And the last bit of “old Metro” business gets put to rest. The Metropolitan Transit Authority’s board [Thursday] agreed to settle a lawsuit by the agency’s former chief counsel in which she accused Metro of firing her for trying to prevent the allegedly unlawful destruction of documents. Metro has agreed to pay Pauline Higgins up [...]
Posts Tagged ‘David Wolff’
In which I become a bit player in a Metro lawsuit
So I got an email on Friday from Chron reporter Mike Snyder, asking me if I had done an interview with former Metro Chair David Wolff. Apparently, there were some new documents filed in the lawsuit against Metro by its former chief counsel Pauline Higgins that referenced some comments Wolff made about Higgins in that [...]
How Metro nearly cost itself $900 million
It’s an impressive feat, for some sense of the word. In the first months of the procurement process, documents show, [former Metro CEO Frank] Wilson intended to use local rather than federal funds to buy the light-rail vehicles, possibly in the hope that this would avert the need to comply with federal requirements. “FJW (Wilson) [...]
Pauline Higgins sues Metro
Pauline Higgins, the former chief counsel for Metro who was fired in the wake of the document shredding scandal, has now sued the agency for wrongful termination. “This case involves cut-throat politics and cronyism at Metro,” Pauline Higgins said in the lawsuit filed in state district court. It seeks her reinstatement, unspecified damages and legal [...]
Firing Frank
Mayor Annise Parker has said she wants the new Metro board to fire Frank Wilson, the agency’s CEO. So why hasn’t that happened yet? There are a couple of complicating factors. Among them are uncertainty about the outcome of two investigations of allegations involving Wilson and the cost of buying out his contract — estimated [...]
David Wolff’s farewell message
Outgoing Metro chair David Wolff takes to the op-ed pages to present a more positive view of his agency and his tenure. While much had been accomplished by previous hard working boards, we inherited an aging bus fleet, a very confusing fare system that had not been adjusted during a time when inflation had increased [...]
Metro approves study of Fort Bend commuter rail line
In the last act for several Metro board members, we get a step forward on another commuter rail line. Moving to extend Metro’s reach into Fort Bend County, the agency’s board agreed Thursday to spend up to $500,000 on environmental studies for a commuter rail line connecting southwestern suburbs with central Houston. During the last [...]
Parker reaffirms commitment to light rail
This is what I want to see. [Mayor Annise] Parker’s letter regarding this week’s Metro board meeting was sent on the eve of her trip to Washington, where she said she would reassure U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood that her administration wants to see five new light-rail lines built in Houston. “I just want them [...]
Metro asks consultant to investigate Wilson allegations
We’ll see if there’s anything to the hype. A consultant with expertise in identifying business fraud will investigate allegations that Metro’s chief executive used public funds in an inappropriate relationship with his assistant, the agency announced today. David Wolff, the Metropolitan Transit Authority’s board chairman, asked Jeff Harfenist, a managing director of UHY Advisors, to [...]
More on Metro’s finances
The Chron takes a closer look at Metro’s finances and the recently expressed doubts about their ability to pay for the University and Uptown lines. Mayor Annise Parker said last week that she wasn’t convinced the Metropolitan Transit Authority would have the money to build its planned Uptown and University rail lines. Parker said she [...]
Parker expresses doubt about University and Uptown lines
This is not the sort of thing I want to see. Mayor Annise Parker cast doubt Wednesday on whether the Metropolitan Transit Authority has the money to pay for two planned light-rail lines that proponents say are critical to the success of the agency’s plans. Parker said members of her transition team have “drilled down” [...]
Interview with David Wolff
David Wolff has been the Chair of the Metro Board since 2004. He will be stepping down as soon as Mayor Parker names a replacement for him. With all that’s been going on regarding Metro in the news lately, I thought this would be a good time to talk to Wolff about his tenure and [...]
Criminal probe of Metro document shredding begins
I can’t wait to see how this turns out. The Harris County District Attorney’s Office has begun a criminal investigation into allegations that the Metropolitan Transit Authority improperly destroyed public documents, a prosecutor confirmed Friday. The statement by Terese Buess, the head of the district attorney’s public integrity division, came during a hearing that ended [...]
Please don’t shred the documents
This isn’t good. At a crucial moment in the development of its light rail system, Metro confronted accusations Wednesday that it shredded documents sought in an open-records request, then fired two attorneys who objected to its handling of the request. State District Judge Robert Shaffer signed a temporary restraining order forbidding the Metropolitan Transit Authority [...]
Mayor and Metro spar over fares
Soon-to-be-former Metro Chair David Wolff has sent a letter to Mayor Parker in response to her recent comments about possibly reducing fares as a way of increasing ridership. Eliminating fares on Metro buses and trains, as Mayor Annise Parker recently suggested, would cripple the agency’s light-rail expansion plans and force reductions in service to people [...]
Expanding Metro
Soon-to-be-former Metro Chair David Wolff riffs off of a Chron editorial that lamented the lack of connectivity between Metro and some new bus routes in Harris County and makes the case for expanding Metro’s service area. The first steps toward this expansion of service have already begun. Forward-thinking leaders such as Harris County Commissioner Sylvia [...]
A few words with David Wolff
The Chron talks to David Wolff, the soon-to-be-former Chair of Metro, about the state of the agency. Q: Why has it taken six years to build new light rail lines when the Main Street line was built so quickly? A: Metro pretty much depleted its treasury because it paid $325 million out of its own [...]
Culberson sticks his nose in
Last week, when we heard that the Federal Transit Authority had notified Metro that they would be cleared to begin preliminary engineering of the University Line project if no member of the local Congressional delegation objected by today, I figured there was only one Congressman who mattered. Sure enough, right on cue, here he comes. [...]
Metro and the sales tax
Metro chair David Wolff would like to see the portion of the sales tax revenue that gets diverted from its coffers to Harris County and the smaller cities go back to Metro. Wolff believes METRO can build significantly more if it has access to all of the 1 cent sales tax that was approved by [...]
Wolff speaks about Metro
Here’s Metro board chair David Wolff giving a state of the system address in the op-ed pages. I suppose it’s a counter, if not a response to Bill King’s piece from two weeks ago; it offers a defense of the current fare structure, at least. For all the complaining I’ve done lately about the slow [...]
A solution in search of a problem
We were out of town over the weekend, so I managed to miss this Bill King op-ed about the “need” to elevate the Main Street line on Fannin in the Medical Center area. Having now read it, I have three things to say. Generally it only takes one trip through the Texas Medical Center (TMC) [...]