CHICAGO — Ald. Bennett Lawson was desperate to have the Belmont Red Line station cleaned up when he tried — again — to get the attention of CTA President Dorval Carter Jr. in April.
One of the busiest stations north of the Loop had a pigeon problem and it “was getting out of control” — to the point that bird feces covered sections of the station. So the 44th Ward alderman emailed Carter and copied Mayor Brandon Johnson.
“Attached is my latest attempt to meet with you at the Belmont Red Line station in the 44th Ward,” Lawson wrote in an April 18 email reviewed by Block Club Chicago. Lawson added that he and his predecessor, Tom Tunney, had requested meetings with Carter for “many years.”
In his April 22 response, Carter said he had just visited the Belmont Red Line station. He said the CTA was already making many of the improvements Lawson was requesting. Carter downplayed most of the alderman’s other concerns.
Carter ended his letter by saying he had met previously with Tunney and would schedule a walk-through meeting with Lawson.
Two more weeks passed before Carter met Lawson at the Belmont station — after the transit leader returned from a six-day convention in Portland, Oregon.
The sequence of events wasn’t unusual. The Portland trip was one of many Carter took during the past year, when he scheduled more time traveling the world than visiting the system he leads.
From the end of May 2023 to spring 2024, as CTA riders had to cope with frequent delays and filthy conditions, Carter spent nearly 100 days out of town at conferences, some overseas, his schedule shows.
Most of Carter’s trips between June 2023 and May 2024 were for events related to the American Public Transportation Association, a nonprofit advocacy group he chaired in 2022 and 2023. Carter spent a week in Pittsburgh and another in Orlando, six days in Puerto Rico and five days in Washington, D.C. He also took trips to Spain, New Zealand and Australia.
In total, Carter was out of town for 97 of the 345 days Block Club reviewed, according to his schedule. That means he spent 28 percent of that period outside of Chicago.
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The totals include weekends. A CTA spokesperson said serving as president is a 24-hour job with “no true disconnect from the agency” even for personal time off.
During that same period, Carter scheduled just nine field visits to CTA train stations and bus terminals.
Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25th) said Carter should be spending more time at CTA facilities in Chicago’s neighborhoods.
Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25th) speaks at the special City Council meeting calling for his censure on April 1, 2024. Credit: Colin Boyle/Block Club Chicago
“I think these trips are excessive, and it looks like they’re taking his time away from doing field visits, engaging in conversation with the community and overall operations,” said Sigcho-Lopez, one of the mayor’s top allies in the City Council. “I am not saying there shouldn’t be any collaboration with other cities, but the bulk of time for the president of the CTA should be spent on the ground with the agency here.”
As one of Johnson’s leading council critics, Ald. Raymond Lopez (15th) often disagrees with Sigcho-Lopez — but not on the issue of Carter’s travel.
It makes sense that Carter would take frequent trips to Washington, D.C., to lobby for federal dollars for the CTA, Lopez said. But the alderman found the number of Carter’s trips unsettling.
Ald. Raymond Lopez (15th) holds the rules of orders and procedure at a City Council meeting on May 22, 2024. Credit: Colin Boyle/Block Club Chicago
“I am surprised that about one-third of his time is spent jet-setting across the globe,” Lopez said. “It begs the question: Are we getting what we paid for?”
Lopez said he finds Carter’s travel especially troubling because Carter schedules so few stops at CTA facilities. At the bare minimum, field visits could help boost employee morale, Lopez said.
“I would expect more visits because it benefits everyone,” Lopez said.
Johnson’s office declined to comment on Carter’s travels. The mayor has supported Carter despite calls for new leadership at the CTA from alderpeople, transit advocates and the editorial pages of the Sun-Times, Tribune and Crain’s Chicago Business in recent months.
Mayor Brandon Johnson shakes hands with CTA President Dorval Carter on the platform as the Damen CTA Green Line station was unveiled near the United Center on Aug. 5, 2024. Credit: Colin Boyle/Block Club Chicago
Carter said his travel outside Chicago enables him to serve the CTA and its customers better. He characterized criticism of his travels as personal attacks.
“Serving as CTA President is my number one priority,” Carter said in a written statement to Block Club. “Any statement or implication to the contrary, suggesting that business travel has in any way impeded my ability to lead CTA, is not only wrongheaded and patently unfair, but egregiously misguided and ignores the value of understanding our industry on a global level.”
When traveling, Carter attends CTA meetings virtually and is available to his staff “at all hours, even remotely,” he said.
“I have made personal sacrifices for this job and the privilege of serving as APTA Chair — but my work with APTA has never come at the expense of CTA,” Carter said.
Australia And New Zealand
Carter’s extensive travels during the past year came as riders grew frustrated over inconsistent service, dirty trains and buses and crime on the CTA. The City Council passed an ordinance in October that mandated Carter make quarterly appearances at council hearings.
Riders, transit advocates and elected officials have ripped Carter for not doing more to fix the system — and for hardly ever riding trains or buses himself.
Carter has touted gradual improvements while blasting his critics.
And the CTA has repeatedly defended how Carter spends his time on the job, saying he makes many “unscheduled visits” to train stops and bus facilities. Any characterization of Carter conducting few site visits over the past year is a “misrepresentation” of his involvement, a CTA spokesperson said.
Ald. Scott Waguespack (32nd) shakes hands with CTA President Dorval Carter at City Hall during the first quarterly Council hearing with the transportation leader, on Feb. 27, 2024. Credit: Colin Boyle/Block Club Chicago
Yet the agency has been reluctant to produce records showing what Carter does day to day.
Starting in fall 2023, Block Club submitted three public records requests for Carter’s schedule. But the agency’s freedom of information officers routinely disregarded deadlines mandated by state law and ignored multiple follow-up inquiries.
In December, Block Club reported the CTA’s failure to respond to the public access counselor, an official in the Illinois Attorney General’s Office. The public access counselor helps resolve or mediate disputes concerning the state’s open-records laws.
But the CTA also ignored inquiries from the public access counselor’s office. In March, the public access counselor issued a binding opinion finding the CTA violated the Illinois Freedom of Information Act and should immediately respond to Block Club’s requests.
The CTA continued to delay, ignoring an updated request for Carter’s schedule in May. The public access counselor again ordered the CTA to comply with the law. The agency eventually produced the schedule — more than a month and a half after Block Club asked for it.
Even then, the records were not complete or entirely accurate.
For instance, between Aug. 2 and Aug. 15, 2023, APTA took a delegation of transit leaders to Australia and New Zealand.
But this trip doesn’t appear on Carter’s schedule — though APTA’s final report of the event features a quote from him and a photograph showing him and other delegates in front of a zero-emission bus in Auckland, New Zealand.
CTA President Dorval Carter Jr. (center) photographed last August in front of a zero-emission bus in Auckland, New Zealand, with other delegates as part of a two-week study mission with the nonprofit American Public Transportation Association. Credit: Screenshot from American Public Transportation Association’s 2023 report.
A CTA spokesperson said the schedule omitted the trip to Australia and New Zealand because of a “clerical error.”
Carter discussed his role with APTA at an August 2023 CTA board meeting, when he talked about his time in Australia, including a visit to the state-of-the-art control center operated by Sydney Trains. Carter said he wanted to use this center as a blueprint for the CTA’s planned new control center on the West Side.
Amy Thompson, a spokeswoman for APTA, said the chair of the nonprofit doesn’t receive a salary, stipend or compensation. APTA does cover the chair’s travel when it’s “official business of APTA.”
Thompson didn’t answer questions about how much Carter has been reimbursed for his trips.
“Carter is one of the most-accomplished leaders in the US public transportation industry,” Thompson said in a statement. “His vast experience at both the local and federal levels, in multiple leadership roles, have enabled him to address the myriad challenges facing the public transit industry such as securing federal funding, system modernization and strategic planning.”
“Make no mistake, President Carter puts the CTA first and foremost.”
Still, these trips often conflicted with employee events in Chicago. The agency held ceremonies for “First Year Operator Graduates” while Carter was in Puerto Rico. He missed a “Diversity Program Event” while traveling in Spain. And he skipped several “Employee Appreciation” events while he was in Australia and New Zealand.
Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25th) during a press conference with Discount Mall vendors April 14, 2023. Credit: Madison Savedra/Block Club Chicago
Field Visits
Some Chicago officials say Carter’s travel touches a nerve because they don’t see him in their communities enough.
“We need people in leadership that are connected with people’s needs,” Sigcho-Lopez said. “I would like to see more field visits from not just Carter but all CEOs of our sister agencies. … But in this case, I think the leader of the CTA needs to involve himself more.”
It isn’t a novel idea that the leader of a transit system would regularly visit stations and bus stops, said Audrey Wennink, senior director of transportation with the nonprofit Metropolitan Planning Council.
In the nation’s capital, Randy Clark, general manager and CEO of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, is an active user of the system and often posts about his trips on social media. This effort has improved trust in the system, and ridership has recovered quickly from the pandemic, Wennink said.
Former CTA President Frank Kruesi was also seen at stations frequently. Kruesi — a political insider who faced some criticism for how he managed the CTA — rode the system and occasionally picked up trash during his commute.
Carter’s schedule offers little evidence that he uses public transit or makes regular site visits.
Carter scheduled trips on the CTA about twice a month between June 2023 and May 2024, but each of them was a roughly 10-minute train ride: a single stop from CTA headquarters to City Hall and then back.
Block Club previously reported that Carter used his CTA-issued card for rides just 24 times between 2021 and 2022. CTA records show the number of times Carter swiped his work pass increased to 58 in 2023, according to a July op-ed piece in the Tribune.
The CTA chief made few other visits to CTA stations — just nine in the year examined by Block Club — according to his schedule. These visits included press events such as the reopening of the Yellow Line, promotions of holiday-themed trains and a walk-through of the Racine Blue Line station with federal transportation officials.
CTA spokespeople won’t say how frequently Carter rides the system or visits its facilities.
But they said Carter focuses on overseeing the entire agency while other staff keep track of conditions at CTA stations. For example, the day-to-day monitoring and inspection of CTA facilities is the responsibility of management and employees “carrying out janitorial duties on behalf of the Rail Station Management and Facilities Maintenance departments,” a CTA spokesperson said.
Carter holds daily “flash meetings” with executives from each CTA department, who update him on operations that include vehicle defects, cleaning and maintenance, staffing, safety issues and service delays.
“President Carter will provide feedback to executives and management regarding observations and/or any concerns he notices at CTA facilities as part of his time and travel out on the system,” a CTA spokesperson said.
Carter acknowledged at an August board meeting that his “special skills” weren’t “fixing broken buses” or “rebuilding tracks” but instead focused on “getting money.” This, he said, was the reason why the Red Line is getting an expansion.
But many alderpeople say they hear from Carter as infrequently as they see him in their neighborhoods.
CTA officials are seeking input for a program that would add art to the 18th Street Pink Line station. The new art would have to go with an existing mural by the late Francisco Mendoza (pictured). Credit: Provided/Chicago Transit Authority
Sigcho-Lopez said he regularly talks with the CTA’s intergovernmental affairs staff, but since he joined the council five years ago, he’s never met one-on-one with Carter.
Sigcho-Lopez isn’t the only one. Carter confers regularly with the mayor’s team, but in the 345 days examined by Block Club, Carter met with alderpeople, state legislators and other local government officials on just 16 days. That includes meetings with six alderpeople, several state legislators, Sen. Tammy Duckworth, Rep. Mike Quigley and Gov. JB Pritzker.
Sigcho-Lopez said Carter would benefit from more communication with local officials. He also urged Carter to show up to occasional neighborhood events, such as the community meeting when the CTA was seeking input for a mural at the 18th Street Pink Line Station.
“The way this president communicates with the alderpeople is indicative of how disconnected he is from the day-to-day operation,” Sigcho-Lopez said.
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