| First
Female Director Starts Job At
Golden Gate Bridge
District She faces projects with buses, ferries, median strip Friday, April 9, 1999 Peter Fimrite, Chronicle Staff Writer |
| GOLDEN GATE -- Celia
Kupersmith need only look out of her office window at the Golden Gate
Bridge headquarters for a metaphorical reminder of what her new job as
general manager of the bridge district will entail. The first female head
of the district wants to build bridges between the community and within an
organization that is moving at full steam, and with a full slate of
expensive projects, into the new millennium.
It will not be an easy task. "Clearly we need to step back and look at all the things on the table to determine the best way to proceed," said Kupersmith, who spent her first day in the office yesterday. Kupersmith was appointed March 12 to replace longtime General Manager Carney Campion, who retired last year. The district's top job pays $160,000 a year. Among her tasks are finding $125 million more in funding for earthquake retrofit work, organizing the expansion of the ferry system, making improvements to the bus system and overseeing development of median and suicide barriers. Meanwhile, traffic remains bad and bus drivers are threatening to strike. Nevertheless, the former executive director -- and some say savior -- of Reno's Regional Transportation Commission appears undaunted. |
| The question is how to take a good,
solid organization and move it forward,'' she said. ``I am a fresh pair of
eyes. I look at this as an opportunity to take the existing priorities and
strategically mesh them together.''
Kupersmith has built a reputation as a fiscally responsible manager with an uncanny ability to improve efficiency and raise dollars in Washington, D.C. In Reno, Kupersmith turned around an inefficient bus system by cutting service 13 percent and eliminating only one route, with no layoffs. She also managed to push through a tax on new development to finance road improvements and construction, increasing spending from $6 million per year when she started to about $50 million when she left. Kupersmith oversaw a bus and light rail system, including excursion trains, as the assistant general manager of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in Austin, Texas, from 1985 until 1993. Such experience may come in handy if voters ever approve a light rail system through Marin and Sonoma counties, where the Golden Gate Bridge District holds title to the Northwestern Pacific Railroad corridor. Kupersmith will have to be a quick study when it comes to the planned expansion of the bridge district ferry system. District officials are considering the purchase of a second high-speed ferry and would like to be involved in a regional effort to expand water transit around the bay. "There is a real interest on the board in the expansion of the ferry system," said Kupersmith, who has a master's degree in urban and transportation planning. ``What we have to do is make sure we don't get so excited about one project that we forget about something else that also needs resources.'' Kupersmith, who is new to the area, said it will be a welcome relief to lead a transportation system that is adding rather than cutting services. "I've done both, and I'd much rather grow," she said, gazing at the surreal-looking bridge illuminated by a ray of light breaking through the clouds. "But first I have to learn the streets around here."
|