Cap Metro Board Taking Shape

The nominations committee of the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization has recommended that community activist Frank Fernández, transportation and land use consultant John H. Langmore, and Austin Mayor Pro Tem Mike Martinez fill the organization’s three slots on the Capital Metro board of directors.

CAMPO – the group of elected officials that drives transportation planning in Central Texas – has an extra slot to fill thanks to legislation passed this spring by the board chair, Austin state Sen. Kirk Watson, that restructured the board. The three slots are one more than CAMPO currently has. The recommendations ultimately must be approved by the CAMPO board, an action that must take place before the end of the year.

CAMPO’s current representatives on the board are John Treviño and Mike Manor. Treviño, who has suffered health problems of late, did not reapply for the position. Manor, competing in a field of eight, was soundly rejected for reappointment, finishing seventh on a scored rating by the nominations committee. Treviño’s and Manor’s terms expire Dec. 31.

The new board structure requires that one of CAMPO’s slots be devoted to an elected official, one be someone with at least 10 years of executive management experience, and the third have 10 years as an accounting or financial professional.

Fernández, who got the financial slot, had the advantage of being a known quantity to CAMPO – he currently sits on its Transit Working Group, an advisory body. In addition to having worked on Wall Street for Salo­mon Smith Barney back in the 1990s, he has a lengthy activist résumé in Austin with HousingWorks, PeopleFund, and currently as executive director of Green Doors, an affordable housing nonprofit.

Langmore, in the executive experience slot, also has served time in local activist trenches. The former Caterpillar Inc. executive and former policy director for the Texas House of Representatives Trans-portation Com­mittee currently sits on the boards of Envision Cen­tral Texas, the Alliance for Public Transporta­tion, and the Congress for the New Urbanism.

Both Fernández and Langmore assured the committee they would cut back on their other community activities to focus their attention on Cap Metro.

The choice of Martinez for the elected-official slot opens up another slot for a city of Austin appointment. Martinez and Council Member Chris Riley currently represent Austin on the board. Riley’s appointment does not expire until July. With Martinez moving over to the CAMPO slot, the council must make another pick that, according to the legislation, may or may not be an elected official. Committee member and Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell, before leaving the meeting early, indicated that the council’s pick likely will not be a current council member.

The Next Board of Directors?

* recommended, pending approval by CAMPO board

1) Mike Martinez would vacate to become CAMPO appointee.

2) John Cowman has vacated to become small-cities appointee.

3) Margaret Gómez is resigning.

This article appears in November 6 • 2009.