Remember this guy?

AAATA CEO says he hasn't made decision on accepting RTA job yet | MLive.comI sure do, its Michael Ford, the guy that Fred Hansen hired as the Director of Transportation. After a year or two Fred made him his "special assistant" and after a little while after that he vamoosed to Michigan. This quote from one of the local periodicals out there expresses what I thought of Mr Ford while he as at Trimet.

 the AATA board assessed CEO candidate Michael Ford’s interview responses as “mushy” and not as “crisp” as they’d ideally prefer, with board chair David Nacht describing Ford’s communicative style as “modern management parlance.” Source