Getting to know the Next Director of JTA

[dougskiles]

Jax can perhaps do TOD at Kings Ave station, but aside from that all other stations are already "downtown".  It needs to build a system or expand the skyway before it can start up the officially recognized TOD.  Otherwise I agree...higher quality developments that fit in with "complete streets" guidelines can still be built basically anywhere.

The other logical location is the Brooklyn.  The only real expense will be creating a station at the OEM spur (and maybe a small extension).  Although I am little unsure how this will be handled operationally.  We would end up with three spurs coming into one line.  Works fine northbound, and becomes a real hassle southbound.  I see people regularly confused by the Convention Center or San Marco split.  And once you realize the error, you have just committed yourself to a much longer journey.

As to the Ford question, I think he is coming into town at a great time.  I see public support for transit only getting stronger, particularly with the help of this forum and the many advocates we have around town talking it up at every opportunity.

[urbaknight]

I talk about it all the time. Let the FDOT handle the road construction; Let JTA focus exclusively on mass transit.

[marcuscnelson]

14 years later, Nat Ford's tenure at JTA is coming to an end. Thought it'd be interesting to dig this thread back up with hindsight.

[jaxlongtimer]

Interesting the mixed reviews for Ford even before he arrived here.  Generally, it looked like there was a lot of hope he would be the one to move JTA to the future.  Reminds me of the Jags bringing in one quarterback or coach after another thinking this is the one based on a mix of successes and some questions.  How many times did the questions prove more telling than the successes?

What happened with the other 2 candidates?  In retrospect, would JTA have been better off with one of the others?

[marcuscnelson]

^ Great question.

Steve Bland was fired from Pittsburgh's transit agency the following year, and a year after that would join WeGo in Nashville, where he is still their CEO. Nashville's metro area voted down a major transit expansion plan (including light rail) in 2018 before passing a smaller version without in 2024.

Frank Martin mostly remained in consulting, both at his own firm and more recently at Hill International. But from 2018 to 2021 he was CEO of Birmingham, Alabama's transit agency, where he oversaw the development of their first BRT line. He's now presumably in semi-retirement, being well into his mid 70s.

I think it's hard to say what they might have done if they'd come here instead of Ford. One can assume they might have taken different approaches to things like the JRTC, or the First Coast Flyer, and certainly the Skyway. We'll never know what those approaches would have been.

[Charles Hunter]

marcusnelson beat me to the punch - or the web search

They've both done okay despite not getting the JTA job.

[jaxlongtimer]

^ Great question.

Steve Bland was fired from Pittsburgh's transit agency the following year, and a year after that would join WeGo in Nashville, where he is still their CEO. Nashville's metro area voted down a major transit expansion plan (including light rail) in 2018 before passing a smaller version without in 2024.

Frank Martin mostly remained in consulting, both at his own firm and more recently at Hill International. But from 2018 to 2021 he was CEO of Birmingham, Alabama's transit agency, where he oversaw the development of their first BRT line. He's now presumably in semi-retirement, being well into his mid 70s.

I think it's hard to say what they might have done if they'd come here instead of Ford. One can assume they might have taken different approaches to things like the JRTC, or the First Coast Flyer, and certainly the Skyway. We'll never know what those approaches would have been.

Thanks, Marcus, for the research and answer.  I didn't have time to do myself. 

I wonder if we would be better off hiring a good city planner (Ennis??!!) than a transportation official interested in promoting themselves over what works best for good transit/city planning and connectivity. 

As long as someone has good management skills, can understand and manage finances, can network with politicians and has a good sense of demographics and planning, they might be better than someone who knows how to "fix a bus."  I don't see where Ford's "illustrious" transit background did much to benefit the mission of JTA over someone with the above attributes. 

Lots of great leaders come from other "professions".  Character, management skills, energy, visioning, personality, etc. sometimes count more than industry experience.  Plenty of successful Fortune 500 CEO's are "outsiders" hired from other industries.

Maybe JTA needs to widen its search for the next CEO.

[thelakelander]

^Thanks but I have absolutely zero interest in taking a public sector job. I was raised with an entrepreneurial spirit by a family of entrepreneurs and have never been close to eating out of the trash can to move away from that world.

Because of that financial independence, I believe I'm a better asset to the community by not being beholden to the various politics that can come with public sector employment and nonprofit boards.

[marcuscnelson]

I wonder if we would be better off hiring a good city planner (Ennis??!!) than a transportation official interested in promoting themselves over what works best for good transit/city planning and connectivity. 

As long as someone has good management skills, can understand and manage finances, can network with politicians and has a good sense of demographics and planning, they might be better than someone who knows how to "fix a bus."  I don't see where Ford's "illustrious" transit background did much to benefit the mission of JTA over someone with the above attributes. 

Lots of great leaders come from other "professions".  Character, management skills, energy, visioning, personality, etc. sometimes count more than industry experience.  Plenty of successful Fortune 500 CEO's are "outsiders" hired from other industries.

Maybe JTA needs to widen its search for the next CEO.

I noted elsewhere that the idea of trying to poach some longtime superstar from a larger city seems ill-suited as a strategy, in part because that's what we tried already, and it got us Ford. I don't know if a planner would see themselves as suited to the job of running a transit agency, which is where maybe looking in that direction might not be helpful.

We won't know for a few weeks what exactly the Board's philosophy will be for their search, but I think there'd be some real benefit to looking for an upstart in the transit industry who is ready to roll up sleeves, solve problems, and (critically) stick around to deliver on big ideas, especially if the hope is of forward progress on things like fixing the Skyway, getting rail downtown, and making real momentum on bigger rail aspirations. To that end, I agree on the value of an outsider if they have the confidence and can show the know-how to hit the ground running next year.

[jcjohnpaint]

Is there any water to break JTA up into different organizations?

[Charles Hunter]

Getting an "outsider" for the new JTA CEO is essential, where "outsider" is anyone outside of JTA. As long as Ford has been here, it seems a certainty that the entire management team are "his" people, hired by him, and loyal to him. Now, an "outsider" could come from other agencies or consultancy (and, no, I have no one in mind).

[MakeDTjaxGre@tAgain]

Looks like he landed the job even though he has a ton of red flags as they mentioned. Seems he withdrew his name and put it back in on Friday. 2 days before today's vote. The board wanted time to do due diligence after what seemed like a 3hr deliberation, but that got voted down and straight to voting. Just wow.

So much for doing homework and sense kinda like a backroom deal where the other candidates weren't even considered. The main guy asked if the process was fair but it didn't seem like it. Who knows. At least he's officially out. Their problem now.

Maybe the archive will show the full thing. Only first couple minutes snd last 5-10 min is worth it. Other time they were in chambers - i guess, hopefully that's edited out.

https://www.dart.org/about/public-access-information/board-meetings-information/dart-board-meeting-video

[jaxlongtimer]

Here  is a Dallas TV video recap of DART's decision making process involving Ford:

https://www.fox4news.com/video/fmc-vmxq3kir7iwmv0bh