An unusual advertisement appeared recently on the website of Councillor Jamaal Myers, the new Chair of the TTC Board. Myers seeks, in effect, an assistant to the Chair with the title “Director of Transit Policy”. The position would be within his Councillor’s Office at City Hall, not within the TTC organization.
Updated Sept. 18, 2023: Although the job title in the linked advertisement is “Director of Transit Policy”, the title in Councillor Myers’ tweet and the main link on his website says “TTC Policy”.
The Director of Transit Policy will support the Chair in managing corporate, operational and administrative duties and functions, and in triaging, addressing and navigating contentious issues toward the achievement of the Chair’s priorities and the TTC’s mandate.
Key accountabilities in this role include building highly effective relationships with TTC management and employees, TTC Board members, City Councillors, public servants and TTC riders; representing the Chair in meetings as required; and leading and/or participating in high profile and sensitive projects and initiatives.
An extensive list of qualifications and experience suggests that Myers seeks someone with deep history in the municipal bureaucracy, and it is hard to avoid thinking that this is tailor-made for someone who has been here before.
Functionally, this is not a new position. Various people have acted as the Chair’s “go to” person for transit over the years. However, the formal title and the implication that this role will be hands-on in coordination and direction of the Chair’s initiatives is a definite change.
The challenge will be how to fit within existing structures including both TTC and City management, not to mention the political context of the TTC Board, Council and the Mayor’s Office.
Depending on the ambitions of whoever is chosen, there could be leadership tension between the new Policy Director and the Chair, or even confusion of who speaks for the Chair’s Office, let alone for the TTC overall. The job title alone could provoke confusion.
Chair Myers will have to manage expectations for this role including the degree to which the proposed Director can “freelance” in parallel to the existing organizations and processes. The Chair may wish to advance a policy, but cannot implement change on his own, much less have commitments made in his name by a staffer.
For all the responsibility involved, the proposed salary is $70-80K, a level fitting within a Councillor’s office budget, but hardly top-of-the-line for a key position. Who this might attract, and whether they will be taken seriously, remains to be seen. Building trusting relationships within the TTC and City Hall, and equally importantly with the wider community, will not happen overnight.
And, dear readers, don’t even think of suggesting that I apply. I have been happily retired for 15 years and have no interest in sticking my head in that lion’s mouth.
Steve Munro 
[And, dear readers, don’t even think of suggesting that I apply.]
Fair enough, but I would perhaps suggest writing to Myers to offer your services on at least an ad-hoc basis to keep City Hall informed of possible solutions to situations that the TTC appears unable to address. Whether you’d require compensation for your services or not is optional.
This would keep Myer’s powers intact, but wisely advised.
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Sounds like a way to keep Adam Giambrone off the streets. 🙂
Steve: Yes, in spite of the clear call out to diverse applicants, I cannot help thinking this is tailored to someone like Adam.
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Not to sound snarky (or maybe to do just that?) I hope that Rick Leary and his ilk of the political realm on and near the TTC Board get somewhat nervous about this new development.
Keeping in mind Steve’s suggestion not to get too excited about drastic change and also to “read the fine print” when it comes to Who Does What and Who Can Do How Much through this position, it’s nice to see some movement from the Chair rather than the usual rubber-stamping that the up-to-now-majority-right-leaning-Board has giving to essentially nothing much happening to improve the lot of TTC riders who want both value for money and – more importantly – a system that actually works for them instead of presenting never-ending caravans of near-empty vehicles followed by long periods of nothing at all.
John Tory & Co. were essentially Rob Ford Lite: Lite on the Money, Lite on the Service and Lite on *managing* the managers to give riders what they deserve in their “World Class [sic] City.”
I know that one should be careful what one wishes for, but, right out of the gate, the current Board and especially the current Chair (a transit user in his own right, familiar with all the “issues” that have plagued and continue to plague the system) seem to be doing more in the past few weeks than all the other Board members have done since Rob-Bob and his buddies put Toronto transit riders on a siding with no light at the end of the tunnel….
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What if he steps down, or gets moved around that half term change?
Will this TTC Chair assistant be fired or transferred to the Councillor’s office of new chair?
We don’t need more sunshine list yes rear end kissers.
Steve: I suspect that the contract will be “at pleasure” or at most with a fixed term as part of the Councillor’s office. It would be up to any new Chair to decide if they want an assistant and who. As for the Sunshine List, it starts at $100K. This position tops out at $80K.
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Want to save money? Why do we pay a clerk or accountant to add people who make more than $100,000 to the “Sunshine List”? We can save some money by not having the “Sunshine List”, especially when inflation will be adding A LOT of people to the list this, next year, and years to come.
Steve: Clerks with their green eyeshades were replaced by computers years ago.
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I’ve known you for about 60 years and you would not make a good fit because you do not suffer fools gladly, but you are becoming a bit more mellow.
Steve: I have grown respectable and style myself as an “advocate” whereas there was a time when I used “activist” with its storm-the-barricades implications. My mellow outlook does not extend to Conservatives, whatever flag they might wrap themselves in.
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I don’t care who they hire, just fix the damn system.
Firstly stop using it as a f’ing homeless drop in centre. That begins with not giving them free TTC fare. I know this is an unpopular thing to say. But seriously, enough already. If they can’t do that, at the very least remove the ones who are found sleeping, smoking crack or crystal meth at the back of the streetcars and buses. And kick off the ones who scream and yell and act like whack jobs. And do it proactively. Screw the stupid bleeding hearts.
Secondly repeal the children ride free policy. It was stupid and short sighted to begin with and has cost the system billions in lost revenue. (maybe millions) You don’t even have to make it allot of money, but at least charge something, so teenagers stop swamping the system for free.
Fix the dreadful poor ass excuse for line management. And maybe look at what made the TTC the best transit system in North America at one time. And go back to that.
Let’s hope that this new chair and his puppet are not going to be bringing in some radical ‘new way of thinking’ policy which ends up making a really bad problem much worse…… if that is even possible at this point. Could the TTC get worse? Nevermind I don’t even want to consider it.
In a perfect world Andy Byford would come back on a magical unicorn and solve all our problems in his soothing British accent. Or Rick Lerry would mysteriously vanish one day. Sorry I had to get that off my chest, I’ve been waiting for the Sherbourne bus now for 40 min.
Steve: My understanding is that Byford is not interested in coming back to Toronto. He is working on Amtrak’s HSR proposals.
The Sherbourne bus? Yes, looking at both Transsee and Nextbus I can see the big gap where two buses are at the south end of the line and one is northbound at Bloor. This is, sadly, typical for that route.
Kiddies ride free? Millions, not billions. That was a quick-and-dirty policy change under John Tory to appear to be “doing something” about TTC affordability.
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I remember when Tory made the announcement (something he was good at 5-6 days a week) Talked a lot, said little. AND, you always had to look for the asterisk!) . The TV reporter asked the TTC top man who simply answered “First I heard of it!) Clearly, it was not a typical Toronto thing because it had no “pilot.” That way it could have been phased in such as “One Adult fare, 1 Child free. Additional children pay $1”. As you said “a do something”. Vote getter?
It has caused a big problem. I see it all the time. A batch of school students get on and nobody shows a school id card nor pays.
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Teenagers do not ride the TTC free. Rides are free up to (and including) 12 years of age. Teenagers are 13 and up and pay the same fare as 65+.
Steve: They are supposed to, but the 12/13 age cutoff is rarely if ever checked.
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Should require ALL to use PRESTO cards. That includes children under 12. Their age should be registered on the card. With a connection to the parent/guardian account so that when the child becomes 12 on their birthday it automatically triggers a fare collection (student discount until age 18?).
Steve: These cards already exist, but few children have them. The larger problem was adults using children’s cards for free passage.
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I know some (maybe many) people have a bee in their bonnet about “kids ride free” and “homeless using TTC as a shelter”.
While the kids do crowd aboard at some stops and don’t generally behave like kids (“young people these days!” quoth every older person with disapproval, right back to Plato), this is only at limited stops for a limited time. I find it very unlikely that having them pay will speed up service (carding each individually? oh boy), nor will the revenue make that big a difference to the TTC’s overall service.
And it’s certainly no fun to have the homeless aboard TTC vehicles, but it’s not like the homeless didn’t ride the Sherbourne bus back around 1990 when I often caught the bus and the same very, umm, not-deodorized gentleman got on around Queen or Shuter and emptied out his section of the bus. And I’ve had people who may have been on crack or meth or something on the same vehicle back in the 2000s and 2010s. It’s not something brand new.
The horrible route management, the inability to communicate changes in service, the siloed organization, and the dismal morale (from what I hear) won’t get solved by making kids pay, or kicking the homeless off. In fact, it will probably discourage the front line (operators) even more, as they will be told to enforce what is basically unenforcable unless you do the full police officer bit.
People need to consider what the fundamental issues are with the TTC and its service, and don’t get distracted. I will also point out that homelessness, mental health, and addiction is a societal problem, which the TTC can’t really influence or solve on its own.
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Glad to hear some things never change!
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The jobs requirements looks like something TTC should be doing anyways. This seems like an unessessary position. I’m I missing something? Especially considering, TTC reports to the Board that Jamaal is head of. He doesn’t need to hire anyone.
The position sounds like something the CEO should already be doing. And as you mention, looks like potential for tension with the CEO.
Can’t wait for the next board, hopefully it’s less of a meet and greet, and more of getting in the ground running.
Another position that we need to talk about is renaming the CEO position back to General Manager, especially with a reduced scope of just focusing on daily operations. Chow called Leary’s position GM instead of CEO at STC press conference, hopefully that’s indication than just slip of the tongue.
At this point, they’ll have to pay for this new position, even if it’s under Jamaal budget, and paying out Leary when he eventually leaves.
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If you want to dramatically increase revenue make the stations physically impossible to exit without tapping out via Presto at which time the fare is deducted/collected, a la Oyster in greater London.
Steve: In case you have not noticed, it is not possible to make it physically impossible to exit without tapping out, and this does nothing about surface routes where at least half of all fares are “collected”.
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The “Director of TTC Policy” must be a place holder. Until the current TTC CEO, Rich Leary, vacates his position because of contractual time frames and legalese.
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That’s an interesting perspective. I doubt it’s a place holder position , but considering the requirements are what the CEO should be doing anyways, I do see some overlaps already. It’s actually a slap in the face to the current CEO or new CEO that will be getting paid more, listening to some transit policy person tell you what to do.
It would be smarter for Rick Leary to stay and possibly get a hefty compensation, than quit. I’m don’t see him leaving voluntary, unless there some real dirt on him.
A bigger twist is Rick Leary getting his contract renewed.
Steve: The real challenge in “policy” work is to cut across organizational lines at the TTC and City to plan based on what the whole entity can do, rather than one department’s view of the possible future.
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Yes, and I can think of a lot of fare policy that is rarely if ever checked. How often is proof of age for 65+ checked? Student ID? All-door boarding for pass holders? It’s weird to mention teenagers as if they were a major missing piece of the puzzle of making the TTC actually good.
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We don’t want to end up where all children and all seniors MUST show proof of age.
It’s like the stories where elderly people (over 80 for example) being rejected ordering alcoholic drinks in a bar because they didn’t show ID.
Don’t the PRESTO cards make a different sound for the different discount ages?
Steve: There is a common sound and colour for senior/student fares.
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With all respect Steve you stand a snowball’s chance in hell of being hired given the culture in the city. We are all in a race to the bottom.
Cheers.
Steve: I mention the idea only because I am regularly asked why I am not in some official position. I actually applied for a “Citizen” position on the Board some years back, just to see how the process might work. During the intro session for applicants, the then CFO of the TTC addressed us, a mixed bag of interested citizens, saying that they were looking for “titans of industry” who could bring private sector expertise to the TTC. That told me all I needed to know about citizen participation. Needless to say, that particular qualification was not expressly included in the job description, and a lot of people made the effort to apply for a no-hope competition.
I at least had a long background in IT management and a good knowledge of the transit system, but my politics didn’t fit in. That’s another unwritten rule.
Just think: with me on the “outside”, you have had years of blog articles that I would never be able to write from “inside”, especially under a stultifying Ford/Tory administration.
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The child rides free policy is problematic but not because of lost revenue, at least not directly. The big problem is children swamping the TTC during PM peak between 3pm and 4pm when the school day ends.
Before it was made free, children who needed to travel a short distance would do the walk but now they all freely board already crowded streetcars and buses and go 4 or 5 stops maximum.
These mini-surges degrade service for everybody else. I’ve seen 10+ kids who would have otherwise walked the 300 or 400m to where they needed to go instead hop on to a bus and eat up 20% of its total capacity. Sure it doesn’t produce any revenue but it also slows down service and crowds out everybody else.
Steve: The “crowding out” you refer to should only apply to a short section of the route if the students travel only 300-400m. This might or might not correspond to an otherwise busy part of the route.
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re: L. Wall, children “swamping” transit. This reads somewhat as if it’s bad that people ride the TTC. In any smaller city in Canada, schoolchildren riding the city bus would be a novelty and something of a celebration.
“These mini-surges degrade service for everybody else.” The same could be said for commute rush hour. Why are all these people trying to take transit? It’s a 25 minute walk from Bathurst to Bay, most of them could walk rather than swamp my King streetcar, right?
(Yes, adults pay to ride, whereas children don’t. It might be useful to mentally reframe fares as a means of funding the TTC, rather than an entitlement to get on the bus. Otherwise you might arrive at a senior being 1/3rd less entitled to get on than an adult.)
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I have two kids who are in the free age range (one about to age into student fares). Free transit has made them comfortable and interested in using transit, and it is liberating for them and me not needing to worry about special fares or cards or tickets or passes. They just get on and go. For parents of limited means, it must also be a relief not to have to pay to take kids places in the city.
We should be finding more ways to encourage ridership and make it easy, not worrying about kids crowding others out.
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