Metro News Release
For immediate release: September 24, 2009
Metro General Manager John Catoe's contract extended to 2013
Board votes to keep Catoe as head of transit authority
Metro’s Board of Directors extended General Manager John Catoe’s contract by three years, to retain him as the general manager of the fourth largest transit agency in the United States until January 29, 2013. Catoe has been at the helm of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (Metro) since January 2007.
Catoe oversees the second largest rail transit system, the sixth largest bus network and the eighth largest paratransit system in the country with more than 10,000 employees, a $1.3 billion operating budget and a $3.1 billion five-year Capital Improvement Program.
In June he was named the American Public Transportation Association’s Outstanding Public Transportation Manager of the Year for his exceptional contributions to the public transportation industry.
Catoe’s new contract will continue to pay him $315,000 annually, and continues a housing allowance of $5,000 per month. It also pays for his health plan, which is the same other non-union Metro employees and will reimburse him for up to $6,000 annually for additional medical or wellness costs not covered by his health plan. The contract also provides him with an annuity of $27,000 per year starting at the conclusion of the contract.
Last year Catoe declined to accept a 3 percent annual salary increase at a time when he knew he was faced with recommending layoffs. He has stated that he will not accept a salary increase going forward to 2013.
“Mr. Catoe has been a masterful leader with a healthy vision for our region’s transit system,” said Metro Board Chairman Jim Graham. “The majority of this Board believes that we deserve the finest leader in public transportation and we have that in John Catoe. At the moment, and in moments more recently, this general manager has held this agency together in the palm of his hand, through his strength and through his grace. You can tell a lot about a person by how he leads during adversity. We need his steady hand.
“He has provided us with stable leadership, improved service, and forward-thinking that addresses both immediate and long-term needs,” Graham said. “As a result, the region has benefitted, our customers have benefitted and the nation has noticed.
“He has been singled out as the best transit general manager in the country by the American Public Transportation Association,” Graham continued. “Of course, we’ve thought of him as the top transit manager in the land since he came on board. For all of his accomplishments, we have rewarded him with a contract extension.”
“I am proud of the progress we’ve made at Metro since 2007, but there is still more we can do to step up our level of service and improve safety,” Catoe said. “It’s my goal for Metro to be the safest ride in the nation. I believe that we will reach that level of excellence and be a model to other transit agencies from coast to coast.”
Since joining Metro in January 2007, Catoe has focused on a complete overhaul of the transit system with the goal of operating Metro in the most efficient and cost-effective manner without sacrificing safety or service for customers. He launched an organization-wide safety improvement program within days of taking office and placed greater emphasis on system safety for customers and employees.
He made cuts and program changes that avoided a fare increase in 2007 and yielded $34 million in savings. He balanced the FY2008 and FY2009 budgets, which originally had projected shortfalls of more than $100 million. He proposed an innovative way to keep a fare increase in 2008 as low as possible for customers by raising fares in the last six months of FY2008 and then banking the surplus to fund FY2009 operating expenses.
Catoe has been a leader for the transportation industry on a national stage. When the country’s financial outlook took a turn for the worse in the fall of 2008, Catoe went to court to fight banks that were looking to capitalize on lease-back arrangements, and he led a group of transit executives to meet with legislators on Capitol Hill. He helped prevent a financial domino effect that would have crippled the transit industry after AIG lost its triple-A credit rating.
In January 2009, Catoe oversaw Metro’s largest travel day in its 33-year history during the Presidential Inauguration of Barack Obama. Metro operated an unprecedented 17 hours of rush-hour service and transported more than 1.5 million people, making it the highest ridership day in Metro history.
Five months later, on June 22, Metro suffered the worst accident in its history. Catoe has provided steady forward-looking leadership to the Authority in the wake of that accident and other safety issues as he continues to reinforce a safety culture among the workforce.
For six years prior to coming to Metro, Catoe was the Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority. In that capacity, he oversaw the agency’s multi-modal operations with more than 2,600 buses, three light rail lines, one heavy rail line and the motorist aid program, including the Freeway Service Patrol and highway call boxes. He also oversaw the LA transit agency’s planning, law enforcement, homeless assistance program, safety and facilities.
Originally from Washington, D.C., Catoe is a product of the local school system. His father was a D.C. cab driver. Catoe started his public transportation career at the Orange County Transit District in the personnel department as an Employee Training and Development Administrator in 1979 and when he left, 17 years later, he was Director of Operations. In 1996 he became Director of Transit Services for the City of Santa Monica (Big Blue Bus), and under his direction, the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) recognized the agency as the number one transit agency in the nation in 1997 and 2000.
Catoe earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from the University of Redlands in Redlands, Calif. In 2008, he served as Chairman of Leadership APTA.
History of Metro’s General Managers
John B. Catoe Jr. - January 2007 to present
Jack Requa (Acting) - November 2006 to January 2007
Dan Tangherlini (Interim) - February 2006 to November 2006
Richard A. White - August 1996 to February 2006
Robert L. Polk (Acting) - March 1996 to August 1996
Larry G. Reuter - March 1994 to March 1996
David L. Gunn - March 1991 to March 1994
William A. Boleyn (Acting) - December 1990 to March 1991
Carmen E. Turner - May 1983 to December 1990
Richard S. Page - May 1979 to May 1983
Theodore C. Lutz - November 1976 to May 1979
Warren D. Quenstedt (Acting) - February 1976 to November 1976
Jackson Graham - February 1967 to February 1976
Media contact for this news release: Lisa Farbstein at 202-962-1051.
For all other inquiries, please call customer service at 202-637-7000.
News release issued at 5:00 pm, September 24, 2009.