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Metro Chief Ready for Next Move
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)
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At the Transportation Department, he orchestrated the turnaround of an agency that had trouble filling potholes and repaving streets. He launched the innovative D.C. Circulator bus. He recruited older and more experienced managers.
"He has a personality that people like to work for. He is willing to listen to people on the front line who have the answers, and he's able to make decisions and be held accountable for them," said John A. Koskinen, a former deputy mayor and former city administrator. "He turned out to be terrific, one of the best agency directors we had."
'The Culmination of All My Jobs'
Tangherlini is about to assume the biggest job of his career, what he calls "the culmination of all my jobs strung together."
His biggest challenge will be dealing with the District's wide range of issues, Koskinen said. To name a few: health care, Medicaid, economic development, the new baseball stadium, police and fire services, and, of course, the schools, he said.
To deal with those and other issues, Fenty has said, he wants to institute a comprehensive set of performance measures for agencies. That's just the kind of talk that resonates with Tangherlini.
Fenty and Tangherlini want to "focus on specific outcomes, so people can see tangible results and we can hold agencies accountable," Tangherlini said.
The two under-40 leaders are eager to get started. They are in the BlackBerry generation and have three between them. They communicate constantly. Tangherlini holds meetings in Starbucks, where a fresh coffee is never far from his hand. Fenty orders tea or hot apple cider. But that's about as far apart as they seem to get.
"We're two versions of the same personality," Tangherlini said.
Staff researcher Meg Smith contributed to this report.
