DART selects next CEO, suburban questions remain

The Dallas Area Rapid Transit board of directors has settled on a new CEO, despite suburban representatives publicly raising concerns about the reported finalist.

On Tuesday, the DART board voted 9-6 to recommend a new CEO after the previous agency head, Nadine Lee, left the position in March as several member cities went forward with exit votes. The agency will not publicly name the finalist until July 21; however, prior reporting from several local outlets points to Jacksonville Transportation Authority CEO Nathaniel P. Ford Sr. as DART’s next top official.

The decision came after three hours of debate, most of it coming in closed session. A motion to delay the decision was shot down 5-10, with many of the suburban representatives who ultimately voted against the final recommendation also supporting a delay.

Split votes

Representatives from Plano, Irving and Farmers Branch voted against confirming a new CEO. All three cities have called exit votes from the agency over the past year, although each eventually called off elections before a March deadline. Ultimately, only Highland Park chose to leave as compromises over funding and governance were reached in the months leading up to the May election.

Plano representative Anthony Ricciardelli said he had been made aware of “some factors” the day of the vote and could not support the “Candidate A” ultimately approved by the board.

“I’ve gotten some answers to questions, and I appreciate those,” Ricciardelli said. “I still have remaining questions, though. Before I could consider voting for Candidate A, I would need to do more due diligence.”

Ricciardelli has been a bullhorn for reform at the agency since his appointment in 2025. He previously told the Dallas Morning News that the next CEO would need to be a “unifier” who “recognizes that this is not one-size-fits-all.”

Farmers Branch and Plano representative Nathan Barbera said the decision felt rushed, and also alluded to concerns with Ford’s appointment.

“Time is needed to do due diligence on the fact that every single agency that the candidate has left from has left under a cloud of spending controversies,” Barbera said. “And I just simply do not want that to happen to DART in two years from now.”

Candidate A

Ford, widely reported to be Candidate A, left the Jacksonville Transit Authority earlier this month after 13 years leading the agency. Having started at New York’s MTA, Ford’s career also spans stops in Atlanta and the Bay Area.

He has been credited with securing over $400 million in federal grant funding for the agency during his tenure, in addition to creating the first autonomous public transit vehicle fleet in the U.S. Suburban cities cited a need for more comprehensive single-vehicle transit options as they fought for more financial flexibility from DART this year.

“Under the leadership of Nat, JTA has built a national reputation for innovating, particularly in the autonomous vehicle space; at the same time, the JTA team remains true to the core of what we do best — providing safe, reliable, and affordable public transportation to our community,” JTA board chair Aundra Wallace wrote in a statement to Metro Magazine after his resignation was announced.

However, as DART board members alluded to last week, Ford has drawn scrutiny over financial activity at JTA and other agencies. In Jacksonville, he reportedly spent over $40,000 on travel, including trips to Spain and Hawaii, as previously reported by KERA. Ford has defended the travel previously, and told local station WJAX-TV that he is a “high-energy individual” who made the trips to discuss transit policy with national decision-makers.

The Dallas Morning News has also reported that Ford charged nearly $150,000 to agency cards over his five years at Atlanta’s transit agency, although he reimbursed some of the charges, and that he was the highest-paid city employee during his time in San Francisco. CEO pay and bonuses at DART have drawn scrutiny recently, with Dallas City Council member Cara Mendelsohn calling bonuses amid service cuts “indefensible” in 2025.

At the board meeting, Cockrell Hill and Dallas DART board representative Enrique MacGregor dismissed concerns about the chosen candidate’s previous experience.

“They’re all questions that can easily be answered before or during the contract negotiation process with that candidate,” MacGregor said. “So I don’t see any reason to delay, and I don’t see any reason why the candidate selected should not be included.”

‘What comes next’

Should his selection become official, Ford will be tasked with leading DART into a new era following the departure of Highland Park and significant compromises with suburban member cities. To avoid exit votes, DART has signed new interlocal agreements with member cities that return a portion of their sales tax contributions to transportation projects. 

Other concessions made to member cities include reducing Dallas’ voting power on the board and guaranteeing each member city a designated representative — as opposed to the current makeup, which had four cities sharing a single member before Highland Park’s exit. However, governance reforms and voting will require approval from the state legislature, something DART’s next CEO will be tasked with navigating in his first year at the helm.

With discussions of a regional transportation system and continued reform at DART lingering past exit votes, the next CEO will be tasked with finding that agency’s place in North Texas’ future, something DART Board Chair Randall Bryant drew attention to following Highland Park’s exit.

“Today is about what comes next, because the most important thing for us right now is not who stayed or who left,” Bryant said at a May press conference. “It’s the future we’re building together across North Texas and the people that are counting on us to deliver.”