In case you didn’t see the news reports, the RTD Board decided to remove the word, “Iterim,” from Phil Washington’s job title . . . selecting him as our new General Manager.

Phil demonstrated excellent leadership over the past five months in his interim role.  There was no down period following Cal Marsella’s departure, as Phil showed my Board colleagues and me that he meets his commitments to action and that he takes personal accountability for results.  I feel these will be critical traits as RTD works to recover its public credibility in the face of our implementation difficulties with the FasTracks program.   

There are a number of other assets that made Phil the right choice for the permanent General Manager position, including his excellent employee relations skills, his thoughtful approach to implementation of the FasTracks program, and great motivational instincts.  Finally, something that is important to me, is Phil’s willingness to look beyond traditional solutions to the challanges we face.  What he terms, “out of the box” thinking, is what I believe we need more of at RTD to help us achieve the FasTracks vision and to address our other customer service and operations needs.

The General Manager search process was exhaustive.  We had many strong applicants from transit systems across North America competing to take the reins at RTD.  We also had excellent input from community stakeholders throughout the process, which helped to shape our perspective on the best candidates. 

In the end, we found what we were looking for right here at home.  Knowing all the qualities that he will bring to the position, as described above, I was pleased to join a unanimous vote of my Board colleagues in selecting Phil Washington as the new RTD General Manager.  You can read about the final decision at the following link: http://www.denverpost.com/search/ci_14006848.

It appears that others were pleased with the decision to hire Phil, as well:  http://www.denverpost.com/search/ci_14014125 and http://www.aurorasentinel.com/articles/2009/12/16/opinion/editorials/doc4b29761880419538728192.txt.  This is an important affirmation of the selection process and our choice.  Even better, though, is the statement Phil delivered following the Board vote:  Phil Washington Acceptance Statement.  It is a real testament to the type of leader Phil will be for RTD and the cause of enhanced transit service for the Denver region.