Search for MTA Chief Expands

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority board expanded its search for a new transit chief Thursday by inviting a retired Philadelphia transit executive to join a New York official for interviews.

But Louis J. Gambaccini, 66, former head of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, is considered a longshot because he reportedly has not impressed Mayor Richard Riordan, the MTA board chairman.

Riordan and other MTA board members met individually this week with Michael C. Ascher, president of the Bridge and Tunnel Authority for New York City’s MTA, and an aide to the mayor said Riordan “likes what he sees so far.”

Still, the MTA board, meeting behind closed doors Thursday, decided that if it was going to ask Ascher back for an interview before the full board, it might as well ask Gambaccini. The interviews are expected to take place within the next two weeks.

Gambaccini could not be reached to find out if he is interested in the job.

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County Supervisor and MTA board member Don Knabe said that while he may vote to offer the job to Ascher, the selection of a CEO is so important that the board should consider all candidates. “As long as we’re going to do it, we might as well do both of them,” Knabe said.

He said that although Ascher met individually with most board members, he wants to see how the candidates handle themselves before the full 13-member board.

Ascher and Gambaccini were the only candidates submitted by the MTA’s executive search firm after the board’s first choice--a construction company executive--turned down the job.

A confidential report by the MTA’s executive search firm said references gave Gambaccini a “mixed report.”

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Although experienced in operating a bus and rail system and credited with turning around the image of the Philadelphia transit agency, some references described Gambaccini as “somewhat bureaucratic” and “his solution for every problem was ‘more money, more managers,’ ” according to the report.

Ascher was praised for rescuing a troubled New York subway project but the report raised concerns about his lack of experience in running a bus system.

The CEO job has been vacant since Joseph E. Drew resigned in December, saying that political infighting and “public hypercriticism” of him and his staff made the job impossible. The first MTA chief, Franklin E. White, served 32 months before he was fired in 1995.