Health & Fitness
Mike Donahue: Wanna Run A Railroad? Now's Your Chance
A task force is seeking candidates to replace Kane County's current appointee to the Metra Commuter Rail Board of Directors.
If you’ve ever looked at government and said, “That’s no way to run a railroad,” now is your chance to try it, literally.
A task force formed by is seeking candidates to replace McConnaughay’s current appointee to the Metra Commuter Rail Board of Directors, Carol Van Overmeiren. Van Overmeiren was appointed to the Metra Board in 2008 and continues to serve in that position.
However, in the wake of deceased Metra Executive Director Phil Pagano’s embezzlement scandal, Metra Board members have come under fire for their oversight, or lack thereof, of Metra’s professional management; and more recently for spending millions on legal and consulting fees to investigate how Pagano managed to steal $475,000 from their agency.
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McConnaughay has joined calls from throughout the state for the resignation of the entire Metra Board. With regard to Van Overmeiren, McConnaughay has asked for her resignation and is proactively seeking her replacement in consultation with the task force.
The task force is made up of four Kane County Board members who serve on the county’s Transportation Committee and who also represent districts that host Metra facilities. These include Drew Frasz, Elburn; Cathy Hurlbut, Elgin; Jesse Vazquez, Montgomery; and myself from Geneva.
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The task force met earlier this week to review the roles and responsibilities of Metra Board members and to develop criteria for evaluating the new appointee. The task force opted to open consideration to all interested candidates, but anyone making an application must submit a resume and a cover letter that describes the relevancy of their prior experience to the position.
In addition, the task force is interested to know that candidates would be committed to the job, have the time and flexible schedule necessary to attend all of the meetings (most of which are in downtown Chicago), and be prepared to accept little pay and few or no benefits.
Resumes and cover letters must be submitted to the Office of Kane County Chairman Karen McConnaughay no later than June 10. The task force will meet again on June 16 to evaluate the applications.
