Fascinating news on the CATS front.
News14 Carolina is reporting that CATS chief Ron Tober offered to resign last week, but was turned down. This squares with previous reports that Tober’s attempts to get the Federal Transit Authority to approve a new budget plan for the South Blvd. light rail project failed last week as well.
This rejection from the FTA had to come as a shock to both Tober and city officials who counted on Tober to find a way to get CATS out from underneath a project that has a deadline of December 31, 2007 for completion, but is now only 55 to 60 percent finished after almost four years of work. This is a huge reversal for Tober.
As Mark Pellin of The Rhino Times documented, Mayor Pat McCrory and other officials heaped praise on Tober even as the rail project went out of control. As Pellin reports in the current issue of the Times:
After the council approved the parking garage contract in 2005, Tober was recognized for being named the American Public Transportation Association’s outstanding public transportation manager for that year. McCrory piled on the kudos, praising Tober for his “incredible understanding of how Washington works in order to get the proper models approved through the incredible bureaucratic structure and political structure of Washington. “Just that knowledge alone,” the meeting minutes show McCrory saying, “has literally saved the City of Charlotte and this entire region millions upon millions of dollars.”
Such pronouncements can now be seen for what they are: Pure propaganda from a shifty and dishonest government.
Let’s make clear what Mayor McCrory and City Manager-for-Life Pam Syfert need to do to begin to re-build the public’s trust in their so-called leadership.
First, the unredacted release of all communications with Parsons Transportation Group dating back to August 1, 2004, approximately the date the FTA gave CATS $11 million to finish the “final plans” on the South Blvd. project. Second, a full stop on all CATS rail-related plans outside the South Blvd. project until such time as those plans and budgets can be reviewed by outside experts.
Anything short of that is a cover-up and should not be tolerated by a public which could be left holding the bag for hundreds of millions in wasteful spending.
