Metra owes explanation

It’s time for Metra Chairman Brad O’Halloran to give us a good reason Metra CEO Alex Clifford had to go last month.

O’Halloran vaguely says that under Clifford, Metra “wasn’t going in the right direction.” Sorry, that explanation won’t do. Not when the buyout for Clifford could cost more than $700,000.

Clifford did not appear Thursday before an Illinois House committee probing the buyout, saying he couldn’t do so without Metra’s permission because of a confidentiality agreement. But there were plenty of references at that hearing to a memo Clifford wrote alleging, among other things, that House Speaker Mike Madigan pressured Metra to give a particular employee a raise.

And what do you know? Madigan admits “recommending” that raise, although he vows he didn’t pressure anybody. Would that be the same Mike Madigan whose sonin-law in 2011 landed a $130,000-a-year job as chief lobbyist for the Regional Transportation Authority, which oversees Metra? It would be. Will that raise questions in people’s minds about just how much Illinois politicians interfere with agencies such as Metra? We’re guessing it will.

Metra ticket buyers and taxpayers — the people who are going to pay for that huge buyout — need to hear some real reasons Clifford couldn’t be permitted to go on doing his job running the commuter rail agency for eight more months until his contract ran out, at which point there would have been no need for a golden parachute. And Metra should permit Clifford to respond without putting his buyout at risk. That way, we’d have a clearer idea of what really happened and whether the Metra board was wise to offer such a big separation agreement.

Metra lawyer Joseph Gagliardo told legislators Thursday that fighting out this dispute in court would have cost much more than the buyout. In many cases, it does make sense to put conflicts to rest and move forward.

But too many questions are still swirling around Metra. After this fiasco, will the agency be able to entice a competent professional to replace Clifford? Was Metra’s generous payout motivated by a desire to sweep Clifford’s allegations, including the one about Madigan, under the rug? Was this a replay of the University of Illinois scandal, in which politicians pressured the university for favors?