CLARKSBURG, W. Va. — The five members of the newly appointed Central West Virginia Transit Authority Board of Directors completed a leadership overhaul for the bus service at its first meeting.
After being sworn in Friday afternoon, discussing how to move forward and then going into an executive session, the board first announced the elimination of the interim general manager position created by the previous board and designated to former member Sam “Zeke” Lopez.
“With the skill set we have on the new board –we have a [Certified Public Accountant], we have attorneys– we felt the need for an interim general manager was not needed,” newly appointed board president Jim Smith said. “The previous board created that position and we eliminated that position, effective [Friday].”
The board told Lopez the decision was not personal. Lopez felt the new board had the best interests of CENTRA in mind and was not upset.
In lieu of an interim general manager, the department heads will report to the board until a permanent replacement is found.
Even though former general manager John Aman wrote a letter announcing he will not seek to retain his position after serving 21 months in prison for bank fraud, the new board also voted to rescind the offer to hold the position from the previous board to remove any public doubt which may have lingered.
The goal of the new board is to gain the public’s trust after the previous board’s two decisions regarding the general manager position lead to public backlash.
“We’ve gained, hopefully gained a lot of credibility back from the public with some of the actions today,” Smith said. “I think they were necessary and made business sense. We’ve evaluated the staff that’s here and I think there performance will carry us until we put a permanent general manager in.”
Smith said with past decisions hopefully in the past, the board wants to move forward with the public’s input on how to improve transportation.
“We’re going to look at the service itself,” he said. “Is it adequate? If we need it expanded, is there funding available to do that? Are we serving the right routes in a timely manner?”
Among other items the board hopes to quickly address is the matter of the service’s audit for the current fiscal year, which will be handled by the state after the previous firm backed out of the duty.
An investigation into the organization’s bylaws was also requested and a subcommittee was appointed to accomplish such a task. Serving in this role will be the new secretary treasurer Christopher McCarthy and member Anita Bower, whose husband, lawyer J. Patrick Bower helped compose the bylaws during his time with CENTRA.
With much to work through, the board also voted to meet monthly rather than quarterly for the next few months.
The next meeting will be held October 31.