 "Photo: Jeffrey McWhorter")
The Capital Metro Board chairman who led the agency out of a late 1990s financial scandal and into renewed public relevance announced Monday he will retire effective May 31.
Lee Walker, who has served as chairman since his appointment to the board in September 1997, said it was best he announce his decision now to allow a successor time to prepare for the next legislative session in 2009. He said that he also hoped to spend more time with his family.
Capital Metro's board consists of seven members, including five elected officials and two at-large citizens. The Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization and the City of Austin each appoint two members and the remainder are appointed by the surrounding counties. In 1997, the entire board was removed by the Texas Legislature amid an FBI criminal investigation into the organization's financial and contracting practices. Walker was one of the planning organization's two appointments out of a 100-person pool.
He did not plan on serving as chairman but thought his vote could support the environmental cause.
"If you take transit and flip the coin, land use is the other side of that coin," he said.
Walker noted that the conventional way land is developed in Central Texas tends toward sprawl. One of his accomplishments on the board was the beginning of a regional commuter rail initiative. With a fixed rail, he said people would tend to live around the stops.
The chairman described himself as a "serial entrepreneur." His greatest notoriety came from his work as the first president of Dell Inc. He sold his most recent company, Pavilion Technologies Inc., in November.
While serving on the board, Walker continued his teaching duties in the graduate program at UT's McCombs School of Business and Plan II Honors program.
"I hope 25 years from now when I sit down, I'll still be teaching Plan II," he said.
He also expressed a desire to increase his teaching load. Since beginning at the business school in 1991, Walker has been honored with teaching awards three times.
Walker said he is "programmed to teach" and loves connecting with younger people. He said teaching forces one to reflect on the fundamentals and has made him more vigorous.
Austin City Councilman Mike Martinez said Walker came in under dark circumstances for the transit agency and helped to make it one of the best bus systems in the country.
"There is much to be done," Martinez said, "but we can take this opportunity today to acknowledge his tremendous contributions."
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