CTA Chair Carole Brown and CTA Board Vice Chair resigns!

Certainly out of the blue and an unfortunate loss. I thought Carole Brown was a good CTA chair even starting her own blog to address concerns about the CTA on the subjects of service and even the financial picture of the authority!

CTA Board Chairwoman Carole Brown and her co-hort, Vice Chair Susan Leonis, resigned today, creating a leadership vacuum at the chronically-troubled mass transit agency.

The tandem resignations leave former Aviation Commissioner Richard Rodriguez — newly-appointed CTA president with no mass transit experience — to face the financial crisis without the CTA board’s most savvy members.
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Brown, 45, is a former senior vice-president for now-defunct Lehman Brothers who used the municipal finance expertise she gained at Harvard and Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management to put together the bond deal that helped the CTA solve its pension crisis.

She was appointed by Mayor Daley in September, 2003, and re-appointed to a term that expires in 2013. Leonis, a close friend of first lady Maggie Daley, was appointed to the CTA board by Gov. Edgar in 1996.

Sources said the demise of Lehman Brothers played a role in Brown’s exit.

After a brief stint at Mesirow Financial, Brown landed at Siebert Brandford Shank LLC, a municipal finance firm that demands more of her time.

“Ever since she started, the CTA has had one crisis after another. There’s no money. It took years to a get a bail-out through Springfield. She spends a lot of time at the CTA,” said a source familiar with the explanation Brown gave to Daley Tuesday.

“Lehman Brothers was a huge multi-national firm with tens of thousands of employees. This is a much smaller firm. She just doesn’t have that kind of time anymore.”

Tribune has Brown's comments:

"I think six years of service is a good amount of time and provides an opportunity for a change in leadership," Brown said. The CTA is facing "major challenges and will benefit from a fresh perspective."

Brown said she has had "a pretty rough year with [her former employer] Lehman Brothers going bankrupt."
The departure of Ron Huberman as the transit agency's president had no impact on her decision to leave, she said.

But Brown added that "Ron and I had a simpatico that I missed" when Richard Rodriguez took over as CTA president.

The transit agency's anticipated financial problems next year also aren't a factor in her departure, said Brown, noting she had been through several tough financial years during her time as CTA board president. And the city's bid for the 2016 Olympics played no role in her decision to leave, she said.

So who might foot the bill to fill Brown's shoes?

UPDATE 8:52 PM Greg Hinz offers one answer to the next CTA Chair:

There was no immediate word on a replacement for Ms. Brown, though some sources speculated the post will be offered to former alderman and Chicago Housing Authority Board Chairman Terry Peterson if he is interested.

Mayor Daley really does just shift people around!

Also looking at the comments at Tribune or in the Hinz blog post, it seems no one is the least bit interested in this piece of news. They either don't care or they say that she doesn't even ride public transit!

BTW, also check out the comments at the Sun-Times as well!