LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority is restructuring to shrink what a consultant's report called a "top heavy" executive structure.
Longtime Chief Financial Officer Terry Matsumoto is out, but he will continue to work as CFO until May 18, according to Metro officials.
The number of executives who report directly to Chief Executive Officer Art Leahy will be reduced from 22 to 10 as a result of the changes.
Nalini Ahuja, who was executive director of the Office of Management & Budget, replaces Matsumoto in the top financial slot. Her new title is executive director of finance and management.
Ahuja has worked for Metro through her entire 28-year career, rising through the ranks from her first job as transportation analyst in 1986.
She was "instrumental in getting Metro out of the red on the budget a few years ago," according to Michael Cano, transportation deputy for Los Angeles County Supervisor, and Metro board member, Michael Antonovich.
Metro is governed by a board made up of elected officials from around its Los Angeles County service area.
Matsumoto played a leading role in securing federal funding for the authority's mammoth rail and highway improvement program involving $241 billion in projects through 2040. Matsumoto also has led the city's efforts to leverage $34.5 billion expected through Measure R, a half-cent sales tax that ends in 2029, to obtain matching federal funds.
The $45 billion taxable, direct-pay America Fast Forward bond program proposed by the Obama administration in 2013 grew out of an initiative begun by LA Metro.
Transportation officials could not point to anyone remaining at Metro with Matsumoto's expertise in working on the complex federal Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act loans that are a significant part of the federal funding grant agreements.
During his remaining time at Metro, Matsumoto is finishing up work on a TIFIA loan for the Metro's $6.3 billion Purple Line extension of its subway to the Westside, according to Marc Littman, a Metro spokesman.
The restructuring also claimed Doug Failing, who oversaw Metro's highway construction projects. Failing was the California Department of Transportation's director before he took the job at Metro. Failing's last day at Metro was Feb. 18.
Bryan Pennington, who oversaw construction of transit projects, took over Failing's duties when the highway and transit construction departments merged.
The changes in the executive structure, in addition to reducing bloat, are supposed to prime the authority to achieve goals promised to voters through Measure R, which includes building out the county's light rail system, and highway improvements, Cano said.
Metro traditionally only had one rail transit line under construction at a time; it now has five, Littman said.
He emphasized that the executive changes only impacted Metro's leadership and the authority still has 9,000 employees.
The people forced out "had a lot of talent, but we still have a vast reservoir of experienced people capable of accomplishing Metro's goals," Littman said.
In addition to its own staff, Littman said Metro also has many consultants who work on everything from bond measures to construction. He also emphasized that others on the financial team have experience in bond sales. Matsumoto ran the authority's bond program. Metro has $3.6 billion in long and short-term debt, but that figure does not include TIFIA loans.
"We still have great expertise in-house that is supplemented by highly specialized consultants who help us put together bond offerings and other financial items," Littman said.
The consultant's report presented to the board in late November 2013 that recommended combining departments and shrinking the number of direct executive reports to Leahy originated out of his employee review, Littman said.
While the consultant's report recommended merging departments and eliminating some positions, as the CEO Leahy was ultimately the person who made the decisions about who would stay and who would go.
The results of the restructuring and ability of the agency to meet its priorities could come into play when Leahy's contract comes up for renewal in April 2014.
