There seems to be a consensus that Dan Tangherlini is doing a decent job as interim general manager of Metro. The Examiner has learned that some members of the board were ready to give Tangherlini, the former head of the District’s Department of Transportation and a Metro Board member representing the District, a three-year employment contract.
The support forTangherlini extends to those who represent Virginia on the board (WMATA) that oversees Metro as well as members of the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission. But the members from the commonwealth are growing suspicious that there is a plan to bring Tangherlini on permanently without conducting a national search. Gerry Connolly is the chairman of the NVTC and he wrote a letter to Gladys Mack, the chairman of the WMATA board, spelling out in no uncertain terms how important the NVTC thinks having a national or even an international search is to ensure that the best candidate possible sits in the general manager’s seat.
“This isn’t personal at all,” Connolly says. “However, we’re going to insist this be a transparent process. Dan’s got to prove he can rise above the parochialism of the past.” Of paramount importance to Connolly and the NVTC is support for the rail project to Dulles.
It’s been six weeks since Connolly sent that letter to Gladys Mack and he’s getting fed up.
“I don’t know why she hasn’t responded — I’m disappointed. The more this goes on the more the Virginia delegation is going to dig in its heels,” he says.
Less than a week after Connolly sent his letter, Mack and others had prepared a contract that would have guaranteed Tangherlini the job for three years. Sources who have seen the contract say it was not as generous as the one departed general manager Richard White had, especially in terms of salary and pension, but that it was substantial. Mack had the votes needed for the board to approve the contract — or so she thought. A phone call the night before the vote from Chris Zimmerman changed Dana Kauffman’s vote from a “yes” to a “no.” In light of all the movements that were being made by other entities within Northern Virginia, Kauffman says she “was guilty of being asleep at the switch.”
He told Mack of the change in his vote and the motion was never brought to a vote.
Some board members quietly say that Tangherlini may have a hard time bringing in qualified staff persons without the assurance that he will be there for an extended period but they admit that this may be an argument that Tangherlini himself has made to the board. Tangherlini just reshuffled the senior staff and saw several leave, which does leave some gaps to fill. There are reports that Tangherlini arbitrarily appointed a new public affairs person, former Channel 4 field reporter Tony Dorsey, saying that Metro needed to have “a more diverse face” to the public. Dorsey has little background in this field but he is apparently friendly with several members of the D.C. delegation and the city government.
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