Transit Time: Should changes at CATS start at the top?
Transit Time: Should changes at CATS start at the top?
Outside consultants to evaluate CATS leadership and structure.
You’re reading Transit Time, a weekly newsletter for Charlotte people who leave the house. Cars, buses, light rail, bikes, scooters … if you use it to get around the city, we write about it. Transit Time is produced in partnership among The Charlotte Ledger, WFAE and the UNC Charlotte Urban Institute.
Analysis: CEO John Lewis, in the hot seat amid bus troubles, faces new scrutiny; council members weigh in
by Tony Mecia
When John Lewis was named the head of the Charlotte Area Transit System in 2015, he inherited a city agency that was flush with resources, an expansion mindset and ambitious goals.
The first stage of the Gold Line streetcar was about to open, with money available for a second phase. Construction was underway on the new northern extension of the Lynx Blue Line light rail. And city leaders talked hopefully of securing regional cooperation and a source of funding for additional projects that would position mass transit for the future.
At his introductory news conference, Lewis praised CATS’ vision for transit and said it had shown it can “deliver on the promise.”
Today, CATS has finished the Blue Line Extension and both segments of the streetcar. The effort to find new money for other big projects remains in limbo. Bus riders say service is unreliable at getting them to work or to the doctor, as CATS struggles to hire enough drivers, and ridership is down 75% in the last eight years. That follows other transit headaches, including construction delays on the Gold Line streetcar extension and spotty, infrequent service on it since it started running about a year ago.
And Lewis, as the leader of CATS and its public face, finds himself at the center of a firestorm over whether he and CATS are delivering on the promise of efficient transit service.
Last week, City Manager Marcus Jones said in a memo to council members that the city hired Management Partners, a consulting firm that works with the public sector, “to conduct an organizational review of CATS.” The review includes examining its “organizational structure and leadership team.” The assessment began in May and is expected to have initial findings in August or September, the memo said.
Until the system can fix its staffing shortages, CATS is reducing service: On Wednesday, the system announced cutbacks in frequencies on 18 bus routes and said the Lynx Blue Line would be cut to every 20 minutes, down from every 15. For a system interested in growth, it’s a disappointing reversal.
How much Lewis and his management team are responsible for CATS’ struggles is open to interpretation. Traditionally, leaders are ultimately responsible for operations of the organizations they lead. Yet in a series of recent media interviews, Lewis has portrayed the challenges at CATS as the result of unprecedented circumstances and unique structural difficulties:
On the issue of hiring bus drivers, for instance, he points out that the city works with a third-party contractor to operate much of the bus system — an arrangement he inherited. And he adds that he has never experienced this level of labor shortages — despite offers of higher pay and signing bonuses.
On the issue of falling bus ridership, which has declined from its peak in 2014, Lewis has said it’s largely a problem connected to Covid, and one that other transit systems share.
On the issue of infrequent and unreliable service, it’s a combination of driver shortages and not enough money. The city’s plan to ask the General Assembly for permission to raise the sales tax for transit has gone nowhere.
Any decision on a leadership change at the top of CATS would fall to Jones, the city manager, who generally tries to keep a low profile. A city spokesman didn’t reply this week for a request for comment on Jones’ thoughts on CATS leadership. Council members who say they have spoken to Jones about Lewis and CATS say Jones neither gives a robust defense of his transit chief nor says he’s ready to make a change.
Many say they have talked with Jones about problems at CATS. The memo from Jones to council members last week noted: “Many of you have reached out to me regarding your concerns related to Charlotte Area Transit System.”
No other council member has gone as far publicly as Republican Tariq Bokhari, who has said CATS needs a “leadership overhaul.” Several said this week that they are awaiting the results of the outside consultant’s report.
Lewis is a transit-system veteran. He came to Charlotte in 2015 from Orlando, Fla., where he oversaw the Florida Regional Transit Authority. Before that, he was CEO of the Greater Richmond Transit Co. and director of rail and bus operations with the Maryland Transit Administration. In Charlotte, he is the second highest-paid city employee, with a salary of $282,635, according to a city salary database published by the Charlotte Business Journal.
Although switching leadership of CATS amid its troubles could be politically popular and cathartic, it could also pose a host of practical problems, chief among them: Who would run the organization, which has an operating budget of $200+ million? Finding a replacement for Lewis could take months and would deprive CATS of leadership as it seeks to reverse bus ridership declines and address other challenges.
And any conversations about new CATS leadership would also take place against the backdrop of how it might play politically in Raleigh. The city would like legislators’ blessing for a sales tax referendum for transit, so would a leadership shake-up provide a fresh start? Or would it signal continued turmoil?
Among Republicans who control the General Assembly, some want to see big changes from CATS before they agree. Rep. David Willis of Union County told WFAE last month that CATS is a “mess” and that it needs to improve its operations before he would consider allowing a tax vote.
From transit activists to riders to elected leaders, everyone seems to agree that CATS needs to fix its problems. There’s less agreement on whether John Lewis should be the one to do the fixing.
Tony Mecia is executive editor of The Charlotte Ledger.
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Council members on CATS leadership
The Charlotte Ledger asked the mayor and several City Council members this week whether there needs to be a change in leadership at the Charlotte Area Transit System. Their responses:
Mayor Vi Lyles: If we can do something better, let’s do it
Before you can decide what leadership is at CATS, we have to understand what is required of CATS, based on the way we acquired it. Many of the people on our council did not understand that there is a federal law that requires us to have a union. We are in a right-to-work state. So how do you balance that? You work in a roundabout system that is never going to be as effective as one person being accountable for it. … Everyone should be under scrutiny for every job, all the time. … CATS is going to be a top priority for the Metropolitan Transit [Commission] as well as for the City Council ... the city manager has instituted a management study. Is there something we can do better? And if there is, we ought to start doing it quickly.
Mayor Pro Tem Julie Eiselt (term expires in September): Time to refocus priorities
They need to refocus their priorities to have a bus system that people trust and can count on. Until that happens, we can’t really expect people to support a new source of revenue coming from taxes to invest in our system, which is desperately needed.
Braxton Winston: CATS’ problems are systemic, not about an individual
I’m fine with John. The issues we are facing from a bus system standpoint are about the system. You have to change the system. … We have a bus system that was built and optimized for the 1960s and ’70s. It’s not something an individual can fix. We need to put in improvements in the interim, but in the end, you’re putting Band-Aids over gunshot wounds. That doesn’t work. We have to take this seriously. It can’t be political. It has to be about doing the work, putting pad to paper and figuring out what is the actionable plan we can go for and execute.
Malcolm Graham: Follow consultant report and hold city manager accountable
I think we need to make sure we do the organizational audit that we are doing right now. And then I think the report should lead us to our next decision-making metrics. It’s a complex issue. I only have three employees: the city manager, the city attorney and the city clerk. And I’ll make sure that I hold the city manager accountable for the day-to-day operations of the organization, including CATS.
Tariq Bokhari: A change is needed
We’ve reached a point where there is no salvaging where we are. The stakes are too high. There’s no chance we can invest $13.5 billion into something that strategically relies on this organization that can’t run bus routes. A change has to happen.
Dimple Ajmera: Let’s see what the consultant’s report says
We’re awaiting the report from the consulting firm. It will have recommendations for us to implement. The scope of this report also includes CATS leadership.
Larken Egleston (term expires in September): We could be doing better
CATS has a number of challenges right now, many of which are shared by transit systems across the country and are not entirely within the city’s control. However, I think despite all that, we could be doing a lot better than we’re doing.
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