Metro’s new inspector general is under no illusions about the perceptions of her office.
“There is a big question about…independence. The thought was we didn’t have independence,” Michelle Zamarin told the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission (NVTC) at its meeting on Thursday (Oct. 3).
Zamarin was tapped in the spring to lead the Office of Inspector General (OIG) at the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA). She previously had a 20-year career in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for D.C. and, most recently, worked as an attorney with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Zamarin believes that, going forward, she and her office will have the promised autonomy to fulfill its mission of monitoring Metro and holding it accountable. At the briefing, she said she had been working hard to put herself in front of WMATA’s rank-and-file workers, and her office aims to be collaborative, rather than punitive.
“We are not looking to get people fired,” Zamarin said. “We are not looking for ‘gotcha’ moments. We are looking to make it better.”
With a staff of about 20 people, the inspector general’s office handles issues related to WMATA performance, contracts and allegations of malfeasance.
Paul Smedberg, the first vice chair and the highest-ranking Virginia representative on the WMATA board of directors, said Zamarin “has just dived right in” during her first months.
“She has made a huge difference in a relatively short period of time,” he said.
The office of inspector general has seen its share of turnover and questions of autonomy, prompting an investigation earlier this year by the House Oversight Committee. Zamarin’s predecessor, Rene Febles, resigned “under duress” last fall after facing internal pushback for an audit critical of Metro, he said in a letter reported by the Washington Post.
In a June letter to Smedberg, who was the WMATA board chair at the time, Rep. Gerry Connolly advocated for reforms to strengthen the OIG’s “independence and effectiveness,” including a reversal of Metro’s decision to shorten the inspector general’s term from five to three years.
Kevin Muhlendorf, a securities enforcement lawyer for the D.C. firm Wiley, served as interim inspector general until Zamarin officially assumed the position on June 17.
Despite the past concerns about the OIG’s autonomy, Matt de Ferranti, an Arlington County Board member who chairs the NVTC, came away from the Oct. 3 briefing in a positive frame of mind.
“I have a ton of hope,” he said, noting that Zamarin’s presentation was effective at “addressing the big issues artfully.”
