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Interim GM Departs Connect Transit; Fares Remain Suspended

Connect Transit will undergo yet another leadership change as interim General Manager Martin Glaze is leaving the public transit agency.

Glaze has accepted a position in the Houston area. His last day with Connect Transit will be Oct. 31.

Connect Transit board chairman Ryan Whitehouse said though he was caught off guard by Glaze’s resignation, he wasn’t surprised. “He’s a real asset to the system,” said Whitehouse, and given Glaze’s “experience and knowledge of transit,” it came as no shock that he’d be approached by other companies. 

Glaze’s departure comes just two months after the resignation of Connect Transit’s previous GM, Isaac Thorne, who left the agency in August to become director of transit for Knoxville Area Transit in Tennessee.

Whitehouse said that high-level departures are the price the agency might have to pay for its success.

“Isaac and Martin are very skilled, but I think that’s part of the reason they were hunted down by people. When a system like Connect Transit has so many great things going for them, companies and other systems are going to look at them and say there’s a reason for that,” Whitehouse said. “And it’s usually the staff.”

Glaze will be replaced as interim GM by former Normal City Manager Mark Peterson, who when he was with the town, served on the Connect Transit board. In a virtual meeting on Tuesday night, the board  voted unanimously appoint Peterson to the position.

Whitehouse said Peterson was his first choice.

“At the end of the day, Mark Peterson, really, for me, brings all of the things I was looking for in an interim. He understands the system, understands transit, and is connected to the community.”

Peterson’s position is contracted to last through January, with the possibility of an extension. But Whitehouse stressed that Peterson, who retired in 2018 after a 30-year career in government, will not be coming on in a permanent capacity.

Whitehouse said that when it comes to the next GM, he’s open to the idea of promoting from within Connect Transit.

“If there’s someone that can take on that role in the next three months, I’d be happy to entertain giving that opportunity to someone,” he said.

Fare suspension

In other business, the board voted to extend Connect Transit’s current fare suspension through the winter. The agency began offering free rides on both its fixed routes and Connect Mobility paratransit services as part of its response to the pandemic.

Glaze told the board that Connect Transit staff had initially recommended extending the fare suspension on a month-to-month basis.

“But since we’re going into the winter months, we do not see anything major changing that would leave staff to recommend that we go back to fares,”  he said.

Glaze said the agency plans to reassess fares in the spring. 

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Sarah Nardi is a WGLT reporter. She previously worked for the Chicago Reader covering Arts & Culture.
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