Steve Burns
WMAL.com
WASHINGTON – (WMAL) One step in the long process of overhauling Metro is getting underway Tuesday – establishing a new independent safety oversight commission for Metro.
The plan has been in the works for a long time following the failure of the Tri-State Oversight Committee, which was taken off the job last year amid a series of debilitating track fires, derailments, and general embarrassments for WMATA. The Federal Transit Administration was given the job, but only temporarily.
“The TOC was set up in a different time. There were different assumptions about the capacity and commitment of WMATA to police itself,” District Department of Transportation and Metro Board member Leif Dormsjo said in Tuesday’s public hearing. “It didn’t have any legal clout to bring the types of actions that are spelled out in this legislation.”
Much of the focus around crafting a new commission has been the importance of adding “teeth” – greater enforcement mechanisms than the TOC had. Dormsjo said the new legislation enables harsher penalties should WMATA not comply with its directives.
“(They can) bring legal action in court, fine WMATA, direct WMATA to remove personnel from safety-sensitive positions,” Dormsjo said.
The first draft of the legislation included a provision exempting the new commission from Freedom of Information Act and Open Meetings laws. That caught the attention of government transparency advocates and has since been removed. Metro Board Chairman Jack Evans was adamant that the new Commission shouldn’t echo Metro’s own issues.
“Metro’s biggest problem is it’s secret. They love to be secret at Metro,” Evans said. “I’m Chairman of the Board and half the time I can’t figure out what’s going on over there.”
But he maintained the Commission won’t be the biggest part of imparting a new day at Metro.
“It goes back to my fundamental question. Why isn’t Metro doing it right? Why do they need someone looking over their shoulder telling them to do it right?”
All three jurisdictions – Maryland, Virginia, and the District – must approve identical legislation in establishing the commission.
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(Photo: WMATA)
