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Charlotte’s quality of life impressed Carolyn Flowers enough to make her consider moving from Los Angeles.

PHOTO/HAROLD TYSON

Carolyn Flowers, the new CEO of Charlotte Area Transit System, will be responsible for the agency’s $113 million budget and 1,200 employees. She’s currently chief operating officer of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which has a $900 million budget and 9,000 employees.

It also helped that its transit system is on the cutting edge of development.

Flowers, who was named chief executive of the Charlotte Area Transit System Monday, first visited in 2007 for a transportation convention. She liked the city and CATS, which was in the process of launching light rail, enough to offer her credentials should the top transit job became available.

“The initial spark was not so much the system it was the city,” she said. “I was thinking this is a city where I’d want to be and it’s also a city that has a good reputation in the transit industry. I had a coach who said to me once ‘First pick the place you want to live, not the job you want.’ You want to live in a place that you’re happy and want a good job, too. You can go for the title and not be in a place that you want to live and be miserable.”

Flowers, who will start January 4, is chief operations officer for the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, where she oversees Metro Bus operations, Freeway Service Patrol and SAFE call box programs. MTA has a ridership of 380 million on buses and 7.5 million on 73 miles of rail. Its annual operating budget is $900 million and employs 9,000. CATS, by comparison, has a budget of $113 million and employs 1,200.

Seventy candidates applied for the CATS job and seven finalists were interviewed. Flowers will report of Charlotte City Manager Curt Walton and her salary is $197,500.

“Carolyn demonstrated a number of skills we think are critical going forward,” Walton said. “First, understanding the importance of CATS growing beyond Mecklenburg County and into our region; the importance of all transit modes – commuter rails, light rails, street car, bus and rapid bus transit – that there’s a role for each of them to play in an integrated system.”

Flowers’ career at MTA, which started in 1992 includes stints as executive officer of administration and deputy executive officer for finance. She was budget manager for the city of Beverly Hills from 1997-99 and has also worked as a financial manager at Wang Laboratories, as well as financial analyst and budget officer at Rockwell International Automotive Operations.

CATS, which has been led by interim director James Muth since Keith Parker left in May for a similar position in San Antonio, Texas, faces growing economic challenges spurred by the recession.

Revenue through rider fares has flattened over the past year while the authority is scrambling to locate federal and state funding for new light rail lines. Charlotte City Council is also looking at the possibility of adding a streetcar linking neighborhoods in the east and west. Flowers said she’ll do a thorough examination of CATS programs and call on her background in finance to locate funding sources as well as weigh the cost-efectiveness of programs.

“If you’re building a network, you have to look at the entire toolbox and look at all of the options,” Flowers said. “Light rail isn’t the only option. You have to look at the demand for the system, the cost to build it and how quickly you want to build it.
“It’s a major investment in rail infrastructure and it takes a long period of time to put in rail, so you can do faster if you want to build your network, but you have to look at all the options.”

Walton says Flowers’ experience and leadership roles in the Los Angeles area made an impression on the selection committee made up of Davidson Mayor John Woods, Matthews Town Manager Hazen Blodgett, and Mecklenburg County Manager Harry Jones.

“Her reputation for proactive education programs, innovative customer relations programs and building positive working relationships with employees and her board will continue to build our national and international reputation in the transit industry,” Walton said.

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