22 Jul Dallas transit agency hires JTA CEO Nat Ford as its leader
Story by
The Dallas Area Rapid Transit board hired Nat Ford as its new CEO on a 9-4 vote, three weeks after the Jacksonville Transportation Authority announced Ford was resigning as head of JTA.
The DART board approved an employment agreement for Ford during a special meeting on July 21. Board members supporting him said they were convinced after hearing from Ford about “red flags” raised about his 13-year record in Jacksonville.
“We’ve had a chance to go through every one of them,” board member Enrique MacGregor said during the board meeting.
He said because “some of this information is sensitive,” he couldn’t go into detail but they involved concerns about inappropriate spending, time in the office, transit service levels, ridership dropping and a “potential conflict of interest.”
“I want to say I am satisfied that every single issue has been addressed, that there’s a rational explanation for each of them and none of them deserve to be called red flags,” he said.
DART board Chair Randall Bryant said he contacted the current JTA board chair and two former JTA board chairs, Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan and a former mayor who he did not identify to get their assessments of Ford’s 13-year tenure at JTA.
“And in all of those conversations, there was one constant message from these individuals — Nathaniel Ford made our region and our transit system better,” Bryant said.
He said when he talked to Deegan, she said of Ford, “I hope Dallas is fortunate enough to get him.”
The opposition to approving the employment agreement was based on the amount of pay Ford will get, which will be more than the highest-paid city manager within the DART service area gets in compensation. One DART board member said he remains uncomfortable with the concern abut a conflict of interest.
JTA previously said Ford’s retirement is effective January 8, 2027 and he would remain with the agency until then to help with the transition to the next CEO. It’s not clear exactly how the DART board’s decision to hire him will change that schedule.
The JTA board has scheduled a July 29 meeting when it will discuss the next step for filling the vacancy created by Ford’s departure.
DART operates light rail, commuter rail, regional rail, bus routes, an on-demand service for curb-to-curb trips and paratransit over a 700 square-mile region covering 12 cities.
During public comment at the start of the meeting, six residents urged the board to not hire Ford. Several said they do not want Ford to bring autonomous transit vehicles to Dallas as he has in Jacksonville, where the autonomous transit shuttles have suffered from meager ridership and high costs since they went into service a year ago.
One resident said DART should focus on improving bus and rail service and avoid “wasteful and expensive vanity projects” such as autonomous shuttles. Another resident said riders aren’t interested in DART getting “pet projects” because they want “bread-and-butter bus and rail service.”
Jacksonville does not have light rail or commuter rail, but Ford previously oversaw those types of transit system when he lead transit agencies in Atlanta and San Francisco before moving to Jacksonville.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Dallas transit agency hires JTA CEO Nat Ford as its leader