Civic group calls for end to RTA

[Mike Payne]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-abolish-rta-20120812,0,4288574.story?track=rss

Civic group calls for end to RTA

Transit agency should be merged with regional planning unit, group says

“In Chicago, we’ve been content to go along with a transportation system that was once a real champion and now is in real danger of becoming derelict,” says George Ranney, who is widely credited with being the architect of the RTA when it was created in 1974. Ranney, now CEO of Metropolis Strategies, thinks the RTA should be replaced.

(Keri Wiginton, Chicago Tribune / August 9, 2012)

By Richard Wronski, Chicago Tribune reporter

August 12, 2012

One of Chicago's most influential civic groups is calling for an end to the Regional Transportation Authority, saying the nearly 40-year-old agency is broken and should be merged with another.

The effort by Metropolis Strategies is spearheaded by the group's president and CEO, George Ranney, who said the relationship between the RTA and its subordinates — the CTA, Metra and Pace — is dysfunctional and ripe for a change.

"In Chicago, we've been content to go along with a transportation system that was once a real champion and now is in real danger of becoming derelict," said Ranney, who is widely credited with being the architect of the RTA when it was created in 1974.

Metropolis Strategies said it believes the agency is no longer the best overseer of the nation's third-largest transit system, which provides more than 2 million rides a day.

A better plan, the civic group proposes, would be to create a new entity by merging the RTA with the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning, a low-profile organization responsible for land use and transportation planning in northeastern Illinois.

The move would integrate regional planning and transit oversight, Metropolis Strategies said. It also would save at least $10 million a year, or about 20 percent of the agencies' combined budgets, by reducing overhead, administrative costs and duplicate functions, the group said.

"It's time to bring some fresh thinking to the transit issue," said Ranney, 72. "Continuing to ignore the problem as we are now ... is a road to disaster."

RTA Chairman John Gates Jr. disputes Metropolis Strategies' assessment. While describing longtime friend Ranney as thoughtful, Gates defends the RTA performance and dismisses a merger with CMAP as a "pie-in-the-sky idea."

"I'd love to cure cancer. I'd love to see Middle East peace. But (combining the agencies) doesn't really work as a practical matter," said Gates, who took over at the RTA in 2010 after a successful business career as co-founder of CenterPoint Properties Trust.

"Given the scale of what the RTA does, it would swamp what CMAP does, and probably lessen CMAP's effectiveness," he said.

A scathing critique

Independent experts don't appear to be sure, either. DePaul University transportation professor Joseph Schwieterman, who has written a book about the history of Chicago's planning efforts, said the RTA proposal raises issues of governmental efficiency, taxing power and political obstacles.

"This landscape is pretty complex," Schwieterman said. "But you could say it's worthwhile to explore all the options, given our region's problems."

Ranney said his goal is not simply to get rid of the RTA. Rather, he said, the region needs a new agency that can respond better to the challenge of shrinking transit use in the face of growing population.

Between 1980 and 2010, Metropolis Strategies said, the region's population has grown by 1.2 million, or 17 percent, to 8.3 million. Meanwhile, annual RTA system ridership has decreased by 20 percent, down 162 million annual rides to 652 million rides.

In 2007, Illinois Auditor General William Holland issued a scathing critique of the RTA, calling for an overhaul of the agency. The report cited a lack of leadership and oversight and feuding among the transit agencies, among other problems.

The Legislature responded in 2008 by enacting a new state law beefing up the RTA's powers while boosting its funding from sales taxes and Chicago's real estate property transfer tax.

A serious mismatch remains between what the law directs the RTA to do and its capacity to deliver, said Metropolis Strategies, conceding the agency has played a vital role over the years.

The RTA's Gates said the agency is exercising proper oversight, but acknowledged that integrating the three service boards into a regional system remains a challenge.

"In the DNA of all the service boards, there is a certain amount of mistrust of the others," he said. "This is something we have to overcome."

At RTA board meetings, directors representing the city and suburbs often split into factions favoring the CTA, Metra or Pace.

"That's a very good thing," Gates said. "If everybody sat there and sang 'Kumbaya' all the time, they'd probably be wasting a lot of assets and a lot of time. Now there's a very healthy competition for the scarce resources."

Political hurdles

CMAP is the federally designated metropolitan planning organization for the region. It is responsible for approving transportation funds, including money for the RTA's capital programs.

CMAP's chairman, Gerald Bennett, said the agency's directors discussed the Metropolis proposal at a board meeting in June but took no action.

"We want to know more details on what would be involved," said Bennett, the mayor of Palos Hills.

The agency has become a strong regional voice and a national model for sound planning in the past six years, Metropolis Strategies said. It hailed CMAP's work in adopting GO TO 2040, a comprehensive regional plan with a strong eye on transportation needs.

A merger would be smoothed by the fact the RTA and CMAP are virtually identical in their leadership and structure, the civic group said.

The boards of directors are appointed by the same elected city and county officials. Each board includes one-third of its members from Chicago, one-third from suburban Cook County, and one-third from the collar counties.

The civic group suggests the merger could take place in several steps, starting with legislation that would combine the staffs, then create a single new, nonpaid 15-member board.

Over the past several months, Ranney and other Metropolis Strategies executives, including Executive Director Frank Beal and Vice President James LaBelle have been quietly floating the idea with key legislators, county board chairmen, transit agency leaders and Gov. Pat Quinn.

Beal serves on CMAP's board, representing Chicago, and LaBelle sits on Metra's board of directors. Both said their support for the merger centers on improving overall transportation.

"The work I'm doing at Metropolis isn't on behalf of Metra," said LaBelle, who represents Lake County. "It's policy work I've been involved in for a long time."

Formerly known as Chicago Metropolis 2020, Metropolis Strategies also focuses on early education, housing and criminal justice issues. Sponsored by the Commercial Club of Chicago, its board of directors is a who's who of Chicago business, labor and civic leaders.

If the group's RTA proposal advances, it will be up to lawmakers in Springfield to make it happen. And the most powerful legislator, House Speaker Michael Madigan, has ties to both agencies.

Madigan's son-in-law, Jordan Matyas, is deputy executive director of the RTA; the speaker's son, Andrew, is a CMAP board member, representing Chicago.

Madigan's spokesman, Steve Brown, said Thursday that he was unaware of Metropolis Strategies' proposal and did not want to speculate about its chances.

Matyas said he believes legislators would find little merit in the plan because it would amount to moving an agency from one building to another, instead of improving the RTA's oversight efforts.

"This would not be helping the RTA, but it would certainly be hurting CMAP," Matyas said. "Springfield wants change, but this is not the change they are looking for."

House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie, D-Chicago, said that if the RTA has problems, those should be fixed rather than eliminating the agency.

"This is an idea whose time hasn't come," Currie said.

Nevertheless, Ranney and Metropolis Strategies said they hope the proposal sparks a public debate on the issue.

"If we don't do something, we will have a major economic problem in this region," he said. "The sad thing is we've got the bones of a very good transit system. We ought to be building on it."

Mike Payne

[Busjack]

I mentioned this a couple of days ago. I don't think there was any reason to copy and paste the article, especially without further analysis.

[Mike Payne]

I mentioned this a couple of days ago. I don't think there was any reason to copy and paste the article, especially without further analysis.

I did not see your post, I don't follow that thread (maybe I will start).