(The following article by Tom Feeney was posted on the Newark Star-Ledger website on April 3.)
NEWARK, N.J. — After a national search for a new executive director, members of the NJ Transit board settled yesterday on a man who already works for them.
Richard R. Sarles, who has been working as the assistant executive director for capital programs and planning, was named to the agency’s top job. He will replace George Warrington, the man he followed to NJ Transit from Amtrak five years ago.
With the promotion of the 62-year-old Sarles, the agency is likely to stay the course it set under Warrington. Sarles said he has asked all of the top managers to remain in their jobs, and that his priorities will be to continue or complete projects started under Warrington.
Those priorities will include keeping the NJ Transit system in a state of good repair, continuing to work toward completion of a new $7.2 billion rail tunnel beneath the Hudson River, and selling New Jersey commuters on the merits of taking a bus or train instead of driving.
“I’m not telling anyone to get out of their cars,” Sarles said after his appointment was approved by the NJ Transit board. “I’m saying the transit system is good today and getting better. My hope is they will want to get out of their cars.”
Sarles was given a one-year employment contract renewable every year for five years. It will pay $252,000 this year with incentives that could earn him another $10,000.
He also will be provided with a car, an annual lump-sum IRA contribution of $5,000 and annual life insurance premiums of up to $7,100. He will be eligible for the other benefits that non-union management employees of NJ Transit receive.
Sarles was born in Passaic and raised in Nutley. He now lives in Philadelphia, although his contract requires him to move back to New Jersey within the year.
Sarles will earn less than the $289,000 a year Warrington was paid. His compensation package also will be below the ones paid to the top officials at other large transit agencies.
NJ Transit is the third-largest transit agency in the nation. The top officials at three of the other four of the top five agencies earn more than Sarles will.
The largest agency, New York’s Metropolitan Transit Authority, pays its executive director $265,000 in salary and a $60,000 living allowance per year. The fourth-largest transit agency, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, pays $300,000 plus a $60,000 living allowance. And the fifth-largest agency, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, pays $302,000 plus $30,000 a year toward retirement and $12,000 toward housing.
The only exception among the top five agencies is the second-largest, the Chicago Transit Authority, which pays just under $200,000 a year in salary to its top official.
Sarles’ appointment comes just two weeks before the agency’s board is scheduled to vote on a 2007-08 budget that will raise bus, train and light rail fares by an average of 9.6 percent.
“The onus is on us collectively here to prove to the customers that the value of the service we provide is worth the compensation,” said Kris Kolluri, state transportation commissioner and chairman of the NJ Transit board.
Warrington announced in January that he was resigning. He has said he will be starting a transportation and economic development consulting firm with Jamie Fox, deputy director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and Eric Shuffler, a former top aide in the McGreevey and Codey administrations.
Kolluri said the search commit tee appointed by Gov. Jon Corzine and chaired by former Gov. Jim Florio interviewed six candidates before settling on Sarles. Three of the six have had the top job at other major transit agencies, he said, and the others all had significant experience in senior management at port authorities or transit agencies.
Sarles is an engineer by profession. He worked at the Port Authority for 20 years before leaving for Amtrak in 1996. At Amtrak, he was a vice president who helped develop the high-speed rail program on the Northeast Corridor.
His appointment was praised yesterday by public officials and transit advocates.
“We are fortunate to have a talented and deeply experienced transportation professional of Rich’s caliber to lead NJ Transit,” Corzine said.
Because Sarles has been heavily involved in developing many of the most important programs at NJ Transit, his appointment was seen as a way to ensure continuity at the agency.
“His hiring sends the right signal that Transit will continue the work it has started,” said Damien Newton, New Jersey coordinator for the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, a public transit advocacy group.