DART to name CEO finalist on Tuesday
DART close to finalizing new CEO
DART's Board of Directors will finalize their choice for the company's new CEO on Tuesday. FOX 4's Lori Brown has more on what the three candidates for the role said at a public event on Saturday.
DALLAS - Dallas' biggest public transportation company will vote on who they want their next President and CEO to be tomorrow.
DART CEO finalists
DART CEO finalists
What we know:
DART announced the three finalists for its President/CEO position on Friday. They are:
- Nathaniel P. Ford Sr., CEO of the Jacksonville Transportation Authority
- Dee Leggett, AICP, Director of Business Operations for Herzot Transit Services, Inc.
- Monica Tellez-Fowler, President/CEO of the Central Ohio Transit Authority
DART's Chairman of the Board says three dozen applications were sent in for the job.
Dig deeper:
Ford's tenure in Jacksonville has seen investigations into the Jacksonville Transportation Authority, or JTA.
In 2024, Florida's Office of the Inspector General looked into concerns about taxpayer funds being spent on extensive travel, including a $10,000 trip to Spain.
FOX 30 in Jacksonville reported that JTA records state half of Ford's time with the JTA has been spent outside the office traveling.
DART CEO candidates speak
What they're saying:
"I want to address the pink elephant in the room."
Ford addressed concerns over his travel schedule with Dallas City Council members and the public at a DART event on Saturday. He argued his travel has brought clout to the JTA.
"It's not public transit, it's people transit. Let's put the people in front of every decision we make," Ford said. "To make sure that we're not just using the lens of finance and construction as the lens for determining what decisions we make."
Nathaniel Ford
Leggett, previously DART's Executive Vice President and Chief Development Officer, received an endorsement from the Dallas Area Transit Alliance on Monday.
"When I think about where DART should be ten years from now, I see an organization recognized as North Texas' trusted mobility and economic development partner," Leggett said.
"An organization our employees are proud to serve. What customers choose with confidence. One, our cities view as an indispensable partner."
Dee Leggett
Monica Tellez-Fowler spent time in Texas as CFO of Trinity Metro from 2015-2019.
"Texas is home. I have loved doing everything I've done everywhere else, but I would love to do the work that I'm passionate about, that I believe in, for my hometown," Tellez-Fowler said.
Monica Tellez-Fowler
What's next:
The DART board will vote on a finalist at a meeting on Tuesday, and hopes to finalize their next leader's contract in the next few weeks or months.
Previous DART CEO Nadine Lee leaves company
The backstory:
DART has been led by David Leninger as its Interim President & CEO since April. The company terminated outgoing CEO Nadine Lee's contract when the two sides could not come to a severance agreement.
Lee, who had led the transportation company since 2021, announced she would not seek to extend her contract in March.
PREVIOUS COVERAGE: DART's first female CEO explains decision to leave
Nadine Lee will not seek to renew her contract in September as the CEO of DART. She spoke to FOX 4's Shaun Rabb about the highs and lows of her tenure in an interview on Friday.
She pointed to recent "political hurdles" for the service when examining her time with DART in an interview with FOX 4's Shaun Rabb.
"But at the broader level, we've encountered a lot of political hurdles, and that's one of the things that has distracted us from our mission, distracted us from moving faster at improving the quality of our services and things like that.
Hurdles included DART withdrawal elections held in Addison, Highland Park and University Park in May. Addison and University Park voted to stay in DART's service area, while Highland Park voted to leave.
The Source: Information in this story comes from DART.