Fire Catoe?

WTOP News wrote an article about a new online petition calling for the dismissal of WMATA General Manager John Catoe Jr.

The last few months have been a nightmare for Metro.

The transit agency has seen the deadliest accident in its history, has had a number of bus and train operators suspended and reprimanded for being distracted while operating their vehicles, and has seen a 21-year veteran killed on the job, among other recent incidents.

Now, there is a push to remove Metro General Manager John Catoe from his position as the head of the agency.

I’m not one to be too quick to lay all the fault at Catoe’s doorstep. I think a lot of it has to do with WMATA not getting the federal funding it needs.

This is what DC Councilman Jim Graham had to say:

The head of Metro’s Board of Directors, Jim Graham, characterized Catoe this way in March:

“I find John Catoe to be absolutely masterful in representing and navigating all of these waters that he finds himself in,” Graham told WTOP.

“This is one of the toughest transit jobs in the United States for a whole host of reasons, not the least of which is the competing jurisdictional interest. John Catoe is heaven-sent, and I mean that.”

I’m not defending Mr. Catoe Jr. at all. What I think needs to happen is for an investigator outside of the agency to come in and look at WMATA from top to bottom and make recommendaitons that will be enforced to the letter. Although one has to wonder what WMATA’s Office of the Inspector General has been up to.