Cap Metro set to choose Dottie Watkins as new president and CEO

A bus driver who rose through the ranks of the Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority over three decades is now poised to take the top job at the transit agency.

Dorothy “Dottie” Watkins started driving buses in 1994 when she was 19 years old. Now 48, Watkins has served as interim president and CEO of Capital Metro since May. On Monday, the agency’s board of directors is scheduled to vote on making the appointment permanent.

Watkins, an Austin native and University of Texas graduate, earned praise from the president of the union representing some 1,600 front-line transit employees who work for Capital Metro contractors MV Transportation, BMR Transport and MTM Transit.

“She’s homegrown, somebody who started out as a (bus) operator,” said Brent Payne, president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1091. “I think she’s the most experienced person dealing with our situations.”

Watkins’ selection as the top pick follows a search by the executive recruiting firm Krauthamer and Associates. The Maryland-based company was hired by Capital Metro in July for a two-year $400,000 contract to provide ongoing headhunting services.

Some community activists were critical of the search process.

“It didn’t give advocates an opportunity to help shape the criteria and the characteristics that we were looking for in a new director. It wasn’t shared out broadly with the community in a meaningful way,” said João Paulo Connolly, who advocates on transit issues for the Austin Justice Coalition. “My impression is that it was a very rushed process.”

Despite his criticism of the search process, Connolly said he was “happy with the result” of Watkins as CEO.

Watkins has served as interim CEO since May 2022. The board of directors appointed her after the transit agency’s last leader, Randy Clarke, left to lead the transit system in Washington, D.C.

Awais Azhar, who chairs a community advisory panel for the multibillion-dollar Project Connect transit expansion, praised Watkins’ leadership over the past eight months in advancing infrastructure work on the Red Line and MetroRapid services.

“She has roots here, and I just generally say we’re in a very good place with Dottie,” he said.

Watkins will face major challenges in her job as CEO. Among them is the need to hire hundreds of bus drivers in time for the launch of two bus rapid transit lines in the summer. Construction is already underway on the Pleasant Valley and Expo Center MetroRapid routes.

Capital Metro estimates a need for 1,050 bus drivers by June. Right now, the agency has 872.

Clarke’s annual pay as CEO was $340,507. Watkins’ current salary is listed as $285,227. Her new compensation package will be made public Monday, Capital Metro said.

Monday’s board meeting starts at noon.

This story was produced as part of the Austin Monitor’s reporting partnership with KUT.

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