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Providence Journal, 8/20/08

RIPTA chairman resigns
By Bruce Landis
Journal staff writer

PROVIDENCE -- Robert D. Batting, the first of Governor Carcieri's appointees to the state transit authority board and its chairman, has resigned.

Batting leaves the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority at a critical juncture, with the agency facing a $12 million budget deficit that threatens to force significant cutbacks in its bus service during the next several months.

He has been a vigorous, long-time critic of the authority's management and accompanied confirmation of his departure with sharp criticism of what he said has been noncooperation and worse on the part of authority officials.

Batting, whose resignation was effective Aug. 13, also earned the dislike of many RIPTA officials and employees, who saw him as a threat to both themselves and to the state's public transit system.

He had not gotten along with RIPTA's managers almost since his appointment in 2003. He said Tuesday that he confronted at the authority "a situation where management continues along a route where I didn't want any part of it." He said the problems at the agency included "deception on the part of management."

For example, he said, it took him months to get what he considered adequate financial data.

Alfred J. Moscola, RIPTA's general manager, denied any deception this morning. In fact, Moscola said, he answered Batting's questions and tried to do what he wanted. "I don't think he understands transit the way I know it," said Moscola, who also had a long career in the New York City Metropolitan Transit Authority.

Batting was also blocked on some key votes by other appointees by Governor Carcieri, notably in the authority board's July approval of a project Batting has opposed for years, a $38 million facility on Elmwood Avenue for its large paratransit system serving the elderly and handicapped.