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Mark Sharpe says HART chairman Philip Hale has to go

By Mitch Perry on Mon, Jun 3, 2013 at 5:26 pm

Hale has been with the agency since February 2008, serving as chief of maintenance and facilities before taking the chief executive’s job on an interim basis in April of 2011, after Armijo was terminated by the HART board under a cloud of allegations that he had abused his position. (Armijo is now working in the San Francisco Bay Area, incidentally.)

Prior to coming to HART, Hale was the Assistant Vice President of Fleet Services with Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART), where he served as a member of the start-up team that opened that city's light-rail line for service in June 1996.

There are sometimes discussion at HART meetings about adding a feature or a new service, but the conversation often gets stifled because of the lack of available funding. Sharpe says he's tired of hearing that line used all the time.

"That’s always the excuse," he says, agreeing that the agency has limited resources, but also saying that he believes there are "tremendous opportunities if we look at citizens as partners, and the businesses here as partners, and we are not afraid to fail or make a mistake." Sharpe says that he's particularly frustrated that attempts to get Wi-Fi on buses hasn't taken hold.

The County Commissioner, who was one of the leading advocates for the transit tax for light rail three years ago, added that it's time to "throw out the playbook that has gotten us to where we are now and reconsider it all." Sharpe also said, "We need to do everything we’re doing, and reconsider it all, every stop, every bus, where it’s going, how it’s serving the citizens, are we committed 100 percent with all the passion we’ve got to get you where you want to go quickly? Are we going to provide you with the conveniences that you need, in order to make you really want to ride that bus again? Are we looking at you as a customer, not as a number, or a person who just rides the bus? I think that’s going to require inspirational leadership."

Hale told CL that the board decided on its own to extend his original contract (it was due to expire in November). "I didn't ask for the extension," he says.

HART CEO Philip Hale

Hillsborough County Commissioner Mark Sharpe says it's time for HART CEO Philip Hale to go.

Sharpe accuses Hale of "uninspired, unimaginative leadership," and says that the board needs someone new at the helm in order for it to pursue a more ambitious direction.

When asked for reaction, Hale responded that the board just extended his contract last month for two more years, and that there was no opposition. (Sharpe was absent from the meeting.) "The direction I received from most of the other board members is that they are supportive of me," Hale says. He added that if the board did want him to step down, he'd do so.

Sharpe spoke to CL shortly after HART's board meeting concluded on Monday morning. He left the meeting early to go to another discussion about transportation (specifically on Tampa's upcoming bike share program) and said he hasn't had a chance to speak with Hale yet. Sharpe also said that when Hale asked him recently if he wanted him to stay on, the county commissioner's reaction was, "Yes, if you want to win a Super Bowl." Sharpe now says he senses that Hale isn't committed to such an all-out effort.

Sharpe says that Hale has done a fine job as the transitional manager (referring to his selection in the spring of 2011 after the board had sacked former CEO David Armijo), but repeated in an interview with CL that, "We need inspired leadership."

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