The MARTA board of directors voted on leadership positions for 2025 and granted an ethics code waiver for another departing employee at the December board meeting on Thursday.
Beginning in January, Jennifer Ide, representing the City of Atlanta, will serve as Chair of the board; Al Pond, representing Fulton County, will serve as Vice Chair; Valencia Williamson, representing Clayton County, will serve as Secretary; and Jim Durrett, representing DeKalb County will serve as Treasurer. 2024 Chair of the Board Kathryn Powers, representing Clayton County, will serve as the Immediate Past Chair.
Stacy Blakley, who has served as a MARTA board representative for Fulton County since 2021, will be stepping down from the board.
“My hope is that whoever replaces me will continue to be an advocate for small businesses, for keeping people safe, especially our kids as they ride the system, and especially my people who are on South Fulton Parkway getting blown by at 70 mph by tractor trailers. And also as we focus, going forward, on transit equity,” Blakely said.
MARTA’s Chief Counsel, Peter Andrews, also announced that he will be leaving the agency. This departure comes after former Chief of Staff Melissa Mullinax left MARTA in October. His last day will be Dec. 12.
The MARTA board voted to grant a waiver for law firm Greenberg Traurig LLC to hire Andrews. The transit agency’s ethics rules prohibit companies with active contracts from hiring former employees for a six-month period after they depart from roles at MARTA.
Andrews worked at Greenberg Traurig before joining MARTA as Chief Counsel in 2022, and the law firm currently has active contracts with MARTA. This is the second ethics code waiver approved by the board in two months, following a vote in November to allow engineering firm HNTB to hire Mullinax.
The MARTA board also approved a 5 percent performance bonus for 2024 for Collie Greenwood at the end of his second year as General Manager and CEO of the transit agency.
Rail service changes
Beginning Monday, Dec. 16, MARTA will make changes to rail service in order to reduce wait times during peak hours from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays, Greenwood said at the Thursday meeting.
“By adding an additional train to each line, we are going to be able to bring our peak frequency from 12 minutes down to 10 minutes,” he said.
MARTA will be bringing in more operators and more vehicles to provide similar rail service improvements to the weekend schedule by summer 2025, Greenwood said.
Upcoming events
- On Thursday, Dec. 12, MARTA will hold an employee recognition day on Thursday, Dec. 12 in the atrium of the MARTA offices on Piedmont Rd. NE and a customer appreciation event at 3 p.m. at H.E. Holmes Station.
- The MARTA Accessibility Committee (MAC) meeting will be held on Tuesday, Jan. 14.
- The MARTA Riders’ Advisory Council will meet on Wednesday, Jan 15.
- The 2025 State of MARTA will be Jan. 30 at 8 a.m. at Lindbergh Station and will include a preview of the new electric vehicles for bus rapid transit (BRT).
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