SANTA CRUZ — A few unforeseen circumstances have taken soon-departed METRO CEO Alex Clifford to where he is today — but he likes obstacles.
“I thrive on challenges. They’re something that excites me,” he said to the Sentinel this week, just days after announcing to METRO’s Board of Directors that he was leaving.
First, when Clifford arrived at METRO, he found financial issues to be the root of most if not all of METRO’s ongoing problems.
“From my arrival in 2014, I had to make the Board aware that we needed to go to work right away on a $6.3 million structural deficit,” Clifford said. “In working with the board in the next two years after, we were able to resolve that deficit, but more importantly we did so without any layoffs.”
Then, once he, the METRO board and staff tackled the majority of those issues, the COVID-19 pandemic hit and cut the agency’s service by 80%.
“A big chunk of that is students that were sent home immediately to begin remote classes … but we really need to work on trying to figure out how to attract back the other part of our ridership, roughly 40%,” Clifford said.
Finally, when he thought things were settling down, Clifford was contacted by a recruiter on behalf of the San Joaquin Regional Transit District (RTD) in Stockton. The agency made him an offer he couldn’t refuse. He decided this would be his newest challenge, despite not actively looking for a new job.
“I know the current and prior CEO and I know that it is a well-run agency, very stable,” he said. “They have received acknowledgments … done cool and innovative things with bus rapid transit and on-demand service. They, like everyone else, will have some challenges in the post-pandemic environment.”
As he moves on, Clifford is proud of what he has done as CEO in Santa Cruz, a place he says he will miss because it is a beautiful spot to work and play. He outlined the achievements that he, the board and the staff made in a memo to the board announcing his resignation this month. Some of those victories include finishing the once half-completed Judy K. Souza Operations Building and upgrading half of the agency’s bus fleet.
“Because of the (California Air Resources Board) zero-emission regulations, with any buses we buy, 25% must be zero emissions in 2026 and 100% must be zero emissions by 2029,” Clifford said. “When you are trying to catch up in no longer operating buses beyond their useful life, you can catch up much faster when you buy (standard) buses. The sheer cost of zero-emission buses has a negative impact of slowing our ability to catch up on our aging fleet.”
The days ahead
Clifford knows the barriers San Joaquin RTD faces in the near future because many of them parallel METRO’s ongoing issues. Attracting back riders and funding and growing back services are just the start. Transit agencies will begin or are already beginning to realize that transit has changed because of COVID-19, he said.
“There’s a lot of discussion about that going on nationwide, about what that means,” he said. “With that, we are looking at what our future service will look like. Do we continue geographic coverage or are we more responsive to what we are hearing from riders, (requests) for more frequent service, and provide that potentially in more urban areas than rural?”
METRO hasn’t made any changes yet, but these are the questions to consider while it tries to balance the federal money it received to help recover from the pandemic. That funding will protect the agency from a possible structural deficit that is beginning to reveal itself and would occur between 2026 and 2027.
The bottom line, Clifford said, is focusing on changes that are constructive cost-wise and still, somehow, leave no rider relying on service behind. Placing service is difficult, more so, because of METRO’s existing shortage of bus operators.
“We are asking, ‘Why are we not attracting more candidates? Is this a national problem?’” he said. “In part, it has to do with the fact that unions are all about seniority… drivers may be working Saturdays and Sundays or late-night shifts for many years. That environment is not conducive to young families raising young kids.”
Before Clifford leaves Jan. 21, he will watch over a two-stage process to create a new Enterprise Resource Program software system.
“We are well overdue for replacing various programs that we use here that don’t interface well with each other,” the CEO said, calling them “antiquated” and “inflexible.” “Sometime in 2022, we will go to bid for a consulting firm … which will be a huge milestone for the agency.”
Additionally, he will weigh in on how to best address the $60 million PERS unfunded liability debt METRO holds. Unfunded liability is the difference between the number of benefits owed to current and former employees and the value of fiscal assets that the agency’s pension plan manages.
“We are going through a process that will continue into early next year of working toward funding a bond that will pay it off,” Clifford said. “That begins to set the agency up for the future, to keep up with liabilities instead of falling behind on them.”
Lastly, he will help the ad hoc committee established to find his successor to the best of his ability.
“I’ll be meeting with them to help plot the way toward hiring a recruiter and (starting) that process of receiving applications,” Clifford said. “The plan is to work all the way through to help the transition be as seamless as possible so that business can continue uninterrupted.”
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