While the law doesn’t formally take effect until July 1, Metro Board Chairman Jack Evans said officials began the process of reducing alternates’ roles Thursday.
Evans said officials believe the law, as written, also prevents alternates from serving as committee chairs or even participating in meetings at the committee level. That could change, however, Evans said, as officials fully explore the ramifications of the law’s language.
“It’s a loss for the agency,” Evans said Thursday, “but it’s out of my hands.”
Without their nametags resting on the board table, and no seats designated for them in the room, the alternate board members seemed scattered to the winds, left to scout out seating for themselves. One cohort — Robert Lauby, Kathy Porter, Anthony Costa, Paul Smedberg — sat together in an apparent act of solidarity, huddled together in the section of the room usually populated by Metro staff.
Christian Dorsey, a Virginia alternate, took a seat in the front row of the section where members of the public typically sit when they’re waiting to testify to before the board. Maryland representative Malcolm Augustine hung out in the back of the small audience. And D.C. representative Tom Bulger sat to the side, behind the table designated for media, and talked audibly from his seat at certain moments during the board proceedings.
Lauby, a federal appointee to the board who also is chief safety officer of the Federal Railroad Administration, said the legislation throws his status as chairman of the panel’s safety and service delivery committee into uncertainty. It’s also unclear, he said, how his safety expertise could be of use to the board in his diminished capacity.
“I’m anxiously awaiting to figure out what my role, if any, is moving forward,” he said. “Whether I’m an alternate or not, I’m basically there because there’s a safety problem and my role is to address the safety problems and not much else. If they don’t want me addressing safety problems, what can you do?”
Alternates Anthony E. Costa and Lauby were appointed to the board by Obama administration officials in 2014 and 2016, respectively. Last summer, Transportation Secretary Elaine L. Chao appointed two fiscal-minded board members to serve as the Trump administration’s voting representatives on the panel.
Evans said he is hopeful that the alternates may yet be able to participate in the committee meetings. But for now, that’s apparently barred by the legislation, which prohibits nonvoting members’ participation in any “Board meeting or committee” meeting when both principle directors are present. Evans said the situation is “still evolving,” and officials are consulting with Virginia’s general counsel to determine the boundaries of the roles of alternate board members.
Meanwhile, some of those members questioned what the provision would accomplish. Dorsey, who represents Arlington — along with Augustine of Prince George’s County — are among the most vocal members of the board, pressing management for answers on rider concerns or giving voice to the needs of their localities.
“From my vantage point, in the audience, I don’t think that the meeting was any more efficient than they have been in the past, so I’m not really sure what we achieved by having a different seating arrangement,” Dorsey said. “But it apparently means a lot to some interested parties, so we’ll have to ask them what was achieved by this. But to me? Nothing.”
Dorsey said board members were under the impression this week that they would be “consigned to the kiddies table,” but they weren’t told much more. If the provision is as far-reaching as officials are interpreting, Dorsey said, “I think there’s gotta be a fundamental rethinking about how Metro operates.”
“Really, you have to have committees and the board structured so that the primary work can be accomplished by eight people as opposed to 16,” he said.
Dorsey said he also fears alternates won’t be as prepared as voting members if they are barred from participating in full meetings, and there could be issues establishing a quorum if a voting board member was suddenly unable to attend.
“I see a lot of concerns with this personally,” he said. “And then there’s that … we’re not necessarily utilizing all the talent in the room.”
Evans, who declined to elaborate Wednesday on what prompted the sudden move to hold an eight-member meeting, said earlier this week that Metro officials were uncertain about the exact implications of the law.
“Again, we don’t have a clear understanding of the role of the alternates in the Virginia legislation as to whether they are able to participate at all in the committees as well as the board, and if they’re not then that would change a lot of things,” he said. “That would be an eight person board. So that would change the way we operate, yes.”
Smedberg, who represents Alexandria, said he was uncertain what the law would mean for the future of the board. But it was important, he said, to represent all the funding localities in board discussions.
“There are a good number of people who are alternates now that do contribute quite a bit to the overall board operations and work,” he said. “For us I think it’s important because — on the Virginia side, anyway — the localities pay the money. It’s not all coming from the state.”