SMART board close to choosing new general manager

The Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit board may select a new general manager Wednesday, following an all-day meeting to interview three finalists.

There were 35 applicants for the position, which has been vacant since Lillian Hames resigned in January. The board was interviewing the final three at a special closed meeting at the Hyatt Vineyard Creek Hotel in Santa Rosa.

If the board select a candidate, SMART Executive Director Fahrad Mansourian said he would negotiate a contract and do background and reference checks before the hiring goes to the board at it's August meeting.

The names of the finalists for general manager, a post that paid $175,000 annually, were not released.

"The candidate has not been offered the job and he or she may not have told their employer," said Mansourian.

He said the hiring criteria includes experience in rail, transportation, administration, project delivery and finance.

Hames' resignation left a management void in SMART just as the district was trying to piece together the final funding commitments, sell construction bonds and get bids to build and open an initial line from Railroad Square in Santa Rosa to downtown San Rafael by the fall of 2014.

David Heath, SMART's chief financial officer, briefly became interim general manager, and Mansourian, Marin County's public works director, was hired in late May as a temporary executive director to handle administration.

SMART is attempting to close a $109 million funding shortfall by making $88 million in project cutbacks and getting a total of $21 million from the Sonoma County Transportation Authority, Transportation Authority of Marin and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.