Feb 26, 2009 5:35 am US/Central
New CTA President Will Face Serious Challenges
Aviation Commissioner Richard Rodriguez To Be Appointed As Head Of Transit Agency
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
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Richard Rodriguez is Mayor Daley's pick to head the CTA.
CBS
When he takes over as the new president of the CTA on Thursday, Richard Rodriguez will face a bevy of challenges and a $242 million budget gap.
As CBS 2's Joanie Lum reports, Mayor Richard M. Daley is expected to name Rodriguez, 38, as the head of the Chicago Transit Authority later in the day.
Rodriguez has most recently been serving as the commissioner of the Department of Aviation. Before that, he leapt from top jobs at the Chicago Housing Authority to Aviation before being put in charge of three departments in the last three years: Construction and Permits, and Buildings.
But in taking over the CTA, Rodriguez will face major budget problems, at a time when riders say they need the CTA more now as an affordable way to get to work.
At its last meeting, the CTA battled with the funding agency, the Regional Transportation Authority, over the budget shortfall. The CTA blames the $242 million shortfall on lower collections in sales tax and real estate transfer taxes.
The CTA has been plagued by chronic budget problems for several years. Before former CTA President Ron Huberman left to take over the Chicago Public Schools, he had to
raise fares across the board. The agency had suffered losses due to declining tax revenue and former Gov. Rod Blagojevich's order that seniors ride free.
Both Huberman and his predecessor, Frank Kruesi, on separate occasions threatened "doomsday" budgets that called for the
elimination of routes and steep fare hikes. In 2004, the agency barely averted cuts of several bus routes and all overnight 'L' train service.
Meanwhile,
hundreds of accordion-style "articulated" buses were taken out of service when cracks were discovered in the chassis of one bus. The CTA decommissioned more than 200 buses, about 6 percent of its bus fleet.
CTA ridership is very high, and the CTA riders say service is lacking. They often ask why the guys at the top make so much money.
Riders also complained of service problems.
"Why would you go off and leave people. That's the point of transportation, right? To pick up people; passengers on the way to work," said CTA rider Jarma Lewis, "and the next buses – they're so far and few between; they're like 20 minutes, 30 minutes in between. So I would ask him, why do you have a tracker, and why wouldn't buses meet connecting buses?"
Lewis says she will get off at one bus stop, and see the bus she hopes to transfer to pass right by.
But regardless of the situation at the CTA, Rodriguez's appointment is certain to please Hispanic ministers and aldermen who have been pressuring Daley to appoint more Hispanics to high-level jobs. Rodriguez is a former field attorney for the Federal Emergency Management Agency's 24-hour disaster team.
When he was at Construction and Permits, Rodriguez endeared himself to the mayor by reducing by 40 percent the time it takes City Hall to issue a building permit even as the number of permit applications rose.
At Aviation, he has opened a new runway at O'Hare Airport, tried to give O'Hare concessions an even greater local flavor and made peace with Andolino, who fought tooth-and-nail with Rodriguez's predecessor.
Rodriguez has a law degree from Chicago Kent College of Law and is a graduate of the Metropolitan Leadership Institute, run by the United Neighborhood Organization.
CBS 2's Joanie Lum and the STNG Wire contributed to this report.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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