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It was a breath of fresh air to hear Tri-Rail’s new Executive Director, David Dech, at his first Board meeting last month. Unfortunately, that fresh air was tainted by the lingering stink of Teresa Moore and Diane Hernandez Del Calvo who are still receiving paychecks from the taxpayers.
It would be bad enough if it were just Moore and Hernandez Del Calvo leaching off the taxpayers but, there are rumors that the ousted Executive Director, Steven Abrams is making a bid to get back on Tri-Rail’s governing Board by replacing Hal Valeche of Palm Beach County.
In 2018, Steven Abrams was termed out as Palm Beach County commissioner and with nowhere to go and no experience in management or railroading, he was able to maneuver himself into the position of Tri-Rail’s Executive Director.
It is difficult to count how many failures Tri-Rail endured under Mr. Abrams’ tenure, but it’s safe to say the failures far outweighed the successes. His two primary goals were to secure additional funding for Tri-Rail and to start service to downtown Miami. He failed miserably on both counts.
Even after the Miami Central cover-up was discovered, Mr. Abrams doubled down and committed at a public Board meeting to starting the service on November 1st of this year. It is hard to say whether that was a last-ditch effort to save his job, an attempt to make any new agency leader look bad or simply sheer incompetence on his part. However, based on his past track record, I assume it was the latter.
The problems getting into downtown Miami appear numerous due to years of mismanagement and poor planning at the agency, not to mention the cover-ups which the governing Board exposed resulting in the ousting of Abrams. The ousting of Abrams and appointment of Mr. Dech was the first step but the Board can’t stop there. Ms. Moore is just as responsible for the mess the agency is in as Abrams and the Board needs to terminate Moore’s contract as well.
Abrams, Moore and Hernandez Del Calvo dug a deep hole for Tri-Rail’s new Executive Director to work the agency out of and due to Moore, Mr. Dech will have to do most of the heavy lifting himself. Moore’s heavy hand outside her scope of responsibility into every business decision of the agency resulted in the competent leadership at the agency fleeing to better opportunities over the last several years. For Mr. Dech to succeed, Moore and Abrams need to be out of the picture. Abrams’ presence on the governing Board or, any leadership position with Tri-Rail in combination with Moore’s meddling inside the agency would be a detriment to Mr. Dech and the future success of Tri-Rail.
The Board discovered the Miami-Central problems and cover-ups that resulted in the ousting of Abrams but, they were most likely not the only failures hidden from the Board. I wouldn’t be surprised if Mr. Dech has to report more hidden failures from the past in the near future. Having Abrams back on the governing Board will only serve to hinder Mr. Dech’s progress as he would have to report on these failures to the person responsible for the failures.
As a perennial politician, Mr. Abrams assumes he is due a position on the Board but failing as Executive Director should not be rewarded by such an appointment. Instead of Abrams, Palm Beach County should consider the appointment of a Board member that better reflects the average Tri-Rail rider. Palm Beach County needs to follow the lead of Broward and Miami-Dade and commit to filling any open Board appointment with a minority applicant who can better relate and respond to the needs of the Tri-Rail riders.
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