Freeland leaving transportation authority
Ronald L. Freeland is retiring as executive secretary of the Maryland Transportation Authority after about 3 1/2 years in the job, Transportation Secretary Beverly Swaim-Staley has announced.
Freeland, a veteran transportation professional, was named to the top executive post at the toll authority shortly after Martin O'Malley became governor in 2007. He will be succeeded on an interim basis by DDeputy Transportation Secretary Harold Bartlett.
According to the Transportation Department, Freeland will retire after 24 years in public service in late August and join T. Y. Lin International as Mid-Atlantic director of the engineering and consulting firm.
As executive secretary, Freeland presided over several controversial policy decisions, including the imposition of a service fee for maintaining an E-ZPass account and the adoption of a toll schedule for the Inter-county Connector, the first segment of which is expected to open in early 2011.
The transportation authority's board is expected to conduct a search for a replacement headed by Human Resources Committee Chairman Rev. William C. Calhoun Sr. Recruitment of a new top executive could be complicated by the election the gubernatorial election in November. Department spokeswoman Erin Henson said the board will decide whether to wait until after the election.
While the board officially decides who is chosen as executive secretary, it customarily considers the wishes of the governor and transportation secretary, the political appointee who chairs the authority.
