‘It’s all teed up’: Dillard’s last stop as RTA chief comes as new agency rises
When Kirk Dillard took over as Regional Transportation Authority board chair in June 2014, the agency was shaking off scandals involving patronage and inappropriate behavior by executives, as well as experiencing friction with Metra, Pace and the CTA.
Under the former state senator, the RTA cleaned up its image and stabilized — only to confront the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Ridership tanked, sparking a financial cataclysm.
Twelve years later, Dillard presided over his final board meeting Aug. 20. The new Northern Illinois Transit Authority replaces the RTA, effective Sept. 1.
“It’s a perfect time for me to leave and for NITA to have a fresh start,” the Hinsdale attorney said Wednesday.
“Good things are happening, the bad times are behind us,” Dillard added, noting ridership has climbed by 5 million in the last 14 months. “It’s all teed up very well, and now NITA must execute.”
Twenty NITA board members will convene Sept. 10, when they are expected to select a chair. Meanwhile, RTA Executive Director Leanne Redden’s contract runs out at the start of 2027, and she’s not expected to stay, sources said.
“She’s not only a great national operator but she is also internationally respected,” Dillard said of Redden, who’s also chair of the American Public Transportation Association.
Going forward, “the executive director now at NITA is even more important than ever.”
The NITA transit reform bill, which passed in 2025, expanded the board by five directors and gave it unprecedented authority to oversee fares, budgets and infrastructure.
“The new governance structure is one that I only wish I had,” Dillard noted.
Along with clout, the NITA Act also provides regional transit with an influx of millions through a sales tax increase and transfers of state gas sales tax funds.
With that kind of makeover, it’s likely the board will conduct a nationwide search for a new chief, Dillard speculated. “Now that the Chicago region has finally the operating and capital money it needs — this has to be one of the most attractive mass-transit positions in the United States.”
At the same time, much is expected of the fledgling agency, from reducing crime on the CTA to delivering a universal fare system.
The law also requires reducing about $60 million in costs. “We’re just not taking in new money, we’re also still cutting and refining, coordinating for efficiencies, and saving money,” Dillard said.
That mandate comes as NITA will be adding staff to handle the extra duties.
And while sales tax revenues are surging, “inflation is going up as well,” Dillard warned.
Another challenge will be “we don’t know how the farebox recovery ratio will balance out,” Dillard cautioned. The farebox recovery ratio represents the amount of operating costs passenger fares must generate.
Under the NITA Act, the ratio was reduced from 50% to 25%, and the current system-wide level is 21.2% as of June 30.
Importantly, “the new chair and executive director need to know that we have to have regional balance,” Dillard said.
Ten NITA directors are Chicagoans, five hail from suburban Cook, and five live in DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry and Will counties. Lawmakers who opposed the NITA Act have argued that this structure will drown out Collar County voices.
The board “will be tilted to the eastern part of the region, but everybody is going to get more, and that’s a positive thing,” Dillard said. “The suburbs just need to be vocal and chime in.”
As for his replacement, one name that’s surfaced is RTA Director Tom Kotarac, who now chairs the Ad Hoc Committee on the Transition to NITA.
Kotarac, a Commercial Club of Chicago senior executive who specializes in transportation and was a former Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning deputy executive director, had not responded to a request for comment as of Friday.
Two appointing authorities could have slated Dillard to NITA: DuPage Chair Deb Conroy and Gov. JB Pritzker, but the outgoing leader said he hadn’t pushed for the assignment.
Dillard praised Pritzker’s five choices, adding they reflected a diversity that “is important in an industry where the majority of riders who really depend on mass transit are Black and brown.”
Hand’s down, the pandemic was the hardest moment of Dillard’s RTA tenure, he recounted.
But public transit is regenerating with successes like Pace’s Pulse buses, the CTA’s Red Line extension, a paratransit rideshare program that resulted in millions of trips, and new railcars coming to Metra, he said.
“I ride in mainly on a railcar that was delivered when Dwight Eisenhower was president,” noted Dillard, who commutes regularly on Metra’s BNSF Line.
State Sen. Don DeWitte was a relatively new RTA director when Dillard arrived amid agency dysfunction that included feuding over revenues between the CTA, Metra and Pace.
“Kirk very quickly and very efficiently righted that ship,” DeWitte said, recalling Dillard replaced problematic middle managers and promoted Redden.
“Within 12 months, we were singing songs at the campfire during the budget presentations. His professionalism and his political expertise were exactly what was needed at that time.”
Metra board Chair Joseph McMahon said, “Kirk has made an incredible impact on public transportation in Northeastern Illinois.”
“Over the last couple of years he and I talked frequently about the challenges in funding and how to improve the service to our riders. Public transportation is vital to the region and I know I’ll continue to rely on his experience and good counsel.”
Dillard, who also served as a top adviser to former Govs. Jim Thompson and Jim Edgar, said he’ll never be far from public transit.
“I’m still around, and a daily rider, and will be available for anything they may need.”
mpyke@dailyherald.com