Metro Chief Ready for Next Move
Challenge of Managing D.C. Government Looks Tempting to Tangherlini
Wednesday, October 4, 2006; Page B01
On the night that the District's new, young up-and-comer, Adrian M. Fenty, won the Democratic nomination for mayor, another rising star gave him a call. Dan Tangherlini, the interim boss of Metro and the leading candidate to get the permanent job, couldn't get through and left a message. Fenty called back with no luck.
But within a day, the two were joined in headlines announcing that Fenty wanted Tangherlini to serve as city administrator and, in effect, run the government of the nation's capital. Suddenly, the 39-year-old Capitol Hill resident, a man with no permanent job, was the leading candidate for two of the region's highest-profile positions.
  As Metro's interim general manager, Dan Tangherlini has developed a following among employees and riders of the regional transit agency. (By James A. Parcell -- The Washington Post) |
Tangherlini (pronounced tan-gur-LEE-nee) announced Monday that he plans to take the city job, assuming that Fenty, 35, wins in November as expected. The move will mean that in less than a year, Tangherlini will have gone from running a city agency of 600 employees to overseeing a regional transit system of 10,000 workers to likely managing Washington, D.C., with its 38,0000 employees, failing school system, troubled police and emergency medical services and inefficient bureaucracy.
Tangherlini will be called on to do what he calls the "deep-dive" issues of holding agencies and managers accountable, and Fenty will be in charge of politics and policy. By moving from Metro, he will be taking a job with a lot more work, a lot more risk and a lot less money -- perhaps as much as $100,000 less, based on past salaries.
"I like to serve. I like to make a difference," he said. "I like to produce results that can improve people's lives. If it was all about the paycheck, I'd go work for a bank."
Which makes you wonder: Who is this guy? And what is it about him that makes everyone want him?
In No Time, Mr. Metro
Throughout his life, Tangherlini has been a fixer. At Metro, he was brought in to fix an agency that had suffered from service problems, management missteps and the widespread perception that its leaders had lost touch with riders and employees.
Easygoing and approachable, with a self-deprecating sense of humor, Tangherlini seemed to be the tonic Metro desired. Within months, he became the face of Metro, literally -- his picture is on huge posters at subway stations. People recognized the man with the beard and the steel-blue eyes as "the Metro guy."
The interim general manager quickly developed a following among riders and employees. He dropped in at rail yards and bus garages and showed up for track work, parking garage groundbreakings and the bus "roadeo" competition.
He listened when an escalator technician gave him an earful at the Landover station. The work is dirty, the mosquitoes are terrible and riders curse and spit at him, the technician told him. Tangherlini promised to get down in the bowels with a repair crew. He got as excited discussing a cost-benefit analysis of light bulbs with his budget staff as he did talking classic cars with rail mechanics. (One of his prize possessions is a 1967 MG, which he rebuilt himself.)
Tangherlini, a regular bus and subway rider, immediately offered riders tangible relief. More light in the underground stations. Credit card readers in parking facilities. Express lanes at fare gates so SmarTrip card users can speed through.
After he suggested that Metro consider putting shops in the subway -- a once-taboo subject -- one blogger proposed that Metro sell Tangherlini T-shirts. Another called him "Mr. Tangherhottie."
