The vice chairman of Metro’s board of directors says he would like to drop the “interim” from Interim General Manager Dan Tangherlini’s title after less than four months on the job.
“It wouldn’t disappoint me at all if the interim was gone,” said Charles Deegan. “This agency is more transparent than we’ve been since I joined the board.”
And board member Jim Graham, one of Tangherlini’s earliest proponents, said he is “ready to act” on making the temporary appointment permanent and forgo a “time-consuming and expensive” national search later this fall.
“Is it really necessary?” Graham said Monday. “I have very substantial confidence in his leadership.”
The 38-year-old Tangherlini, who was hired on Feb. 16 after embattled General Manager Richard White was forced out, is being paid an annual salary of $235,000. He has been dubbed “Mr. Customer Service” in recent weeks after implementing a series of small service improvements.
Yet he showed Friday that his tenure was going to have teeth when he announced a major management overhaul — including the ouster of two top managers and a reshuffling of other key positions to streamline the system’s long-entrenched bureaucracy.
Metro board member Chris Zimmerman, however, said he isn’t ready to give Tangherlini his performance review in public.
“As long as the manager’s still in the position, then he can safely assume that the board is satisfied with his performance so far,” Zimmerman said.
Gladys Mack, board chairwoman, said that while she, too, is impressed by Tangherlini, the six-member board has not taken a position on what process to take to find a permanent replacement. Mack also said she is not ready to discuss her own stance publicly.
At a glance
» Today will be Dan Tangherlini’s 111th day as interim general manager of Metro.
» Tangherlini oversees nearly 10,000 employees, a $1 billion annual operating budget and more than 1.1 million riders daily.
» Even before he was brought on, Tangherlini received praise by surprising employees at stations, in garages or on bus routes — a practice employees said has so far continued.
