The resignation of Harpal Kapoor as MDT director gave county manager Alina Hudak a golden opportunity to reform and make wholesale changes to the beleaguered agency.
Unfortunately, Ms. Hudak reverts to a page from the George Burgess playbook and places Assistant County Manager Ysela Llort in charge of MDT, papering her decision with the same old bureaucratic platitudes we have come to expect from the 29th floor at County Hall.
In a one page memorandum to county officials, Ms. Hudak only acknowledges that "MDT's business and financial management continues to disappoint the community" toward the end of her opening paragraph.
This is a severe understatement, showing us all that for Ms. Hudak, keeping up appearances is more important that accountability and facing tough challenges head on.
Ms. Hudak ends her missive stating that "[m]any challenges lie ahead for MDT, and strong management will be critical for the department's success."
Her idea of "strong management" is to appoint the person responsible for this fiasco to head the department. In this case, the cure is worse than the disease.
As the Assistant County Manager with oversight responsibilities for MDT, it is Ms. Llort who was "caught by surprise" at the actions of the FTA and has since last year been unable to fix the situation.
The same team that did not satisfy federal auditors and caused the financial meltdown at MDT is now expected to "develop an action plan to address deficiencies." What makes Ms. Hudak think that the outcome will be any different when the actors have not changed.
We are all aware that Ms. Hudak has stated previously her desire to stay with the County once a new mayor is elected.
However, Ms. Hudak has shown an unwillingness or inability to make the needed changes to County operations. When presented with such an opportunity, Ms. Hudak has once again disappointed, showing she is little more than "Burgess Lite."
County Executive Office Monitoring of Miami-Dade Transit
