Friday, December 29, 2006

MARTA oversight committee chair earns kudos, critics

Atlanta Journal-Constitution,
Donsky, Paul;
Dec 29, 2005

A year ago, Jill Chambers was a little-known Republican state legislator from
north DeKalb County still looking for a prominent role at the state Capitol
after completing her first term in office.

When the Republicans took control of the state House last January and named
Chambers chair of the Legislature's MARTA oversight committee, few expected
anything to change. The sleepy committee had generated few headlines over the
years. It was a legislative Siberia, a place for inexperienced politicians like
Chambers to cut their teeth.

But under Chambers' leadership, the MARTA oversight committee, known as
MARTOC, has reinvented itself.

Depending on whom you ask, the committee has become either the vigorous
watchdog it was always meant to be or has morphed into an overly aggressive
bully bent on destroying MARTA.

The committee's hearings have become contentious, daylong affairs, featuring
Chambers and other members grilling top MARTA brass over details of contracts
and the wisdom of past decisions and present business strategy.

Chambers demanded that MARTA turn over boxes of financial documents and other
records, poring over them like a lawyer gearing up for trial and seizing on
anything she considered evidence of wasteful spending.

Most critical for MARTA, she has locked up two bills that passed the state
Senate last year that would give the cash-strapped transit system more
flexibility over how it spends its money.

Chambers said she is just following state law, which establishes the
committee's responsibility for monitoring the transit system's finances and
protecting taxpayers who support the agency.

"This is the first time in the committee's history that they've looked this
closely at the spending of MARTA," Chambers said. "And I'll admit that has
created some tension, because they've never had to explain where the money had
gone in the past."

Today, Chambers is expected to release her first committee report, an annual
update on the committee's business.

Chambers won't reveal any details of the report, but it's unlikely MARTA will
come out unscathed. Chambers has hammered MARTA executives all year on a wide
range of issues, from how the agency buys its fuel to failing to provide
information in a timely fashion.

The report comes at a crucial time for MARTA. The transit system says it is
in financial crisis and continues to lose nearly $4 million a year on its
operations despite a recent round of layoffs and service cutbacks.

MARTA has asked the Legislature to extend a provision that allows the system
to spend 55 percent of its revenues on its operations instead of the 50-50 split
between capital and operations spelled out in state law. MARTA also wants to be
allowed to subsidize its operations budget with interest income earned on its
capital budget surplus.

Chambers said her goal is to root out what she sees as MARTA's culture of
wasteful spending. Only then, she said, will MARTA receive financial support
from the state and get the bills out of her committee. MARTA is the largest
transit system in the country that doesn't receive any state operating funds.

Vincent Fort, a state senator from Atlanta who serves on the committee, said
he believes Chambers' true motivation is to smear MARTA in order to pave the way
for some kind of state takeover in the event a regional transit agency is
formed, as is being discussed by local political and transportation leaders.

"It's almost as if there's a crusade against MARTA," said Fort, a Democrat.

Indeed, Chambers has said she would like to see a regional agency take over
MARTA and the area's suburban bus systems, saying that is the best way to secure
additional funding to improve transit service across metro Atlanta.

Stand alters business style

The committee's aggressive stance already has begun to change how MARTA does
business. Routine decisions are often parsed for how they will be seen by the
committee, and by Chambers in particular. At a recent MARTA board retreat, for
instance, members discussed the need to travel for conferences and to observe
other transit agencies, but they worried whether the committee would see the
expenses as wasteful.

"She's taken her job as chairman of MARTOC a lot more seriously than had been
in the past," said Michael Walls, MARTA's board chairman. "And it has taken some
getting used to."

MARTA officials tread carefully when the subject of Chambers is raised, given
the high political stakes involved.

MARTA lobbyist Scott Smith said he felt the exhaustive examination may, in
fact, help MARTA prove that the system needs additional financial help.

"All we can really do is continue to answer all the questions the best we can
so that everyone understands the way business is conducted here at MARTA," Smith
said. "And hope that the truth unfolds and is told."

For example, Smith and other MARTA officials say the agency has gone a long
way to address a lot of its problems. MARTA has significantly increased
advertising revenue and is installing a new fare system and upgrading its tracks
and trains.

MARTA General Manager Nathaniel Ford said he felt the committee's examination
has proved that the transit system is doing a good job of managing the public's
money.

"We're not asking for any new money," Ford said. "What we're asking for is
the flexibility to manage the money we're currently receiving."

Chambers has won some fans, like Ernie Brooks, president of the union that
represents most MARTA workers.

"She is trying to do the right thing," Brooks said. "There's been
mismanagement and wastefulness, and I think Ms. Chambers is trying to find out
where the money went."

State Sen. Bill Stephens (R-Canton), chairman of the Senate Transportation
Committee, praised Chambers for raising the committee's profile and fighting to
hold MARTA accountable. "She understands that one has to make some noise
sometimes to get people's attention."

Charm belies doggedness

Chambers, 42, grew up in Clayton County. Quick to laugh, with a short bob of
wavy brown hair framing her soft, round face, she looks more like a PTA mom than
a legislative pit bull.

Chambers displays a self-deprecating charm that emerges even during the most
strained encounters. But it belies a fierce intelligence and political
determination. During committee meetings, she often downplays her understanding
of issues and topics, saying she's nothing more than a small business owner,
before launching into detailed questions that put seasoned bureaucrats on their
heels.

For the past 16 years, Chambers and her husband, Albert, have owned a small
art gallery in Buckhead that caters to the interior design market.

Chambers said running the gallery led her into politics. The more taxes she
paid, the more she wanted to know about how the money was spent. She describes
herself as a "hard-core" fiscal conservative and a social libertarian. Chambers
last year was the lone Republican in the state Legislature to vote against a gay
marriage ban.

Chambers jumped at the chance to lead the legislative committee, even though
she only uses MARTA on rare occasions, such as trips to the airport. She notes
that her district includes the Doraville and Chamblee MARTA stations.

It didn't take long for Chambers to signal that the committee would be far
different under her control.

The day she was named the committee's first Republican chair, Chambers
recalled, she received a visit from a MARTA lobbyist who congratulated her and
asked how many rail tokens she needed. It is common practice, the lobbyist
explained, to provide the committee chair with tokens to give to constituents.

Chambers dressed down the lobbyist, demanding to know why, given the bleak
financial picture she had heard so much about, MARTA tokens were being given to
an elected official. She ordered an immediate end to the practice.

A short time later, Chambers said, she was invited by MARTA General Manager
Ford to join him for lunch at the posh Buckhead Club. Chambers bristled,
demanding to know whether taxpayers were paying Ford's membership fee to the
private club. She says she never got an answer, and the two later lunched at a
restaurant near her gallery.

In Chambers' eyes, the incidents show MARTA needs to change its ways.

"It's a culture of, 'It doesn't matter how much we spend, the taxpayers will
always bail us out,' " she said. "That is the culture we are trying to change at
MARTA. We are not trying to attack MARTA. We are trying to get them to operate
more like a business."

Ford, who has resigned to lead San Francisco's transit agency, was out of
town this week and unavailable for comment. MARTA spokeswoman Joselyn Baker said
MARTA has had a corporate membership at the Buckhead Club for a number of years.

Budget closely scrutinized

Chambers has delved into the minutiae of MARTA's budget. She criticized, for
example, a MARTA contract that provided employees of a private engineering
consortium benefits such as tuition reimbursement and travel expenses not
available to regular MARTA workers.

At a recent committee meeting, she pressed MARTA officials about the transit
system's long-standing practice of "hedging" future fuel costs, which MARTA says
makes budgeting easier and protects the agency from price spikes.

Chambers is perhaps most angry at what she sees as MARTA's failure to provide
her with all the information she seeks. For example, Chambers requested an audit
of the engineering consortium's expenses. After repeated requests, Chambers said
MARTA delivered a stack of photocopied check stubs and timecards.

"It left me feeling like they didn't take me seriously," she said. "It was
almost like a brushoff."

Smith, the MARTA lobbyist, said the agency has provided Chambers with
everything she has asked for, at times pulling staffers to compile reports.

Chambers said she was hopeful that relations will improve, noting that MARTA
will soon be getting a new general manager and board chairman.

Fort, the Atlanta Democrat serving on the MARTOC committee, said Chambers
seems to be looking for a "Perry Mason moment" during committee meetings when
she barrages MARTA officials with questions.

"It happens at every MARTA meeting --- she has a long list, question after
question after question about MARTA's practices --- and there's no there there,"
Fort said. "She hasn't proven her case."

Chambers says she has become convinced that MARTA's budget problems are
largely of its own doing. "MARTA has all the money it needs to operate a safe
and secure system, if the money is spent in a prudent and reasonable manner."

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