LEWISVILLE, Texas — Denton County Transportation Authority CEO Raymond Suarez has resigned, effective March 31.
The Denton Record-Chronicle reports the authority board of directors unanimously accepted the resignation after two hours in closed session and named Paul Cristina, currently deputy CEO, as interim CEO. Suarez did not respond to the newspaper’s request for comment.
Suarez joined the agency as chief operating officer in 2014 and became CEO in 2018. In a press release, he was credited with unifying relationships with the major Dallas and Fort Worth-area transit agencies, Dallas Area Rapid Transit and Trinity Metro, and with helping arrange an agreement for a joint facility to support operations of DCTA’s A-Train and DART’s Silver Line.
The agency operates the 21-mile A-Train commuter service between Denton and Carrollton, Texas, where it connects with DART, as well as bus and on-demand van transit services.
The board will discuss plans to launch a search for a new CEO at its March 24 meeting.
When he got his 2 year extension in June 2020, they gave him a 9 months pay for early termination clause.
Since his contract was up once again, (June 2022) it sounds like they couldn’t come to terms and the closed session was about how to deal with his severance.
When you renew a contract for 2 years with a 9 month severance clause, it means there were some fundamental issues going on.
I can only speculate, but it appears they were some differences of leadership going on but they didn’t want to have to search for a new CEO during Covid. So they kicked the can down the road for 2 years and he wanted a severance clause in case covid ended before his contract did.
Paul Cristina, the deputy CEO has only been there 5 months (he came from BNSF), so once again, I think they were keeping Suarez around to keep the seat warm and prep Cristina for just this event.
I could be wrong, but from the outside looking in, this is what it looks like.