Metra board in executive session prior to release of Pagano report

The Metra board went into executive session this morning, before the expected release of a report into alleged financial misconduct by former Executive Director Phil Pagano.

Before adjourning to executive session, board Chairman Carole Doris extended condolences to Pagano's family.

Pagano walked in front of Metra train May 7, just hours before a meeting where directors were expected to discuss his future with the agency after 20 years at the helm.

He had been accused of obtaining about $100,000 in unauthorized vacation pay in three separate checks and improperly using Doris' signature.

Metra hired attorney James G. Sotos to investigate the alleged improprieties April 30.

Pagano is credited with building ridership and re-creating Metra after it dropped in popularity during the 1980s. Friends and colleagues called him a railroad expert and acknowledged the agency lost a wealth of institutional knowledge with his passing.

But reports of misconduct led Doris, a former prosecutor, to start looking into the rumors.

Doris said Friday that the last few weeks had been difficult, but "it was the right thing to do."

She said Metra was "trying to be transparent and fair every step of the way."

The scandal broke at a time when Metra and all the transit agencies are short of cash. To make ends meet, Metra this year raised certain fares.

Shortly after Metra announced it was investigating possible misconduct, Sen. Dick Durbin, the Federal Transit Administration, the Cook County state's attorney and Illinois attorney general's office also had become involved in the probe.

Pagano killed himself along the tracks in Crystal Lake a short distance from his home.