The Virginian-Pilot
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VIRGINIA BEACH
City and transit leaders are preparing to pick sides in what’s shaping up to be a battle over the fate of Hampton Roads Transit President Michael Townes.
The regional transit agency, and Townes as its president and CEO, have been criticized for poor oversight and communication in managing the construction of Norfolk’s light-rail project, which is 47 percent over budget and a year behind schedule.
On Tuesday, Virginia Beach City Councilman Glenn Davis introduced a resolution calling for HRT to fire Townes. The resolution, which will be voted on next Tuesday, said the City Council would not support extending light rail to the Beach as long as Townes remains in charge.
“The most important thing is to make sure we have competent leadership,” Davis said. “HRT has lost credibility with regional elected officials as well as citizens.”
HRT is in the middle of a feasibility study on extending light rail to the Beach. That study should continue, the resolution said.
A special meeting of HRT’s full board has been called for Monday at 2 p.m. to discuss Townes’ job performance.
That is in direct response to a letter sent last week to Townes by four board members demanding that he resign or face possible dismissal.
“I don’t know what precipitated that,” said Hampton City Councilman Paige Washington . “I don’t like to be broadsided.”
The starter light-rail line, which runs from the medical center on Brambleton Avenue through downtown to the city line at Newtown Road, was budgeted to cost $232 million but now is projected to be $340 million. The opening date has been pushed into 2011.
Most HRT board members and Norfolk council members said they did not learn of the new cost projections until they were contacted by The Virginian-Pilot last month.
About a year ago, HRT said the $232 million price had jumped to $288 million. Three weeks ago, the price rose to $328 million. A week later, it was $340 million.
Townes said Tuesday that he will not resign.
“While it’s clear to me that the majority of my board want my continued leadership, I clearly understand that others demand accountability for cost overruns and I’m accountable,” he said. “Accountability doesn’t mean you’re the cause of problems – it means that you’re at the helm when problems occur.”
He added that officials from Norfolk, who requested enhancements to the project that contributed to overruns, “bear as much responsibility as HRT for the status of the project.”
Townes added that a decision on light rail in Virginia Beach is years away and that “lots of things can happen in a number of years.” For instance, Townes said, he was recently considered for a transit job in Phoenix.
“I personally am not standing in the way of decisions in Virginia Beach,” he said. “I think we need to be focusing on 'How do we complete this project and how do we get those trains running?’”
Washington said he wants the special meeting to provide more information about cost overruns and how they relate to Townes’ performance.
“It’s to clear the air on a lot of the innuendo that’s been floating around,” he said. “I have seen nothing that tells me at this juncture that (Townes) has not been a good advocate and a good steward of the dollars at HRT.”
Grace Routten, a citizen who represents Hampton on the HRT board, also called for next week’s meeting.
“I’m hurt the other board members brought the charges against Michael like they have,” she said.
Routten, however, added that she was “shocked” to learn about the magnitude of the cost overruns for light rail.
“We’re the board, and we should have been told about a lot of things and we weren’t,” she said. She added that Townes should not lose his job over it.
Board members looking to remove Townes have stood by their positions.
“It’s important the city sends a clear message that we won’t tolerate business as usual at HRT,” said Jim Wood, Beach councilman and HRT board chairman.
Pilot writer Aaron Applegate contributed to this story.
Debbie Messina, (757) 446-2588, debbie.messina@pilotonline.com
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and he
didn't either did he? Weak board....very weak!!!
Come on now....
where there is smoke.... there is fire. Rather than spend almost half of what it already cost, why not just stop the project immediately, lay off all the employees, pay off all the contractors and recycle all the materials that are left. Too bad, so sad... time to let it go.
townes resignation
is "fire" a four letter word; he can get a job at TSA
TIME TO GO, JOE
Mr. Townes has failed to rectify the facts and figures of the light rail project.Hire someone else to do the job he didn't do so all can be right again and get the project back on track.
Throw the bum out....
or maybe like in the olden days...tar and feather and ride out of town on a rail.
Here we go!
Now comes the finger pointing! The bottom line, no matter how you slice it, is there are MAJOR financial overruns. No one wants to take the blame but truth be told ALL of the board members just hid their heads in the sand and took no positive action to admit there was a problem or rectify it. I'll guarantee you another ten to fifteen million dollars of overruns are going to be on the table within sixty days. Way to go guys --par for the course!
Follow the money
Everyone that is positive about his performance may just either:
Not care about how our money is squandered.
Have a personal interest in making sure the cookie jar is left open.
Be so inept as to not know how to manage costs.
Be there for the "social" status
or
have their fingers in the cookie jar of taxpayers money also.
Just fire him
Let the attorneys figure it out. He can do so much more damage than has already been done. You know that it will be a settlement anyhow, so get him out, take his keys away and don't let his fingers into the cookie jar.
Breaking News
Although the pilot won't/can't report it, check the breaking news on WVEC. They have the e-mail between townes and HRT chair jim wood.
Maybe in addition to townes being culpable for inept financial management, woods indeed ignored the issues by not pressing for additional information, or ever reporting to the TDCHR management (the authority that oversees HRT) his concerns or his inability to get information from townes regarding LRT costs.
Maybe both should be fired.
just keeps getting better
I looked at wvec; interesting. I also checked wavy.com for anything and there was another story there about embezzlement by 3 employees. However, they no longer work there and no charges have been filed. Why not? Please go read. I think this is just a ploy to take the heat off of lightrail and look at something else. Oddly enough, HRT, or should I say TRT, never ran into these issues before he came along.
Yes, he should be blamed for the so called unforseen "overage" in the lightrail budget, but he's not alone. Look high and low and there are plenty more people that should be disciplined/fired or whatever.
As for Mr. Townes misusing funds...if that's looked into and found to be true, then he should be held accountable and fired for it. This would take time though, as he took over quite some time ago. If investigating, maybe Pentran should be included. The paper and news stations should report findings.