Dan Tangherlini oversaw the District’s Department of Transportation for almost six years and has been Metro’s interim general manager for five months. There are those who think that he should get the job permanently, and there are those who believe that one of the understandings that brought him on board is being violated. The latter tend to concur with an earlier Sprawl and Crawl column that said D.C. was trying to get more control of the board.
The Northern Virginia Transportation Commission feels so strongly that it unanimously passed a June 1 resolution demanding that the WMATA board establish criteria for judging candidates for the position and that a national search start.
The problem is that board chair Gladys Mack has not responded. This has members of the NVTC more than a little upset.
Sources close to the NVTC, speaking on the condition of anonymity: “[Tangherlini’s] doing great things but it still doesn’t take away the fact that there was an agreement for a national search. Our goal … is to have the best person in the job.”
Sources close to the NVTC say that Tangherlini seems to be doing a good job but that the might be unable to put aside his D.C. experience and look at things regionally.
Ironically, it was the threat of a jurisdictional veto from Maryland board members if Tangherlini wasn’t given the interim job that moved the motion forward. Even still, there are those close to the proceedings who say that it was District representative Jim Graham who wanted Dick White gone and pushed the issue. An emergency meeting of all 12 board members was held at Graham’s office in December to discuss the removal of White. While some members of Maryland’s delegation say they don’t trust Tangherlini, they acknowledge that he has the support of Maryland Transportation Secretary Robert Flanagan and so they were forced to move forward.
Becauseof this, the Virginia delegation feels even more concerned about the path that might be taken. Sources say that Virginia is prepared for the District and Maryland to propose significant changes in the funding structure. They say that they are working hard to come up with dedicated funding sources for Metro but that they are “being railroaded by Maryland and D.C.”
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