MBTA chief financial officer stepping down
Jonathan Davis, a longtime MBTA employee who served as its acting general manager for a time, plans to step down this fall from his position as chief financial officer.
In an interview after a meeting Monday, Davis said the decision for him to retire was his own and said there are a few projects he wants to advance before he leaves.
"I'm going to look for the next great adventure in my life and career. I've spent 20 years plus here at the MBTA. I'd like to think I left it in pretty good financial shape," said Davis. Davis said, "I know we had our difficulties and challenges over the winter, but I think from a financial perspective where we can make payroll every week and pay for our portion of the capital program that I leave it in good hands."
The transit agency over the years has been heavily reliant on taxpayer subsidies and is looking at a state-of-good-repair backlog of $7.3 billion, but Davis said the MBTA has been able to consistently make payroll and contribute the majority of funding toward state of good repair projects.
Davis was named the acting general manager of the MBTA in August 2011, and spent much of the next year steering an involved and lengthy discussion about fare hikes and proposed service cuts – including to the bus route he rides every day from his home in Medford.
"I'm a daily bus rider and I anticipate to continue to be a patron of the T," Davis said after his retirement was announced at a MBTA Fiscal and Management Control Board meeting on Monday.
A fare hike combined with a pool of other money allowed the MBTA to balance its books that year. Beverly Scott took over as general manager in December 2012.
In a memo to T employees last Friday, MBTA Interim General Manager Frank DePaola and MBTA Chief Administrator Brian Shortsleeve wrote that Davis had "decided to take his well-earned retirement."
Before he leaves, Davis is planning to work on issuing MBTA bonds to fund capital projects and to work on securing financing to implement positive train control, a safety measure, on the MBTA's commuter rail.
"It's been a true honor, and I've enjoyed it," said Davis, who thanked several people including "all 11 general managers that I've worked for – and one of those was myself."
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