Marilyn Shazor, the first woman and first African American CEO of Cincinnati’s Metro public transit system, issued a statement Tuesday saying she plans to fight her removal from the position last Friday. In a surprise move, Shazor was replaced on an interim basis by Tom Hock, president and CEO of Professional Transit Management LLC, the national transit management company that provides professional staff to Metro on a contract basis. Shazor was employed by PTM, rather than by Metro.

Marilyn Shazor, at right, is shown with Metro Board Chair Melody Sawyer Richardson and former Metro CEO Michael Setzer at a reception at The Queen City Club when she was named to succeed Setzer in March 2008. Photo by Dan Yount In a statement released by her lawyer, retired federal court judge Nathaniel R. Jones, Shazor said, “The termination action taken against me by Tom Hock of Professional Transit Management was a shock and absolutely without basis in fact or law. No reason for the action was given to me even though the action was followed by media leaks intended to justify the action. The statements leaked to the media are false.”

Tom Hock is now interim CEO of Metro. Photo provided While top officials refused comment, some unidentified board members have reportedly blamed Shazor for declining ridership, reduced service, layoffs, and increased fares. Those same members also indicated Shazor allegedly misled them about PTM’s relationship with Metro.

In Shazor’s statement released by Judge Jones, she added, “The truth is contained in the written evaluations of my work as CEO that pre-date the firing. These evaluations and other comments from Metro officers who had the responsibility for evaluating my leadership are uniformly excellent. They consistently praised my efforts and achievements as CEO. The assertion that I misled the Metro Board on any issue is absolutely false.’’

The termination action taken against me by Tom Hock of Professional Transit Management was a shock and absolutely without basis in fact or law.” Marilyn Shazor Shazor said she intends to use the legal system “to redress the injustice inflicted on me by Transit Management and to protect my rights, my professional reputation and my record from the baseless smears intentionally designed to mask the falsehoods given to justify action taken by Professional Transit.’’

The 13 Metro directors met in executive session Tuesday to discuss Shazor’s dismissal. The only statement that has been released is by Hock, who said, “This is a personnel matter and I can’t comment on Ms. Shazor’s status or the SORTA (Metro) board ‘s comments. I will say, however, that PTM remains committed to operating quality transit service for the Greater Cincinnati community. It is our goal to retain an experienced transit executive retain an experienced transit executive to fill the CEO position as soon as possible.’’

Metro spokeswoman Sallie Hilvers said she was not aware of the details behind Shazor’s removal from the CEO post. “Whenever someone leaves a position as a CEO, there is always an element of surprise,” she said.

Hock, who has had 36 years of transit experience and served as Metro’s labor counsel, is co-founder and CEO of PTM headquartered in Cincinnati, and has played an active role in countless transit systems throughout the U.S., particularly in labor relations decisions. Prior to establishing PTM, he served as vice president of labor relations and executive vice president of transit management for Ryder/ATE.

Shazor has headed Metro’s operations since March 2008 as the successor to Michael Setzer. She served two years as the transit’s chief operations officer before being appointed CEO, at which time she became an employee of PTM, which has been under contract to provide chief management personnel to Metro for many years.

Shazor came to Metro with impressive credentials. She graduated from West Point with a degree in aerospace engineering. Among other leadership positions in the Army, in 1990 she was promoted to manage the administrative operations of a unit of 700 personnel and coordinated their return from the Gulf War. Once she completed her service to the armed forces, she joined the James River Corp. as a project engineer. In 1993, she became the project manager for Mead Corporate Engineering in Dayton, supervising multi-million dollar engineering and construction projects. She was recognized by US Black Engineers magazine and US Hispanic Engineers as one of the nation’s top 100 women of color in science and technology in 1999. She then earned an M.B.A. from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan Ann Arbor. She worked with the Cincinnati Metropolitan Housing Authority before joining Metro. Shazor serves on the boards of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, the Fine Arts Fund, the University of Cincinnati’s College Conservatory of Music, and Chatfield College.

In a speech given by Shazor earlier this year, she said that due to the recession Metro is facing one of its biggest challenges. Both the earnings tax and passenger revenue are down, resulting in a $16.8 million budget shortfall coming into this year, she said. . To help balance its budget, Cincinnati City Council approved a 12 percent service reduction and increased base fares by 25 cents.

Metro currently has 350 buses and 900 employees, and provides almost 80,000 passenger trips each day throughout the region over 51 routes. Its Our Access paratransit operation is second to none in the country, providing Metro’s $90 million annual budget comes from the city earnings tax, and most of the rest comes from passenger fares, with a small amount made up of state and federal funding.

Shazor pointed to some recent accomplishments, such as:

-The purchase of diesel-electric hybrid buses to significantly reduce emissions and cut consumption.

-Reducing travel times by using the shoulder lane on Interstate 75.

-The creation of the Everybody Rides Metro foundation to work with organizations to provide free rides for those who cannot afford to ride Metro. The program has helped more than 60,000 low-income individuals this year and was recognized by the American Public Transportation

Association as the most innovative transit program in the country in 2008. - The use of social media to more effectively communicate up-to-date information to customers. - The addition to the fleet of articulated vehicles featuring an “accordion” in the middle that allow for over 100 passengers on a vehicle. -- And a schedule adherence and safety record that rival the best in the country, and in 2009, exceeded all internal goals for reliability, safety and courteous service.