What Snow?: Reports filtered in this morning of commuters taking as long as 13 hours to get home from work yesterday, thanks to the snow that smacked the region just as evening rush hour got going. Which, adding insult to injury, probably meant those commuters were already late for work today by the time they got home last night. But don't try to read about it in today's Examiner—the free tabloid apparently went to press before the storm hit. (As did the Express.) News as wishful thinking! +3

Taxation Without Representation, In Person: The District government was closed today, but Mayor Vince Gray apparently counted as an essential worker, as he showed up for work. (Or maybe he was just trying to escape his cold, dark house.) Gray met with House Speaker John Boehner on Capitol Hill for the first time since Republicans took over, a day after Boehner introduced a bill to reinstate a voucher program for D.C. school kids. The meeting was closed to the press, which means no one knows if Gray made Boehner cry. +2

Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word: Pink Line Project mastermind Philippa Hughes is not easy to mug, as a would-be assailant learned last October. "Did you really think you could take me down?" she asked him at the time. Whoever her attempted robber was—Hughes won't say—apparently learned some lessons from the failed attack; he's now sent a hand-written apology to her for the attempt. Let this be a lesson to us all: Do not, under any circumstances, mess with Hughes. (We already learned that lesson here.) +1

New Metro Boss Is Old Metro Boss: Times are tough at Metro; after all, there's only so many fare increases you can get away with while service deteriorates before riders revolt. Which may be why the new contract for interim general manager-turned-permanent general manager Richard Sarles is a little less lucrative than the one the previous GM, John Catoe got. Sarles, whose contract was finalized by the Metro board today, will make $350,000 a year—up from Catoe's $325,000—but won't get the $60,000 annual housing allowance Catoe also got. No word on whether Sarles will get any subsidy to actually ride the transit system, but if fares keep going up, he may need some help, even on that salary. +1

Yesterday's Needle rating: 46 Today's score: +7 Today's Needle rating: 53

Dodd, Shelby, Menendez, and Vitter
Say fix it or get off the shitter
Would oversight fetter
Or make it all better
And who is replacing the quitter?

On Wednesday, John Catoe took action
To stop his "unhealthy distraction"
The Red Line derailed
And critics prevailed
By force of their dissatisfaction

The consequence for his aggression:
A felony charge for possession
His stardom may sink
But not in the clink?
The perks of a guilty confession...

Or so said the Post's Robert McCartney on WAMU this morning, discussing who might replace the departing John Catoe: "This is a very prestigious position, general manager of Washington's Metro system. It's the second largest transit system in the country, it's in the nation's capital. So I think a lot of ambitious, you know, 40-something transit officials around the country will be quite interested in the job. It's an opportunity also to turn things around and really make your name, sort of like Michelle Rhee. You know, you could be the Michelle Rhee of Washington transit."

Photograph by Darrow Montgomery

Metro's general manager told the WMATA board he's out, as of April 2. This unexpected news prompted quite a diverse reaction. Said Christopher Zimmerman, who sits on the board and wanted Catoe to stay: "I do think we had the very best person." Said one D.C.-based Twitterer: "FINALLY! I already feel safer."

Now, of course, the question, as Loose Lips put it so eloquently last night, is: Who in the hell would want this job?

Speaking of freedom, the Washington Wizards' Gilbert Arenas—who was charged yesterday with felony gun possession—has reached a plea agreement with prosecutors, the Washington Post reports. The felony carries a maximum five-year sentence, but the little deal Agent Zero struck could significantly reduce the time he spends behind bars or possibly even spare him jail time altogether. Talk about Freedom Friday!

Arenas is set to appear in D.C. Superior Court this afternoon before Judge Robert E. Morin, who will decide his sentence. Hopefully it goes Gilbert's way, so he can start tweeting again. (Going to his Web site and hitting "Click Here to Enter the World of Gilbert Arenas" has taken on a whole new meaning.) Stay tuned as we follow this.

In other news, a top executive at NBC, Dick Ebersol, has blamed Conan O'Brien for the network's late-night ratings troubles, saying "what this is really all about is an astounding failure by Conan.” He also called Conan "chicken-hearted and gutless." Chicken-hearted: Now there's a word you don't hear every day.

Jay Leno, for his part, spoke directly to O'Brien in his monologue last night: “With all the controversy going on here at NBC, actually, The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien’s ratings have gone up. So you’re welcome.”

Conan is going to keep taping "until someone tells him not to."

Image by Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com, Creative Commons Attribution License

John Catoe had to go.

Right?

Over the past year, and certainly after the June 22 Red Line tragedy, an undeniable chasm developed on the subject of Catoe's performance as Metro's general manager.

The people who use Metro and comment on it from arms' length—those not engaged in day-to-day reporting on the system—have been scathingly critical of Catoe, blaming him for a degrading system, if not the accident itself. Folks with more knowledge of Metro operations—journalists, politicos, administrators, and, of course, WMATA's own board members—more or less stood by Catoe, arguing that he did awfully well with the lousy hand he'd been dealt. Plus, they invariably argued, who else would take the job?

Well, now they have to find someone else to take the job, and that divide bodes ill for the system's next general manager.

So allow LL to ponder the headhunting challenge of our time: Who in the hell would want to take this job?

Consider what the next Metro GM will have to deal with: (a) the worst fiscal crisis in Metro's history, necessitating drastic fare hikes and service cuts; (b) aging infrastructure coupled with pressure to tap the capital budget to cover operating deficits; (c) no solution in sight to the system's funding quandaries (the $300 million in federal/state money helps, but it doesn't solve the dedicated-funding problem); (d) broad rider satisfaction and distrust, not to mention local politicians and senators breathing down your neck; (e) a board dysfunctional by design, constructed in a manner that both indulges regional parochialism and inflames interjurisdictional strife (soon to be heightened by the addition of federal representation).

Today in an phone interview with NewsChannel 8's Bruce DePuyt, Metro board chair Jim Graham said this about WMATA's next general manager: "It's going to take an extraordinary human being. It's going to take somebody who's seasoned in terms of transportation issues but who also has a proven track record of dealing with the types of major challenges that John and the rest of us have had to deal with."

Setting aside the question of whether such a person even exists, LL doubts that person would jump at a Metro job.

Say you're a talented transit manager. You're running a mid-sized system or perhaps you've got a senior post in a large system or government. You're in your 40s, maybe early 50s. You've got kids in school, mortgage and college tuition to pay. You're doing a good job, your bosses are happy with you, but you're itching for a new challenge.

Do you give all that up to move to Washington given (a) through (e) above?

The truth is: If Metro finds a talented leader, it will be the result of luck more than anything else.

Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, in a statement on Catoe's departure, has it pretty much right: "[C]onsidering the perfect storm of a recession, decreasing ridership, increasing capital costs and the need for new revenue, Metro will be fortunate, indeed, to find a new General Manager not only equal to the task, but desirous of taking it on."

"One thing about John is he's very frank. And he is fair," said Catherine Hudgins, a Fairfax supervisor who is second vice chair of the Metro board. There was no question, she says, about persuading him to stay:

"He submitted his letter and of course it was a surprise to all of us. I will say it's a surprise because I think the issue of whether he stays or not stays has been an issue that we put to rest a while ago. We are pleased. He is the right person to be there."

"I think his letter was very frank and open—he's ready to move on," she added. "He cares about the Authority. He hopes that this is an opportunity for us to find someone that can focus on the agency, not him. I'm not sure how to address that part. But I think he felt he has done his best. And I think he has done a very good job."

The board will now look to the transition. "That's happened before," Hudgins said. "If you look at the history, it's happened a lot.

"Right now John is the general manager. We still look to him for leadership. It's not a short time in the life of Metro between now and April. The thing that you don't want is for [Metro employees] to think there is no leader. And John is that until April. John is still in charge."

As for the search for a replacement, Hudgins said: "I believe John would still be as credible as anybody we could find. This is a hard job. And anybody who thinks anything less in coming here would be in trouble, and I think we would be too."

Said Christopher Zimmerman, another Metro board member, who sits on the Arlington County Board: "I don't think there is anyone in America, certainly that I know of, that would be a stronger candidate to do the job than the person that holds it right now. I do think we had the very best person."

Going forward, Zimmerman said, "We will have the same problems to deal with. I think our challenge has gotten harder now." Any new person coming in will need time to "get up to speed."

"It will set you back a year any way you look at it," he said. "I think that's realistically what you're looking at. To have somebody on board—hired, on board, and in control of everything—that takes time."

This morning, General Manager John Catoe made his announcement at the WMATA board's executive session at its headquarters. According to At-Large Councilmember and WMATA Board Alternate Michael Brown, everyone in the room was floored by Catoe's annoucement. "Everyone to a person was surprised and shocked," Brown tells LL. "And frankly, just disappointed."

Brown says that usually when an executive resigns, it's the result of some background drama—a resignation is the solution to an intractable problem. But, Brown explains "that wasn't the case here." In fact, Catoe retained full confidence of the board and recently had his contract renewed.

"People like his leadership and his style," Brown says. "We didn't like the accidents obviously. But there was no pressure on him to resign. Not even one person wanted him out."

*reporting by Mike DeBonis.

*photo of Councilmember Brown courtesy of D.C. Council.

Yesterday John Catoe, the suddenly retiring general manager of Metro, sat down with 11 local bloggers, including folks from Greater Greater Washington, We Love DC, and Prince of Petworth. Some of these people have already written up their meetings.

"I'm a little dumbfounded," says We Love DC's Tom Bridge of Catoe's resignation. "We had no indication at all that he would even consider it."

"I'm sort of speechless right now" says Prince of Petworth's Dan Silverman. Catoe, he says, sat down with the bloggers at around 5:15 last night and talked with them until about 6:30. Silverman says they talked "about everything under the sun." There wasn't, he says, "the slightest indication of an announcement of a retirement."

At one point, Silverman says, Catoe told the group about a new program to move Metro supervisors to "at will" status, meaning they can be fired more easily if they screw up.

"There was a point where he kinda jokingly said 'some people might ask why am I not at will,'" Silverman says.

"On a scale of zero to very very strange, I would say we’re at the top of that scale," says Bridge.

Dave Stroup, who has called for Catoe's resignation on why.i.hate.dc, says he was initially surprised at Catoe's candor yesterday. "I thought maybe they decided they should put a human face on himthat drone," he says. [15:59: Stroup says I misheard him.]

"I will say he did seem genuinely bothered—like it was getting to him," Stroup says. "That he was taking it personally that the system was not running. References to the June 22 crash, you could tell it got to him and it was hard for him to deal with that."

Stroup's been pounding on Catoe for a while, putting a ticker on why.i.hate.dc dating from last June's Red Line crash with John Catoe's picture below it. He didn't talk about this with Catoe yesterday, even as the two shared an elevator on their way out of the building. "I’ve definitely learned tact can wait," Stroup says.

Matt Johnson of Greater Greater Washington says he's pleased that Catoe's resignation didn't come up yesterday. "I'm sort of glad," he writes in an e-mail. "It would have dominated the conversation otherwise."

You mean you're pleased you could talk about fares and at-will employment policies instead? I replied.

"I think so, yes," Johnson writes. "While Mr. Catoe's vision for Metro is no longer as relevant, we were able to discuss how the situation of the present will affect any possible future Metro can have."

He adds: "I am concerned about how a replacement will deal with the budget crisis. It certainly a situation no one wants to come into as a GM."

Catoe stepping down after three years at the helm

Metro General Manager John Catoe has decided to retire and leave the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority after three years as its top manager. Catoe informed Metro’s Board of Directors today of his decision to leave the transit agency. His last day will be Friday, April 2.

“I have decided that it is time for me to channel my future in new directions and provide this organization an opportunity to move beyond the current distractions,” Catoe said. “Good leaders know how to impact change. Great leaders know when it’s time for leadership change. I hope I fall into the latter category.”

“The Board of Directors has just been informed of General Manager Catoe’s decision to retire,” said Board Chairman Jim Graham. “We appreciate his stewardship during this difficult time and we will miss his leadership. While we regret his decision, he continues to have the full confidence of the Board of Directors.

“We will shortly begin the deliberative process on transition and succession,” Graham said.

The Washington Post is reporting Metro General Manager John Catoe is out.

From the blog "Get There": "Events of the last six months have created an unhealthy distraction, he says."

WTOP says the resignation will be effective in April. They report that Catoe had made his decision last week. He admitted to the WMATA board that the negative press had become too much:

"Catoe told the board he felt he was hurting Metro more than he was helping the transit agency.

'The past six months have been an unbelievable challenge to this organization,' Catoe told the Metro Board.

'There is a distraction — a constant reporting of negatives. I have become the face of the organization and in some cases, the face of that. I feel that this organization does not deserve that.'"

UPDATE: The Post reports that Catoe's resignation, announced after a special Metro board meeting today, will take effect April 2. He said Metro's troubles during the past year, including the fatal Red Line crash last summer, had created "an unhealthy distraction" and that it was time to go. Stepping down, he said, will allow the transit agency to "move beyond distractions."

From the Post:

Metro board chair Jim Graham thanked Catoe for his work and said the board had been informed of the decision Thursday. "We have full confidence in your ability to continue until April," Graham said.

"We recognize this is a choice that you have made," Graham added. The board will begin searching for a replacement.

Read Metro's statement here. He "decided to retire"!

Some quick background: Since the Metro crash, Sen. Barbara Mikulski had become one of WMATA's harshest critics. Earlier this month, the Examiner reported Mikulski had sent a letter to the board demanding that it prove how it was improving safety conditions:

"The residents of the National Capital region are tired of government not doing its job," the Democrat wrote. "I hear from my constituents about their daily frustrations with Metro: inoperable escalators and elevators; closed entrances and exits; train delays; and communication problems with riders during train breakdowns."

Councilmember Michael Brown recounts the reaction from WMATA's board.

So what happens next?

Metro board member Jeff McKay told Washington Business Journal that an acting general manager will be named—and then the board will conduct an international search for Catoe's permanent replacement.

“We will leave no stone unturned," he said. "I think we’ll have a very complete search that will be very transparent. It might take a while, but we’ve got to get this right and take the necessary time we need. We will look everywhere. Internationally, nationally, whatever it takes."

All those bloggers Catoe met with this week thought they'd scored big, but they must feel sort of  silly at this point. Bob Thomson of the Post said in a live online chat this afternoon: "Catoe told us that he made this decision about a week ago. There wasn't any one event that led to it he said. There was no pressure from any specific party. He said he hasn't been spending the past few months mulling whether he should do this, but just came to the conclusion that the organization needed a change. 'I've become the face of the organization,' he said."

Photograph by Darrow Montgomery

"I truly believe Metro is a safe system."

—John Catoe, Metro general manager, June 22

Forget Marion Barry. Forget Jim Graham. Did any public official in this town have a worse year than Catoe? When one Red Line train rammed into another near Fort Totten during the evening rush hour on June 22, Metro's chief executive was thrust into maintaining public confidence in an aging transit system that had just killed eight of its riders, plus a train operator. In the hours after the tragedy, he uttered the line above, but headlines over subsequent months exposed it as PR masquerading as an expert assessment. Three workers were killed while on the job during 2009. Metro executives barred safety inspectors from a little known oversight body for months. A November yard crash caused tens of millions of dollars in damage. Meanwhile, a record number of suicides plagued Metro tracks. By year's end, Catoe responded by ditching five members of his senior management team. Calls for his own head persist, but Catoe retains the confidence of WMATA board members, who are damn well convinced they couldn't find anyone better who’d be willing to take the job.

Photo by Darrow Montgomery

More from LL's Quotes of 2009

For walkers, this week was bad luck
While crossing the street, two were struck
Sure, fate is capricious
But why not delicious?
Heck yes, I'd get hit by this truck

It sure seems that Metro's bemoaning
The change that had riders all groaning
With kiosks outmoded
Make fares auto-loaded
Not yet, though, 'cause Catoe's postponing

I'm sad to see Cephas depart
For with him, that man takes my heart
He's clearly an ass
But lovably crass
In my book, bad taste is an art

When casting your vote in the booth
Just think of Graham's bowtie (so couth!)
Whatever you ponder
Don't let your mind wander
To thoughts of cabs, bribes, or that youth

As poet, I feel obligated
To highlight things classic (or dated?)
And yet, here's my screed:
Screw biking in tweed
That whole thing seemed way overrated...

"If this is an issue dealing with the safety of the system, I'm not going to restrict the repairs to nighttime. I'm going to get it as soon as I can get it done. And we will look at ways to do that, but that will impact the service on the Red Line," he said.

"Now that we're getting into heavy revamp of the system, it will be impacting services for the next several years," Mr. Catoe said. To lessen disruptions to the system, Metro will rethink how it schedules maintenance. Suggestions include doing large repairs on holidays or specific days of the week like Tuesdays and Thursdays.

In a wide-ranging interview with the paper, Catoe also suggested that problems with a 30-year-old computer system that is being investigated as the possible cause of the crash could impact other transit systems across the country.

"With this, depending again what they ultimately find, could be much larger. It's an issue, depending upon what they find, not just for [the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority]. We're not the only one with this type of system. Most rail operations around the country have a similar system to this," said Mr. Catoe, who insisted he was speculating and distanced himself from the NTSB investigation.

"If they find, let's say, that there's a defect in the part, then you have to look at all the parts around the country because there's only two manufacturers of those parts," he said.

• Yesterday afternoon, City Desk posted the latest WaPo article about the Metro crash, which basically announced that circuits on four of the five lines have failed to detect the presence of trains.  The 6 pm newscasts featured commentary from a variety of concerned commuters and so to quell their concerns, Metro GM John Catoe and Councilman Jim Graham held a press conference announcing that the Post got the story wrong.  The system is safe, says Catoe, and the article is a gross misstatement of facts.  Watch WUSA's interview with Catoe – he could be a dreidel with the way he's spinning this new information.

Swine flu, social networks, and the Secret Service after the jump.  Plus, a new alternative to saving the Nats!

• Swine flu isn't going anywhere soon.  Yet another group of local students from the District and Maryland are quarantined in Beijing after testing positive for H1N1.  Although it sucks that their trip is on hiatus, at least they have access to their Facebook accounts.
• Speaking of social networks, Facebook and Twitter are now too accessible to the general public, so Congress had to make its own. 3121, named after the extension of the Capitol Hill switchboard, will premiere in September and hopes to make communication among staffers more efficient.  Really, it's just a more localized version of any other site, so that you can stalk the hottie in Rep. Whatever's office and make awkward eye contact with your new "friends."
• President Obama granted Dick Cheney's request for a six-month extension of his Secret Service protection.  Apparently he has been concerned with his security and privacy in recent years, and plans on asking for another extension when this one expires.  Because when the federal government is hemorrhaging money, cashing in on a former Vice President's security detail is really an investment in the future.
• And finally, the Nationals might seem like a better team if they had better media coverage.  And who better to help them with their image than Ari Fleisher of Ari Fleisher Sports Communications!  Yep, Bush 2's first press secretary has launched a business to train athletes and teams on how to deal with the media.  He's currently busy promoting the Olympics but maybe he can help our fledgling batters in the future.