Metrolink chief keeps job, at least for now
The Metrolink Board of Directors meeting ended about an hour ago, and no announcement was made after closed session about the fate of Chief Executive David Solow. As I posted earlier today, a last-minute item was added to the board's agenda allowing discussion of whether Solow should stay on the job or not.
After the 90-minute closed session ended, Solow told the few people left in attendance, "there is no announcement." Asked if still had a job or would resign, Solow repeated that there was no announcement. The extent of the conversation in closed session about Solow was not clear.
The item to discuss potentially removing Solow was put on the agenda by outgoing board Chairman Ron Roberts with the knowledge of the incoming chairman, Keith Millhouse, according to two sources within the commuter rail agency with knowledge of the issue.
Solow has been the chief executive of Metrolink since 1998.
In other significant news, it was also announced at today's meeting that the Federal Railroad
Administration has given Metrolink permission to install automatic train stop devices at 43 locations along Metrolink tracks. The devices are put at areas of the track where engineers need to be extra attentive, and they trigger a warning in a locomotive that a train engineer must respond to; if they don't respond, the train is stopped. It is not considered a fail-safe technology -- it won't necessarily stop an engineer from running a red light -- but is thought to be a good safety backup.
Metrolink is also pursuing a more advanced GPS-based system that monitors the location of trains on a network and stops them before they collide. The railroad is hoping to have that technology installed by 2012.
So sports teams have a few bad seasons, and the coach gets fired and replaced. A corporation has a few years of bad earnings, and the stock tanks and the CEO gets replaced.
But the CEO of Metrolink oversees the organization for 10 years, and there is a horrific train wreck with many FATALITIES, caused by numerous factors that built up over several years (lack of available/optional safety measures, engineers using cell phones, etc.), and the board isn't overwhelmingly in favor of replacing him immediately?
The fact that he hasn't resigned on his own is baffling.
Leadership and corporate culture start from the top. Sure, humans make mistakes all the time, and tragedies unfortunately do happen eventually given enough time. But the train crash could not have possibly been the result of just one engineer making one mistake--there should have been many, many organizational, procedural, and cultural forces that should have prevented it from happening.
If David Solow stays on as CEO, who is going to ultimately take responsibility as the leader of Metrolink and produce change?
Posted by: SE | January 09, 2009 at 05:16 PM