MARTA Board selects Keith Parker to be new GM

type='html'>The MARTA board of directors Thursday picked Keith Parker, who is currently the chief of VIA Metropolitan Transit in San Antonio to become the new general manager for the transit system when Beverly Scott leaves at the end of the year for a similar position with the Boston transit system.

MARTA Board Chairman Fred Daniels said Parker has a reputation for working with Republicans as the general manager in San Antonia. He hopes that will help in negotiations with Georgia’s GOP-dominated Legislature, which provides no funding for MARTA.

Keith Parker

“He has worked well with both the business community and the political community,” Daniels said. “He has a track record in San Antonio of working with both Republicans and Democrats. Same thing in Charlotte.”

Almost immediately after news of Parker’s selection broke in Atlanta, the San Antonio Express-News reported on its website that Parker plans to meet with the VIA Board of Trustees at a special meeting next week.  

Parker was hired at age 32 to head the Vancouver, Wash., transit system, but he has never run a system as large and complex as MARTA, the ninth-largest public transportation system in America. Parker now is 46. After Vancouver, he has worked in Charlotte and now San Antonio.

In Atlanta he likely would have a better compensation package from the $310,000 he made this year in San Antonio. Scott’s current total compensation is more than $370,000 a year.

Daniels said the board would be negotiating a contract with Parker and the compensation was still under negotiation.

Parker beat out finalist Steve Bland, the transit chief in Pittsburgh. Both were among seven candidates interviewed by the board search committee from a short list compiled by the executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles.

For a more complete story from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, go here.