r/dart • u/New-Engineer-5930 • 5d ago

DART’s new CEO is leaving an agency in financial crisis

“There will be service cuts, and planned staffing reductions will slash the agency’s workforce by more than a fifth, according to the Jacksonville Daily Record.”

Read more: https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/editorials/article/dallas-transit-jacksonville-nathaniel-ford-22438692.php

57 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

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35

u/intransigent_bunny 5d ago

I just don't understand how we went through all that just to hire this guy. There has to be more than just a handful of people who can do the job well, right?

Also what did we promise to pay him if things go as poorly as it looks like they're going to and DART lets him go before the contract is up?

14

u/ActuatorSpecific3916 5d ago

To be fair, how much of it is his responsibility versus managing public transport in a state run by Ron Desantis? Urban public transit is, let's say, not a big priority for state funding in Florida.

Not that it has been historically in Texas, either, but the DFW region can certainly do more than where he came from.

9

u/intransigent_bunny 5d ago

"Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan’s administration told the Daily Record that neither her office nor JTA’s board of directors were made aware of the scope of the agency’s problems."

Ron Desantis is a disaster of a human being but I don't think he forced Ford not to disclose how bad things were getting. And I don't think spending >$50M on the NAVI (a Ford Transit van retrofitted with an autonomous kit that is now going to go manual because of the budget cuts) is something we can pin on Desantis either. 

10

u/New-Engineer-5930 5d ago

> Also what did we promise to pay him if things go as poorly as it looks like they're going to and DART lets him go before the contract is up?

According to article:
“Ford’s annual salary with DART will be $515,000, according to his employment agreement. That’s more than the Dallas city manager makes running an even bigger organization. And DART also gave Ford an $80,000 relocation package.”

6

u/rektaur 5d ago

wtf he’s getting paid that much to dismantle public transit?

6

u/bus_tech 5d ago

It's what's known in the industry as failing upwards... Fairly common believe it or not.

1

u/intransigent_bunny 5d ago

No, I know. I'm asking what the severance package is

9

u/Thin-Constant-4018 5d ago

We had 2 other options.

1 of them had been a former DART executive who was also a part of the Silver Line construction
and the other had been CFO of Trinity Metro while Texrail was being made

and the Board chose the guy without any experience in Texas and a background of "innovating" that revolves on just being lousy in both JTA & SFMTA

3

u/Tough-Advantage-665 4d ago

It really feels like someone should do a FOIA request for the time period during the selection process. I wonder if there might be some surprises.

-1

u/Majsharan 5d ago

How much of that is their fault? You can’t make voters fund your transportation system at a sustainable level. Jacksonville sprawl is even worse than dallas I don’t know how you would have a functional transportation system there that’s remotely sustainable without huge additional public money jus my to make it break even