Why No One Wants To Be ST CEO

An earlier post asked “What If No One Wants ST CEO Job?” The Sound Transit Board decided to replace CEO Rogoff last September. They waited until the January 26th CEO Selection Committee Meeting Agenda to announce their Recruitment Work Plan was to hire CPS HR Consulting to find suitable candidates. 

That process began with a December 23rd “Kickoff” and December 30th meet to “review draft work plan." January 3-21 was used to Conduct Stakeholder Sessions and Committee and Board member meetings. The January 26th meeting with CEO Selection Committee was to “finalize selection criteria." 

Active Recruitment” with “Advertising” began on February 7th with job openings posted in websites, publications, and various professional associations, and reaching out to potentially competitive candidates. The “Aggressive Recruiting/Application Process” began February 9th with “consultants following up with targeted/qualified candidates”, and conversations with client on “best avenue to proceed." The “consultants vetted candidate applications against minimum qualifications” and “provided weekly updates regarding recruitment activities.” The CPS HR Consulting contract presumably ends on March 16th when "Active Recruitment" will end.  

Apparently, CPS HR Consultant's search for candidates hasn’t gone very well since Sound Transit Board’s February 24th meeting agenda including the following: 

**Motion No. M2022-16: 1) Appointing Brooke Belman as the acting chief executive officer (CEO) starting when current CEO Peter M. Rogoff departs and ending when the new Board-appointed CEO begins duties and 2) establishing a temporary base salary increase for Ms. Belman effective February 28, 2022, and extending for the three months following the start date of a new CEO.  

The agenda motion raised all sorts of questions. Why was an “acting CEO” needed prior to Rogoff leaving in April and before the end of CPS search contract? Does the Board intend to extend CPS contract or look elsewhere for a “new Board appointed CEO”? If Ms. Belman is qualified to be CEO, why wasn’t she considered between September when CEO Rogoff was to be replaced and December when CPS was hired to find a replacement? Those questions remain unanswered since the motion was never discussed in the video of the meeting. 

The bottom line is the reason Sound Transit is having difficulty finding a replacement for CEO Rogoff is he should have never been hired in the first place. While he was able to oversee construction of light rail extensions, the transit system expansion budget increased from $54B in 2016 to $138B in 2022. Also, neither he nor the elected officials on Sound Transit Board demonstrated any understanding of what constituted effective public transit. Neither recognized light rail routed through the DSTT lacked the capacity needed to reduce peak congestion on I-5 and I-90. That during off peak commutes the I-5 and I-90 corridor light rail operating costs will dwarf farebox revenue exacerbating farebox recovery shortfall.  

A competent transit system CEO would've recognized both. That the billions spent on Prop 1 should have been spent increasing access to transit with additional capacity. Add parking and local bus routes to stations on I-5 and I-90 with BRT routes into Seattle able to adjust to both peak and off-peak demand. Thus, it's unlikely the Board will find someone other than current Sound Transit sycophants willing to spend billions more on future extensions.  

 

My candidacy for Senate will use the Voters' Pamphlet this summer to tell residents about the irony of it taking the Board’s decision to replace CEO Rogoff to demonstrate the folly of hiring him.