State Lawmaker Wants To Revamp Transit Boards
CHICAGO (WBBM) -- If McHenry County state Rep. Jack Franks gets his way, the politically connected people who sit on transit boards would be sent packing.
Franks is pushing legislation to completely revamp the boards.
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The way Franks sees it, the boards of the RTA, CTA, Metra and Pace are stacked with people who don't have expertise.
He says they're there because of who they know, not what they know.
They shouldn't be paid, according to the McHenry County Democrat, and they shouldn't get benefits.
"These board members are getting paid large amounts of money, they're getting health care benefits, and they're also getting pensions to go to a meeting every month or every other month,'' said Franks. "It's ridiculous that we're paying board members who, quite frankly, have done a pretty poor job of oversight and have become nothing more than rubber stamps."
And, Franks says, there are lots of qualified people who would do it for free.
Metra has been embarrassed in recent months following revelations that its former director, Phil Pagano, worked the system to give himself hundreds of thousands of dollars in unauthorized vacation pay. He took his life this spring before the board moved to fire him. Pagano also stood to collect a $170,000 a year pension, according to published reports.
