We've all been tempted to pad our resumes, but we couldn't let this flagrant case pass.Of recent Metro heads, who would you say "worked to make [WMATA] more responsive to its riders and workers and more willing to consider new ideas that improved service, reduced costs and enhanced quality"?
We can't think of any, but guess who's trying to pass those overblown and frankly phony accomplishments off as their own?
It's Daniel M. Tangherlini, briefly WMATA's acting head and the current DC "city administrator/deputy mayor," who President Obama has tapped for assistant secretary for management at the Department of Treasury. He'll also be chief financial officer and chief performance officer, according to the Post, which devoted an entire sentence to Mr. T's wonderful stint at Metro. WTOP also seems to have inexplicably underplayed the miracles T performed at Metro.
Why the scant treatment of such a brilliant Metro career by the press?
That's an easy one. T didn't even serve a year there. But what a different impression that White House press release gives. Reading it, you'd think he basically turned Metro completely around!
Actually, in an online chat with WaPo, T seemed slightly contrite about his rather sudden departure from Metro to serve the mayor and virtually admitted he didn't make the impact he'd hoped to.
So which is it, T?
When T took over Metro in early 2006, the Washington Post said his predecessor, Richard A. White "was forced out of his job, ending a tenure marked by strides in fixing complex funding problems but struggles with daily crises, including broken escalators, faulty rail cars and preventable accidents."
T solved those problems. Can't you tell?
And for the record, it was White, not T, who helped start efforts at reaching out to passengers and actually rode the trains. Well, if you count glad handing passengers and employees and plastering your "handsome visage" all over Metro stations as reaching out, T did that. DCist says that narcissistic campaign was what T is best remembered for during his flirtation with Metro.
Even on his way out, T was already usurping credit for improved communication with riders, saying on his final online chat that "the most important thing we worked on as a team related to one thing: opening our ears to the concerns of our customers and front line employees. I think we made every effort to make Metro more responsive to riders."
We're STILL waiting for that!
And how has T's other "top priority"--MetroAccess--fared? It continues hemorrhaging money, particularly because it provides expensive and arguably poor service beyond the areas where it's legally bound to.
One thing we can confirm is that T is doing a great job managing his career. How'd he do as deputy mayor? Well, we all know what a paragon of efficient public administration DC has become under T's ambitious hand.
But seriously Dan, don't try to make your months at Metro into a pillar of why you're qualified for this next post. Don't say you improved Metro because you didn't. You couldn't have in such a short time, and you know it.
You must think we're pretty dumb to buy that.
Other news:
That great Metro customer service strikes again. (WaPo)
Metro rider median income $102K (Examiner)
Oct. 11, 2012
February 21, 2012
March 4, 2010
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