Press Releases

For Immediate Release

New Management Team Takes Helm at Bay Area's Metropolitan Transportation Commission

CONTACT:

Brenda Kahn
510.817.5773
E-Mail: bkahn@mtc.ca.gov

OAKLAND, Calif., Jan. 9, 2001...A new era dawned this month at the San Francisco Bay Area's Metropolitan Transportation Commission when Steve Heminger took the reins as executive director and announced the promotion of two senior managers to share the deputy director slot that he vacated.

The role of deputy director for policy is being filled by Therese McMillan, while Ann Flemer has assumed the role of deputy director for operations. Both are longtime MTC employees who came to the agency in the 1980s and steadily worked their way up the organizational chart.

Most recently, McMillan was MTC's manager of Funding and External Affairs with a broad portfolio of duties that included oversight of the agency's grant programs, advocacy efforts in Sacramento and Washington, D.C., public involvement activities and community affairs. In her new capacity, McMillan will preside over these same areas – including the distribution of more than $1 billion a year in local, regional, state and federal funding among Bay Area transportation agencies and local jurisdictions – while also taking on oversight of the Planning and Finance/Accounting sections.

"Therese has established a great rapport with our state legislative and congressional delegations, and will continue to play an important liaison role with lawmakers," said Heminger. Noting that MTC is due to overhaul the Bay Area's Regional Transportation Plan in 2001, he added, "She's also shown an instinct for and commitment to public involvement, and will steer efforts at MTC to substantially increase citizen participation in our planning and funding decisions."

Flemer previously managed MTC's Allocations and Assistance Section and most recently served as manager of Transit Coordination and Access, a section of the agency that works to streamline information services and connections among the region's two dozen public transit operators and improve access for seniors, persons with disabilities and low-income persons. One of her key projects has been the design and implementation of TransLink®, a universal "smart card" ticket that will be a passport to all of the region's bus, train and ferry systems. MTC plans to launch the card on a trial basis this summer.

"With this new deputy director slot focused on operational projects, MTC is formalizing its transition from an agency that is largely focused on planning and funding to a customer-driven organization that now is also in the business of providing services that help travelers move throughout the region," said Heminger. Pointing out that TransLink® and other such regional customer-service projects usually require the cooperation of multiple outside agencies, he added, "Ann has the ability to bring all the players to the table and deliver tangible products to the public."

In her new capacity, Flemer will continue to preside over the transit program as well as direct MTC's Bridge and Highway Operations Section, which manages the Freeway Service Patrol tow truck service and the region's network of roadside call boxes, and which is coordinating a $1.5 billion program to upgrade five of the region's state-owned toll bridges. She also will oversee internal administration and information technology services for the agency.

McMillan, 42, came to MTC in 1984 with a B.S. degree in environmental policy and planning analysis from the University of California at Davis, and a joint master's degree in city planning/civil engineering science from U.C. Berkeley. A past president of the San Francisco Bay Area chapter of the Women's Transportation Seminar, McMillan chaired the statewide Regional Transportation Planning Agencies group in 1989—99, and is a member of the Transportation Research Board's Committee on Intergovernmental Relations and Policy Processes.

Flemer, 42, came to MTC with a B.A. in urban studies from the University of California at Los Angeles and a master's degree from U.C. Berkeley's graduate program in city and regional planning. Flemer chaired the National Coalition for Paratransit and served on the board of the California Association for Coordinated Transportation. She is currently a member of the Access Exchange International Board of Directors and the American Public Transportation Association's Access to Jobs Task Force.

The changes in MTC's leadership were triggered in September 2000 when Executive Director Lawrence D. Dahms, 65, announced plans to retire in December 2000 after 23 years in the top spot. In November 2000, MTC's commissioners appointed Heminger, 41, to replace Dahms.

Now in its 30th year, MTC was created by the state Legislature to plan, finance and coordinate transportation for the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area.

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Note: Photos of Steve Heminger, Ann Flemer and Therese McMillan can be downloaded at: "http://www.mtc.ca.gov/photos2.htm" .

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