LAWYER NAMED INTERIM CHIEF OF MTA; FORMER RIORDAN COLLEAGUE SEEKS `ORDER OUT OF CHAOS'.Byline: Lee Condon Daily News Staff Writer With the search for a permanent chief executive officer a failure, Julian Burke, a 70-year-old lawyer who specializes in turning around troubled companies, was named Friday to head the Metropolitan Transportation Authority as acting CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. for the next year. ``I am ready and willing to bring order out of some chaos,'' Burke said after the MTA (1) (Message Transfer Agent or Mail Transfer Agent) The store and forward part of a messaging system. See messaging system. (2) See M Technology Association. 1. (messaging) MTA - Message Transfer Agent. board unanimously approved his selection. The appointment came just one day after Michael C. Ascher, a New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of transit official who was the top contender in a nine-month search for a permanent CEO, rejected the job. Mayor Richard Riordan Richard J. Riordan (born May 1, 1930) is a Republican politician from California, U.S. who served as the California Secretary of Education from 2003–2005 and as Mayor of Los Angeles from 1993–2001. Riordan ran for Governor of California unsuccessfully in 2002. blamed ``political interference'' for sabotaging the appointment. Ascher's decision came after word leaked to the media that he was asking the MTA for a $100,000 signing bonus A signing bonus or sign-on bonus is a sum of money paid to a new employee by a company as an incentive to join that company. These are often given as a way of making a compensation package more attractive to the employee e.g. if the annual salary is lower than they desire. , which he claimed he needed to compensate him for losses likely in selling his yacht. Burke is a former business colleague of Riordan and will replace interim MTA chief Linda Bohlinger on Monday. ``I am pleased that fellow board members agreed with me that the MTA board is in urgent need of an chief executive who can instill in·still v. To pour in drop by drop. in  stil·la tion n. discipline and bring a fresh perspective to the top job at the agency,'' Riordan said Friday. ``Julian Burke has spent the last two decades working with companies confronting the very financial, organizational and operational challenges facing the MTA. He has what it takes to lead the agency as we continue to search for a permanent CEO.'' Burke is semiretired sem·i·re·tired adj. Working only on a part-time basis, as for reasons of ill health or advanced age. sem but has been managing partner at Victor Palmieri and Associates, a company involved in takeovers of such troubled corporate giants as the Penn Central Railroad and Baldwin United Corp. The 13-member MTA board has been looking for Looking for In the context of general equities, this describing a buy interest in which a dealer is asked to offer stock, often involving a capital commitment. Antithesis of in touch with. a new CEO since Dec. 4, 1996, when Joseph E. Drew quit after coming under fire for his controversial handling of a contract award. Before Ascher, two other top prospects withdrew this summer, as did two candidates earlier this year for the interim CEO job. Bohlinger has been in the top spot since Drew left. The MTA's troubles have continued, including major concerns about the safety of its subway construction projects in which two workers have died since February. Bohlinger was criticized recently for approving more than $1 million in retroactive raises and bonuses for 130 employees, including herself. A recent audit was critical of her handling of the agency's $2.8 billion budget. Burke will be paid $15,000 a month for as long as a year while the MTA starts again in its search for a long-term CEO. ``I am extremely pleased a candidate of Mr. Burke's stature has agreed to lead the MTA,'' said county Supervisor Don Knabe, who serves on the MTA board. ``Burke brings to the job the kind of private sector, turnaround know-how that the MTA urgently needs.'' Blaming political interference for the Ascher pullout pull·out n. 1. A withdrawal, especially of troops. 2. Change from a dive to level flight. Used of an aircraft. 3. An object designed to be pulled out. Noun 1. , Riordan called for a restructuring that would remove all elected officials, including himself, from the MTA board. |
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