Texas Transit Association

Linda S. Watson, General Manager of the Corpus Christi Regional Transportation Authority, was selected Thursday, April 22, from among five finalists to become the next executive director of Central Florida’s bus agency Lynx.
Lynx’s board of directors chose her largely because of her track record as an outgoing and effective ambassador for public transportation in Texas.

Texas Transit Association: “Should Linda take this position, then it will be Texas’ loss and Florida’s gain. We wish her the best. She will be missed.”

Florida newspaper article on following page.

*Strong leader tapped to run Lynx*
The board chose the leader of the bus agency in Corpus Christi, Texas. Contract talks are next.

By Scott Powers | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted April 23, 2004

Linda S. Watson clearly gets around town as general manager of Corpus Christi’s bus agency, and that’s exactly what Lynx wants.

Given Lynx’s longtime public image problems, along with its need to woo money from local politicians and support from business and civic leaders, the board wanted the next executive director to be someone who is not shy.

“One of the things I talked with the five candidates about is, ‘You’re going to have to be the face of this agency probably for the next five years. The board can’t do that,’ ” said Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer, a Lynx board member. “At this point I think she is more capable of doing that.”

If Watson and Lynx can settle on a contract, she will become the agency’s first female executive director, succeeding interim executive director Bill Schneeman. He replaced another temporary chief, Howard Tipton Sr. Lynx has been without a permanent director since January 2003.

“It’s an honor and a privilege,” Watson said of her selection. “I’m just also thrilled.”

Her salary will be part of contract negotiations. When Byron Brooks left last year, his salary was $144,777. Watson is paid about $125,000 in Texas, said Mike Rendon, chairman of the Corpus Christi RTA board.

She might not be able to start for 90 days. Her contract in Texas calls for that much notice, though she said she would talk with her board there about leaving early.

Watson has been general manager of the Corpus Christi Regional Transportation Authority since 1996. Before that, she was assistant general manager of the Fort Worth bus system, where she had steadily worked up through the ranks after starting as an administrative assistant in 1982.

In Corpus Christi, Watson oversees a bus agency less than a quarter of the size of Lynx, with a $17 million annual operating budget. Lynx’s annual budget is about $75 million, and it serves some 70,000 passengers per weekday in Seminole, Orange and Osceola counties.

She was selected over Steven W. Epps, 49, director of bus operations in Boston; Joseph F. Marie, 41, assistant general manager for rail operations in Minneapolis; Robert L. Mowry, 55, deputy administrator for transit operations in Baltimore; and Joyce F. Olson, 55, chief executive officer of the bus system in Everett, Wash.

Watson convinced Lynx’s board that she helped turn the Corpus Christi bus system from a struggling, image-plagued agency in the mid-1990s into a national model that won her recognition in national organizations.

“She’s done well,” Rendon said. “She works very good with local leaders here, a good politician, and very good in the transit industry.”

Rendon said Watson ran into recent strong disagreements with board members over employee relations, particularly as she and the board tried to cut the budget to make up for declining income. But Rendon said that in the end, Watson took board orders well.

Lynx board member Atlee Mercer seemed to anticipate such tension. Watson was not his first choice, though in the end he agreed with Orange County Chairman Rich Crotty, Dyer and George Gilhooley, interim District 5 secretary of the Florida Department of Transportation, who wanted her most.

“Linda is a very careful planning individual. She is a figure-it-out, nail-the-plan and execute-that-plan person,” Mercer said. “I’m not sure if that level of absolute decision-making will sit well with this board. She is a very, very strong individual. . . . That can wear thin over a long period of time.”

To Lynx’s board, Watson also showed a sense of humor. When the fifth board member, Carlton Henley, a Seminole County Commissioner, asked her what skeletons she might have in her closet that could one day embarrass the board, she quipped, “I did not inhale,” then said, “There is nothing there.”