committee,” says CATS Board Chairman Jim Brandt. “We had 173 applicants. We went all over the country and the transit sector was very tuned in to this position. We cast our net wide and far and had a good chance to look at what’s out there.”
But at least two mayoral candidates, including one sitting Metro Council member, say the process should not go forward, though for different reasons.
State Sen. Mack “Bodi” White, a Republican from Central, says the selection process should be delayed until after the upcoming mayor’s race. Though the full CATS board will not be replaced once a new mayor is elected, White says there are underlying systemic issues that need to be addressed within the beleaguered bus system. The new mayor should have an opportunity to tackle them, White says.
“Since the outgoing administration is just a few months away from leaving office, I believe it is best to wait until the new mayor-president takes office before making a final decision,” he says. “I think there are changes that need to be made to CATS and I would like to be involved in that process. It is important that the new CEO have a solid background in finance and management in order to work through waste and improve the overall efficiency of the system.”
Metro Councilman and mayoral candidate John Delgado, meanwhile, says he doesn’t think CATS should hire a new CEO at all.
“I think CATS needs to permanently put off its vote on a new CEO and hire a professional management company to run it instead,” he says.
CATS explored a partial private management model amidst much controversy in 2013. Ultimately, the board hired a “program manager” to help implement route changes and improvements to the system that were promised to voters when they approved a dedicated CATS tax in 2012. Deville came to the system as part of the program management team.
Brandt takes issue with the calls for delay, saying there’s no reason to wait.
“We will look forward to any recommendations or suggestions that any Metro Council member or successful mayor will make,” he says. “But we cannot wait to make this decision. There is too much we have to do.”
Brandt says he is satisfied with the selection process and the two finalists, both of whom he says are good candidates.
A third finalist for the position, Albert Eby, director of the Cape Fear Public Transportation Authority, withdrew his name from consideration last month. Brandt says Eby dropped out of the running after receiving a better offer from his current employer in North Carolina.
“He was a very competitive candidate,” Brandt says. “But once his board got word he was a finalist down here they made him an offer he could not refuse.”
—Stephanie Riegel
