Suffolk Vice Mayor suggests pink slip for HRT chief
By Brian Kirwin | Thursday, January 7th, 2010 | Policy“Any manager who does not fully give his board the proper information sooner or later will get a pink slip.” Suffolk Vice Mayor Curtis Milteer. (Virginian Pilot)
More and more elected officials are saying that leadership at HRT must change at the top. $80,000 was apparently stolen. When did the Board find out? After a FOIA request was made.
“HRT President and CEO Michael Townes sent a memo to board members about the “possibility of a theft of cash” late Wednesday afternoon after receiving a Freedom of Information Act request from The Virginian-Pilot“.
This is on the heels of a resolution scheduled for Tuesday’s meeting of the Virginia Beach City Council saying either replace the CEO of HRT or kiss light rail goodbye in the largest city in Virginia, which would make light rail about as useful as an HOV lane for bicycles.
A $232 million dollar project leaps to $340 and gets pushed back half a year? $80,000 gets stolen, and no one mentions it until the newspaper FOIAs it?
City Council members throughout Hampton Roads should think about how popular they’ll be in May if they support and excuse this behavior.
The Virginian-Pilot editorial board goes even further, saying that light rail needs to be taken away from HRT completely, which I guess keeps Townes employed, but not involved with light rail. The Pilot fears Virginia Beach will walk away from HRT entirely, a strong possibility.
Will the HRT Board risk losing Virginia Beach and the entire management of the light rail project to save one person’s job after such demonstrably poor performance?
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The right wants to jeer him. The left wants to censor him. Moderates usually want both. Brian Kirwin is a political consultant and public relations strategist in Virginia Beach with a lightning-rod flair. Brian also serves on the VB Arts & Humanities Commission and frequently appears on Hampton Roads theatrical stages, if only to prove that all actors aren’t liberals. Kirwin’s columns stir up debate and hit the political scene with no punches pulled.
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5 Responses to "Suffolk Vice Mayor suggests pink slip for HRT chief"
Despite our differences on many issues, I really like Curtis and have voted for him before.
He won my respect when he recognized Suffolk’s confederate history when he was mayor. Some white mayor haven’t even done that.
The significance is that Milteer has been Townes’ second-biggest cheerleader on the TDCHR. (Yes, after Paul Riddick.) If Milteer is publicly breaking with Townes….
Commissioner Milteer is the Chairman of the Budget & Audit Committee for the TDCHR, the “board” reponsible for governance of HRT. Isn’t it his job to ensure that our tax funds are being properly accounted for? He can chose who he uses to help him with his responsibility, but he can’t delegate his responsibility and personal accountability.
while i agree that Townes should leave for LR development to keep going, i don’t agree that VB would want to just leave HRT completely. if this is true (which i’m not gonna hold my breathe on it) there seems to be more then just the issue of Townes with VB. i mean think about it, look how terrible their bus service is. VB doesn’t care enough to even improve their bus service. so to me it seems they’re just quickly trying to worm their way out of the LR race. quite a turn of events from last year after Sessoms was elected. all of VA politicians seem to have the same attitude: Pig headed
Sessoms ran on a promiss to conduct a referendum and honor the results. So did John Moss. Collectively they garnered 55% of the vote for Beach Mayor. Seems the fine folks living in Virginia Beach understand that light rail/TOD is not something required for the local government to fund and that governing with the consent of the governed is how elected representatives should adhere to the will of their constituents.
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