CUT, SAVE AND OUTSOURCE
A MARTA audit says the nation’s ninth-largest public transit system’s economic model is unsustainable and if spending continues at the current rate the system will have exhausted its savings by 2018. Below are a few of the audit’s recommendations to fix MARTA’s finances.
Privatize: The audit pointed to several functions where MARTA would save money by privatizing. Two examples are cleaning and payroll that would save the agency $60 million and $142 million over five years.
Cut labor costs: MARTA pays more than its peers for health care, workers compensation and absenteeism. The audit concluded MARTA pays $50 million more annually than its peers on employee benefits.
Inventory control: MARTA's spending on needed supplies, such as rail and bus parts, could be lower, according to the audit.
Beverly Scott
Age: 61
Residence: Atlanta
Family: Widowed grandmother
Education: Doctorate in political science from Howard University
Occupation: Incoming General Manager of Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority in Boston
Professional Experience: Nationally recognized expert in public transit with 35 years experience; General Manager of MARTA since 2007; Prior experience includes: General Manager of Sacramento Regional Transit District; General Manager of Rhode Island Transit Authority; top executive positions at New Jersey Transit Corporation and New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Assistant professor of government and public affairs at Tennessee State University.
Coming Tuesday: New MARTA CEO, Keith Parker, will introduce himself to riders and talk to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on his first day on the job.
MARTA General Manager Beverly A. Scott had three main goals when she arrived in Atlanta five years ago: build a regional transit system, find more funding for MARTA and boost customer service.
None of those efforts resulted in unqualified success.
Lawmakers didn’t provide state funding or even grant MARTA much flexibility over its own budget; voters rejected a regional sales tax that would have expanded MARTA’s service; MARTA now offers riders less service for higher fares.
When Keith Parker arrives Monday to take over as general manager he will inherit a system that faces the same challenges as when Scott took over in 2007. MARTA, the nation’s ninth-largest transit agency, still appears to be unsustainable under its current financial structure. And it still needs to expand ridership and win more support in the Legislature.
Scott, who describes herself as a change-managing turnaround specialist, says now it would have been “arrogance at best” to expect her to fix a system with such historic issues.
Yet she sees strong, if limited, successes. Atlanta is adding one streetcar MARTA will operate; MARTA has improved on-time service and reduced rail breakdowns and customer complaints; and legislators are more open to a regional transit system.
“I do think regional transit went somewhere,” said Scott, who is going to head the metro Boston transit system. “It didn’t happen, but I’ve seen seldom been in a region where it went through the first time around.”
Scott noted that when she arrived in 2007, state lawmakers were unreceptive to public transit sharing any proceeds from a proposed regional sales tax. When such a proposed tax went to the voters this year, it included operating funds for public transit.
“That is real progress,” she said.
But not nearly enough progress to give Scott’s tenure high marks, say some.
“I would characterize Dr. Scott’s tenure as a mixed bag,” said state Rep. Mike Jacobs, R-Atlanta, who chairs the legislative committee that reports on MARTA. “The fact is that very little changed at MARTA during her tenure at a time when MARTA needed to adapt.”
Winning friends
Scott said she expected to find a region primed for wider transit but instead found an “insular” organization. She found herself tasked with educating skeptics about MARTA.
But financial problems surfaced almost immediately. In Scott’s second year on the job, MARTA’s sales-tax revenue — its main source of funding — took a hit during the recession. She had to cut bus routes from 131 to 91, and she also oversaw two fare hikes. At $2.50 a ticket, MARTA is now one of the nation’s most expensive transit systems.
Transit experts and politicians largely praised the expertise with which the cutbacks were handled to minimize impact on riders, but the cuts angered patrons who depended on the service.
“I cut my own bus,” she said. “We had to restructure, and you can’t do that around the edges. You had to do a massive overhaul.”
Directing such change takes dynamic leadership and supporters of Scott say it helped that she’s a passionate pit bull for public transit. She dominates the room when the topic comes up, often spinning elaborate and lengthy answers — “I’ll tie it all together” — to simple questions.
But even Scott’s supporters say that at times she has been her own worst enemy because her detailed presentations lacked political finesse. They didn’t win over legislators or county politicians to the idea of regional transit or to state funding or granting MARTA more flexibility on deciding how to use sales-tax funds.
“I would say Bev has a tendency to be extremely straightforward, blunt and passionate and not everybody reacts well to that approach,” said Tad Leithead, chairman of the Atlanta Regional Commission, a Scott fan. “
She also could offend. “I always found her caustic — she didn’t appeal to suburban people,” said Sen. Renee Unterman, R-Buford. “It was like, ‘You’re a suburban county and you don’t put the money in so your opinion doesn’t matter.’ “
But State Rep. Ed Lindsey, R-Atlanta, said Scott educated the legislature on MARTA’s legitimate needs for flexibility in its budget and how to make regional transit work.
“I think she helped move the ball forward,” he said. “I didn’t think she was terribly political. I think she was a policy wonk … which is why I found her credible.”
Scott notes there is what she calls the “MARTA factor” that complicates broadening the appeal of transit. Some residents in suburban counties do not identify with MARTA, viewing it as a service for the poor. Others think the authority is a wasteful bureaucracy.
“The details of MARTA’s successes are not widely known,” said Johns Creek Mayor Mike Bodker. “It has to get past a lot of stigma. There is still a racial undertone there, and that limits expansion.”
Trouble within
Scott’s strong personality that was admired by some outside MARTA prompted rebellion and disillusionment among some of Scott’s senior staff regarding her leadership. In 2010, the MARTA board spent $144,000 on a consulting group to spend 13 months helping the executive management team work better with Scott, the board and itself so it could function properly.
The consulting sessions were critical of Scott’s leadership.
Soon after, Scott informed the board she would be not seek a new contract after 2012 to the $370,000-a-year post. This fall, she accepted the Boston job at $220,000 a year, and reportedly was a favorite of Gov. Deval Patrick.
As she leaves MARTA, many of its financial problems are outlined in a management audit released this fall. It found MARTA, which faces a $32 million operating deficit, could save between $60 million and $142 million in five years by outsourcing such duties as cleaning and payroll. MARTA has been spending $50 million over the national average on employee health care, retirement and workers’ compensation plans, the audit concluded.
In the end, Scott says she would give her tenure a grade of B. She faced a tough political and economic time and MARTA is still running, and she believes that headway has been made toward making the region more hospitable to transit. Many on her staff — even people who are happy she is gone — can vouch for one thing: She worked her tail off.
“I do not have any issues in terms of being able to sleep at night,” she said. “I gave it everything I can. I’m not God Jr.”
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