Document Type
Report
Abstract
The authority's wealth, however, has seemed to engender a dangerous laxity in the fiscal policies of past board members and managers, and a tendency ignore the needs and expectations of its customers and owners -the taxpayers.This lack of cost-consciorisness has resulted in expensive consulting studies that sit on shelves, ignored and unused; failed projects that produce little for the- authority or its customers; and a general absence of budgetary restraint and common-sense accountabiiity. This-laxity has been encouraged, as documented in dozens of past studies and news articles, by the fact that Capital Metro has never enjoyed stable leadership. Its legacy, instead, has been a heavy turnover of managers and board members. As a result of these factors, Capital Metro has developed a dysfunctional organizational culture. The authority has fallen into a predictable pattern of leaping into projects without sufficient planiing or public debate, and then retrenching under a barrage of public criticism when the projects fail to live up to expectations. This spiral of failurehas proven extremely difficult to end without strong-outside intervention and new leadership. It also has made the public wary of Capital Metro. Now the Iegislature has given the authority a new board and governance structure, which at last is taking steps to put Capitil Metro on a sound footing to face the difficult challenges of Austin's future. This report is intended to give the new board a series of practical recommendations to build pubic confidence and trust in its efforts.
Publication Date
7-1-1998
Language
English
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Texas Performance Review (Agency) and Texas Comptroller's Office, "Public transit, public trust : a performance review of the Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority" (1998). Documents from the State of Texas. 93.
https://mavmatrix.uta.edu/utalibraries_digitalprojects_stateoftexas/93
Comments
[Austin, Tex.] : Texas Department of Transportation, Division of Motor Vehicle Titles and Registration, [1992]