Traffic & Transit
WRTA Board To Begin Search For New Administrator
WRTA Administrator Dennis Lipka will retire in June. The board will soon start planning to find a replacement.
WORCESTER, MA — The Worcester Regional Transit Authority (WRTA) will soon begin making plans to find a replacement for administrator Dennis Lipka, who is planning to step down in 2022.
On Oct. 15, the WRTA board will meet for a discussion of "all aspects of hiring a consultant regarding the search for a new administrator," and to "discuss any desired new elements for a job description, create a timeline for securing an administrator, [and] prepare a recommendation for the WRTA Advisory Board."
WRTA board Chair Gary Rosen said Tuesday Lipka will retire when his contract ends in June, which coincides with the end of the fiscal year.
"It's important that the WRTA Advisory Board start the process of searching for a new, experienced and capable administrator," Rosen said in an email.
Lipka, who was previously a board member from Holden, was hired as the WRTA administrator in February 2019 on a one-year contract backdated to January 2019, according to advisory board minutes. Lipka took over for Jonathan E. Church, who resigned in 2018. The advisory board mounted a nationwide search for Church's replacement, but the leading candidate turned down the offer.
Lipka did not immediately return a call seeking comment about the search for a new administrator.
Much of Lipka's term as administrator has been marked by a push to eliminate bus fares. The Zero Fare WRTA group began organizing around the issue just before the coronavirus pandemic swept the state. WRTA ended up eliminating fares in March 2020 as a safety precaution, but the advisory board has voted several times to keep buses free. Fares are set to return on Jan. 1.
Lipka has opposed eliminating the $1.75 general admission fare, calling it "draconian" and harmful to the vitality of the bus system. Rosen, meanwhile, has been an advocate to move toward a permanent fare-free system, which a Worcester Regional Research Bureau (WRRB) said may have local economic benefits.
"At end of day, we've put out money I believe capriciously, and I believe not in the interest of the regional transit authority's service in the long term," Lipka said during the May board meeting, which is when the WRTA board voted to extend fare-free until January.
The discussion about the search for a new WRTA administrator search will begin at the Oct. 15 meeting of the board's personnel committee.
