High-Level Personnel Changes At Metro
Tangherlini Shifts MetroAccess Chief

By Lena H. Sun and Lyndsey Layton
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, June 3, 2006

In his first personnel reshuffle since taking over Metro 3 1/2 months ago, Dan Tangherlini has removed the manager of MetroAccess, the agency's troubled service for the disabled, and is forcing out two other senior managers.

Tangherlini, the District's former transportation director who was tapped in February to become interim general manager at Metro, also is streamlining the bureaucracy to ensure that those in charge of trains, buses, MetroAccess, police and safety answer directly to him. That change is designed to strengthen his oversight of a transit system that employs 10,000 people and transports more than 1.1 million riders daily.

"The idea is to reduce the distance between me and the customer and between me and the employee," Tangherlini said. He said the changes are designed to foster a team approach, something he favors over Metro's traditional reporting hierarchy, which sometimes meant that "issues that are brewing don't get to the top soon enough."

In an early meeting with senior staff, Tangherlini said that if they were enamored of their ranks and titles, "the military is hiring."

Under the reorganization, Pamela Wilkins, who had been responsible for MetroAccess, will be shifted to a job overseeing workers' compensation claims. Christian Kent, her deputy, will become acting chief operating officer for MetroAccess.

MetroAccess has long been the target of complaints, and a group of disabled riders filed a lawsuit last year contending that the service is so poor that it violates federal law. About 16,000 elderly or disabled people are eligible to use it.

Wilkins was in charge when Metro switched MetroAccess contractors Jan. 15, a transition that led to record numbers of complaints from riders who were stranded or delayed. The situation attracted the interest of a member of Congress and the region's Transportation Planning Board, which blamed weak management and poor monitoring. The chief executive of MV Transportation, the company that took over the service, called it the worst transition he had ever seen.

Tangherlini assembled a team to reduce the number of missed and excessively late MetroAccess trips. In an initial report, an advisory group named by the Metro board said it was unusual for one company, such as MV, to be in charge of everything -- from reservations to scheduling to dispatch -- likening the situation to the "fox guarding the henhouse."

Tangherlini was chosen to replace Richard A. White, who was forced out by the Metro board after a tenure marked by strides in fixing complex funding problems but struggles with daily crises, including broken escalators, faulty rail cars and preventable accidents.

White was an aloof executive and a self-described introvert who was never comfortable mingling with the rank and file. By contrast, Tangherlini is personable and outgoing. He roams work sites to talk with employees at all levels. Many have said they are pleased and energized by his attention.

The management shake-up marks a significant change from how White ran the company. White installed Wilkins to run MetroAccess, and when problems erupted in January, he put part of the blame on riders, saying they expected too much.

The two departing managers are William F. Scott II, deputy general manager in charge of employee and labor relations, human resources and procurement, and P. Takis Salpeas, deputy general manager for planning, development, engineering and construction. Severance packages are under negotiation, according to agency sources who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Scott has been criticized by some Metro directors for failing to aggressively manage health care costs and for allowing the job vacancy rate to climb to a level that has led to high overtime costs. That made it possible for more than 150 unionized workers to earn more than $100,000 last year.

Scott did not return calls to his home and cellphone placed through a Metro spokeswoman.

Salpeas was one of White's handpicked allies; the two worked together at the Bay Area Rapid Transit system in San Francisco. Last year, White expanded Salpeas's portfolio, making him Metro's most powerful senior manager.

"I completely understand that the general manager has to have his own vision for the agency," Salpeas said yesterday. He added that he was "personally satisfied" with the decision and looking forward to taking more than two weeks' vacation with his wife for the first time in his career.

Soon after he joined Metro in 1998, Salpeas brought on part-time consultant Wayman H. "Ray" Lytle, whom he knew from BART. Salpeas gave Lytle a sole-source contract of $100,000 that ballooned to more than $333,065 after 14 months. The Federal Transit Administration and U.S. Department of Transportation criticized Metro for hiring Lytle, and White terminated the contract.

Three years later, Metro paid more than $100,000 to settle a sexual harassment claim in 2001 filed against Salpeas by a woman in his department.

Last year, Salpeas told the Metro board that he had found a technological fix to reduce the growing problem of trains overrunning station platforms. Metro had been told by the FTA and the National Transportation Safety Board that it needed to fix the problem. Salpeas promised a significant reduction by last Christmas.

The problem got worse: Trains overran stations 688 times last year, up from 583 overruns logged in 2004 and more than double the 322 overruns in 1996, when the FTA first told Metro to fix the problem. Salpeas said he had misspoken and the overruns would not be fixed until this Christmas.