Daley Taps Ex-Housing Head to Lead Chicago Transit

CHICAGO - Chicago Mayor Richard Daley yesterday recommended Terry Peterson - the former chief executive officer of the Chicago Housing Authority - to lead the Chicago Transit Authority board following public finance banker Carole Brown's departure.

Daley appointed Peterson to the CTA board and recommended that the board elect him its next chairman. The City Council must approve his appointment to the board.

Peterson is a former council alderman who Daley tapped to manage the CHA in 2000 to oversee its $1.5 billion plan of transformation that included the demolition of crime-ridden high-rise buildings and their replacement with mixed-income projects. Peterson resigned in 2006 and is currently a vice president of government affairs at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago.

"Terry Peterson has shown himself to be a strong and creative manager in both the public and private sector. As we all know, a modern public transportation system is essential to the future of our state, our region and our city," Daley said in a statement. "Terry is the right person to lead the CTA in challenging economic times as it continues its focus on improving the quality of service it provides to riders day by day."

Brown announced her resignation last week after six years in the post so she could focus on her work as a banker at Siebert, Brandford Shank & Co.

The CTA faces a deficit in 2010 and has not ruled out service cuts or fare hikes. It had hoped that with a recent sales tax increase it could end its diversion of capital funds to pay for operations. But this year it will use $128.6 million of such funds for operations and its proposed 2010 budget relies on a similar level.

The agency operates the second largest transit system in the country with bus ridership of 328 million and rail ridership of 198 million annually, up 5.4% in 2008 from 2007.

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