For many years I attended the meetings of Metro's various committees and of the full board. Frankly I found it to be great theatre to watch some of the truly skilled actors of the board and from the agency do battle. There were always a few that were better prepared than the others or those who knew how to use Rogers Rules of Order to their advantage or those who were just plain scrappy. Some of those who were particularly skilled in one way or another are no longer on the board. Members like David Catania or Gladys Mack from the District or Bob Smith from Maryland or Dana Kaufman from Virginia could wreak their own kind of havoc on a board meeting and seemed to get their way more often than not. There are still several on the board who can do this but, for the sake of discretion and not wanting to irritate any of them (or the jealous others) I will not mention them by name.
There has always seemed to me to be a difference in the way that those who are elected officials and therefore have a constituency to whom they are responsible. They tend to be a bit more intransigent and, at times, unreasonable or demanding. They tend to grandstand more in order to get their point across knowing that there is a table off to the side where a half dozen or so reporters sit from meeting to meeting. It is even worse if there are television cameras there because many of these actors played to the cameras and are very good at it. The one thing that seems not to have changed is that the members of the board are rarely happy with whatever proposals are brought to them when it comes to the high-profile issues. We're talking issues like budget cuts or fare increases or service cuts or doing away with the supply of bottled water for the meetings. They always seem surprised by the proposals made by the staff at the agency and never accept them on first read. Not that they should.
The staff from the agency that runs Metro is generally trying to figure out a way to compromise. They don't want to have to do the tough things like letting hundreds of staffers go. They probably, in their heart of hearts, don't want to cut service because it will weaken their position. The bus operations people and the rail operations people are frequently at odds when it comes to things that might impact the value of their "turf." It's human nature to want to protect that which is yours. The same applies to those board members from the various member jurisdictions. The Maryland representatives will fight to keep anything and everything in terms of service in their state regardless of its value to the whole. The same goes for the Virginia representatives and those from the District. For many of them it's why they are there; to protect and defend the interests of the people who sent them there.
As we all know by now, those who sit on Metro's board are not directly paid to do so except for the one seat from Maryland that had been, at least in the recent past, a very well-paid position appointed by the state's governor (and paid by the state, not by Metro). Other board members have to make do by being paid as elected officials or as employees of the jurisdiction in one way or another. Some sit on the board as political appointees and their payment is in the currency of political favor (whatever that means but it sure sound like something Mr. Blagojevich might like). All are dedicated to what they do and most of them carry the water for their local jurisdictions very well.
When it comes to making the hard decisions and deciding which services or staffers will survive I don't envy any of the board members or the staff at WMATA. But I wish them the best of luck and the power to make the right decisions. After all, there are a few million people out here waiting to see what will be left when they are done making those tough decisions.
Steve Eldridge is a long-time reporter, observer and commentator on the Washington region's transportation issues. You can contact him directly by writing to: Steve@SprawlandCrawl.com. Unless otherwise requested, letters or portions of letters can be used within future columns. Letter writers will be identified by their first name and city/neighborhood.
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