LA Metro CEO Washington To Step Down

Washington will leave Metro this spring. Photo courtesy of Metro

Phillip A. Washington, CEO of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) is stepping down in May after six years.

Washington oversaw up to $20 billion in capital construction projects. During his tenure, voters in 2016 passed Measure M, the largest transportation investment ballot measure in North America. It is a one-half cent sales tax that extended Measure R indefinitely and raises about $860 million a year.

In announcing the impending departure Feb. 3, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti (D) stated: “Phil Washington has been a visionary leader, reimagining our transit network and steering our region toward an era of generational growth and lasting progress. With Phil at the helm, Metro had a clear direction, strong steward, and champion for Measure M. He leaves this agency much better than he found it, with an expanding public transportation system that remains a force for sustainability, equity, jobs, workforce development and shared prosperity across the L.A. area.”

Washington informed Metro that he would not seek renewal of his contract that expires in May, Metro stated.

Washington created the Office of Extraordinary Innovation and oversaw the pursuit of a variety of intelligent transportation projects, including Mobility-As-A-Service apps.

Washington became one of the ENR Top Newsmakers of 2013 for his management of the $6.5-billion FasTracks transit construction program as general manager of Denver's Regional Transportation District.

In Denver, he created the Workforce Initiative Now that helped disadvantaged residents get training on rail projects in their communities.

The decorated Army veteran oversaw similar efforts at Metro, such as the SEED Transportation School of Los Angeles County, Workforce Initiative Now (WIN), the Metro Leadership Academy, the ENO Multi-Agency Exchange Program and the creation of the Women and Girls Governing Council.

“It has been my distinct pleasure and absolute honor to serve and lead Metro’s nearly 11,000 employees for the last six years,” said Washington. “I leave with great satisfaction knowing that working together we have improved mobility and increased access to opportunity for all residents of L.A. County, and weathered the most devastating health crisis of the past century.”

Aileen Cho, ENR's senior transportation editor, is a native of Los Angeles and recovering New Yorker. She studied English and theater at Occidental College, where a reporter teaching the one existing journalism course encouraged her to apply for the LA Times Minority Editing Training Program. Her journalism training led to her first stories about transportation, working as a cub reporter with the Greenwich Time. Her work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times and New York Times. Many of her experiences with engineers and contractors have inspired material for her alternative theater productions way, way off Broadway. For ENR, Aileen has traveled the world, clambering over bridges in China, touring an airport in Abu Dhabi and descending into dark subway tunnels in New York City. She is a regular at transportation conferences, where she finds that airport and mass transit engineers really know how to have fun. Aileen is always eager to hop on another flight because there are so many interesting projects and people, and she gets tired of throwing her cats off her computer in her home office in Long Beach, California. She is a very conflicted Mets/Dodgers fan.