Public transit, public trust : a performance review of the Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
Author
Texas Performance Review (Agency)
Texas. Comptroller's Office
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The authority's wealth, however, has seemed to engender a dangerous laxity in the
fiscal policies of past board members and managers, and a tendency ignore the
needs
and expectations of its customers and owners -the taxpayers.This lack of
cost-consciorisness has resulted in expensive consulting studies that sit on shelves,
ignored and unused; failed projects that produce little for the- authority or its
customers; and a general absence of budgetary restraint and common-sense
accountabiiity. This-laxity has been encouraged, as documented in dozens of past
studies and news articles, by the fact that Capital Metro has never enjoyed stable
leadership. Its legacy, instead, has been a heavy turnover of managers and board
members.
As a result of these factors, Capital Metro has developed a dysfunctional
organizational culture. The authority has fallen into a predictable pattern of leaping
into projects without sufficient planiing or public debate, and then retrenching under
a barrage of public criticism when the projects fail to live up to expectations. This
spiral of failurehas proven extremely difficult to end without strong-outside
intervention and new leadership. It also has made the public wary of Capital Metro.
Now the Iegislature has given the authority a new board and governance structure,
which at last is taking steps to put Capitil Metro on a sound footing to face the
difficult challenges of Austin's future. This report is intended to give the new board a
series of practical recommendations to build pubic confidence and trust in its efforts.