WASHINGTON 鈥� Despite strong rhetoric and opposition from Maryland members, the Metro Board solidified significant changes to its operations Thursday, just days ahead of a deadline tied to a new Virginia funding law.
The changes effectively eliminate participation of the Metro Board鈥檚 eight alternate members in most meetings. For the current board, that means Federal Railroad Administration Chief Safety Officer Bob Lauby and several local government appointees will no longer have a voice.
Virginia lawmakers who included the requirement in the state’s bill providing additional dedicated funding to Metro argued the smaller board could improve governance. The bill takes effect Sunday.
Separately, the bylaws give significantly more power to the Metro Board chairman, D.C.’s Jack Evans, to organize committees.
Evans remained hopeful he would find a way to keep alternates involved through a provision allowing them to 鈥渃ontribute to鈥� committee meetings or advisory groups from time to time.
鈥淭he idea of throwing the alternates out is not a good idea,鈥� Evans said. 鈥淢y approach going forward is 鈥榞otta let the dust settle here, everybody calm down a little bit.鈥欌��
He said the board would continue to meet twice each month. By September, Evans hopes to have more details on his plans for new committee assignments.
鈥淲hat I don鈥檛 want to do is some contrived method and then lose the $154 million 鈥� so that鈥檚 why I鈥檓 saying I want to let the dust settle here and see where we are,鈥� he said.
Pushback
Maryland Metro Board members pushed back on the changes Thursday, but did not block them.
鈥淲hat we have lost in this process with these amendments is the expertise in various fields that alternates provide in committee settings and in the Metro environment overall,鈥� Michael Goldman said.
鈥淚f Virginia wants to reduce participation by the Virginia alternates, that鈥檚 Virginia鈥檚 business. But when it takes away the effectiveness of Maryland鈥檚 two alternates, that鈥檚 Maryland鈥檚 business and we must object to it,鈥� he added.
Goldman suggested Maryland could pass its own legislation in the future that Virginia does not like, and called it 鈥減hony鈥� to suggest cutting the number of people participating in committee meetings would improve governance.
Under current appointments, appointees from Montgomery, Prince George鈥檚 and Fairfax counties, and the City of Alexandria would be sidelined in addition to Lauby, the federal safety expert, and the other federal alternate Anthony Costa. Christian Dorsey of Arlington County is now the voting member representing Northern Virginia localities who actually foot the bill for the state.
Federal appointee David Horner, however, attacked Maryland members鈥� 鈥渋ncendiary rhetoric of disenfranchisement, odiousness, slippery slopes, power plays by Virginia鈥� as 鈥渦nconstructive and misleading.鈥�
Horner agreed with Evans that the board should now let the dust settle, tempers cool, and then discuss how eliminating the work of alternates on committees will impact the agency going forward.
鈥淚 think it鈥檚 an affirmative, positive step in the right long-term direction for WMATA. I don鈥檛 think it鈥檚 necessary 鈥� when defending this decision or these amendments to say we were made to do it. They stand on their own as a very good thing,鈥� Horner said.
He hopes the appointing jurisdictions will now appoint better board members, and said the voting members can always call the alternates for input in their areas of expertise.
鈥淎 board of eight will be a forum for expert deliberation and oversight that鈥檚 less concerned than it is today with politics and careers in the public square,鈥� Horner hoped.
Metro General Manager Paul Wiedefeld sees the board changes as having 鈥渧ery little鈥� impact on his work, but sees a potential positive shift if voting representatives take somewhat more regionwide positions.
鈥淩ather than more a jurisdictional sort of representation, and I think that鈥檚 always been one of the issues,鈥� Wiedefeld said.
The positions of the voting members Thursday broke down along the same jurisdictional lines that even separate suggestions to further shrink the board would not have addressed.
鈥淰irginia is holding all of us hostage and, in the process, is going to disenfranchise the people of Prince George鈥檚 County that I represent,鈥� Malcolm Augustine said.
He represents Prince George鈥檚 County as an alternate member, and signed up to speak during the public comment portion of Thursday鈥檚 board meeting where the bylaw changes were formally adopted.
Augustine also argued the changes would make it harder for the board to work on and deliver on its responsibilities to Metro and the region, saying that allowing one jurisdiction to set the rules could lead to a slippery slope of regular legislative intervention.
鈥淔or now, we will vote for these odious bylaw changes, because to vote against them would be to veto and endanger Virginia鈥檚 dedicated funding obligation, which we are not prepared to do today,鈥� Maryland鈥檚 Goldman said ahead of the vote.
鈥淏ut, mark my word, we will continue to fight on multiple fronts to restore the position of the WMATA alternate to one that can participate in committee business and be in a position with responsibility and status that will attract citizens to serve as WMATA Board alternates, at least in Maryland,鈥� Goldman said.
