Metra investigations must continue
We still have so many questions about what happened at Metra. How much money was taken? What systems failed and allowed its longtime leader to reportedly take $100,000 in unauthorized payments? Who is responsible?
Like the number of lingering questions, there is no shortage of agencies interested in cracking open the books.
After allegations against Executive Director Phil Pagano surfaced, Metra officials hired an independent attorney to investigate. The Federal Transit Administration increased its oversight. U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, who has helped secure federal funding for Metra, asked the inspector general at the Department of Transportation to get involved.
The Regional Transportation Authority, which has financial authority over Metra, began monitoring the situation. The Illinois attorney general's office requested a copy of the final report and is weighing further action.
When something goes wrong, it seems everybody in the public eye wants to get involved in trying to make it right. However politically expedient the separate investigations may seem, these agencies are doing their job. Financial accountability goes beyond politics.
Critical of the swarm of external involvement and the media attention it generated, Metra board member James Dodge told Daily Herald staff writer Marni Pyke the multiple probes complicated an already delicate situation. Delicate, perhaps. But these are serious accusations. Something was potentially going wrong at Metra, a public agency that receives millions in federal funding and is overseen by a board appointed by elected officials.
It's the public's business to know what led to allegations of financial misconduct. It's the public's business to know whether laws were broken.
Pagano, who received an annual salary of $269,000, may have obtained some $100,000 in vacation advances through at least three separate checks. His suicide did not provide answers - only more questions.
Each allegation must be examined to determine what happened, whether there's a deeper problem at the agency, if systemic problems need correcting to prevent future abuse and whether compensation practices need review. Taxpayers deserve a careful look at all of Metra's procedures and business practices.
We can't help but wonder, if the allegations are true, what kind of accounting system allowed Pagano to essentially write himself checks - and think he'd get away with it.
Dodge lamented that "this thing ended so tragically when we were working our way through it carefully and diligently."
But it hasn't ended. For 20 years Pagano had been a respected leader of the nation's second-largest commuter rail system. That reputation has obviously changed.
The question now is whether the impact of recent events will be limited to Pagano's legacy or whether it will extend to Metra as a whole.