Will this move restore your confidence in TransLink? Comment on Facebook. === TransLink has forced out longtime CEO Ian Jarvis in what it calls a bid to “restore public confidence” ahead of a plebiscite this spring that will ask Metro Vancouver voters to approve a 0.5-per-cent sales tax hike for transportation expansion. The decision comes as TransLink continues to grapple with plummeting public confidence, triggered by SkyTrain breakdowns and Compass card delays, board chairwoman Marcella Szel said Wednesday. Doug Allen, most recently president and chief executive officer of InTransit BC, has been appointed interim CEO, while Jarvis will remain at TransLink as an adviser to the board until the end of his contract in June 2016. Jarvis, who has served TransLink since 1999 and as CEO since 2009, will also continue to draw his salary, which amounted to $422,407 in 2013 — of which $83,700 was in bonuses — while Allen will be paid $35,000 per month for the next six months as the search continues for a new CEO. “We are not particularly happy paying two CEO salaries for a year-and-a-half,” Szel said. “But it was the board’s view to change leadership and change leadership now. We believe it’s the right thing to do. We need to build public confidence at TransLink.” But analysts say it may not translate into more YES votes for the upcoming plebiscite. While Jarvis’s “sacrificial head” may lure some Yes voters to the cause, there may be too “much social negative equity out there,” said Lindsay Meredith, a marketing professor at Simon Fraser University. Plus, he said, the fact TransLink is paying two CEO salaries and asking for more money may not fly with the public. “It’s kind of a double whammy here,” he said. “The perception will be ‘gee whiz, it’s TransLink as usual and they’re still looking for more money.’ ” The announcement comes as the Yes side, led by the mayors’ council, ramps up efforts to draw support for the proposed tax, which is expected to generate $250 million annually and help fund $7.5-billion worth of transportation projects over 10 years. But the No side, led by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, argues regional mayors should find the money within their own coffers and not trust TransLink with any more public money until it has been restructured. The transportation authority, created by the province in 2007, is headed by an appointed board that often makes decisions in secret and has been criticized for high executives salaries. “This tells us the Yes side is smarting from all the criticism of TransLink and the management of TransLink has become an issue. It’s dominated the discussion rather than the merits of the proposal,” said Max Cameron, a political-science professor at the University of B.C. “It’s an acknowledgment that there has to be a change in the management of TransLink, and that’s a positive, but the problem with TransLink is there are deep issues with the structure. You can throw the CEO under the bus but TransLink remains TransLink.”

Szel said Wednesday it would be up to the provincial government to restructure the organization, which is responsible for providing transit services in a “very complicated region.” In the meantime, she said, the board has listened to the public and decided a new leader is necessary to provide a “new set of eyes” to look at the accountability and transparency and ensure TransLink can move quickly after the plebiscite — regardless of whether it has more money to fund transit or has to continue operating at existing levels. Allen, who will oversee all TransLink operations including its bus and rail subsidiaries, said he will look at all aspects of the organization to see where efficiencies can be made within TransLink. Although Szel would not say whether the mayors’ council played a role in dumping Jarvis, Transportation Minister Todd Stone said it was his understanding the mayors of Vancouver and Surrey — who sit on the TransLink board — were part of the decision to let Metro Vancouver know that TransLink is “under new management.” “They obviously, as a board, came to the conclusion that notwithstanding the successes and failures of TransLink to this point, TransLink needed new leadership at the top, so they acted and acted decisively,” Stone said. Stone wouldn’t say if he also recommended letting Jarvis go, but noted he has been in regular contact with the mayors and Szel and had offered his “perspectives on this.” “I believe TransLink needed new leadership,” Stone said. “That is a perspective shared widely, not just among most, if not all, of the mayors of the mayors’ council. I think that’s a perspective that’s shared by many of the peoples who live in the region of Metro Vancouver.” The mayors’ council has been clear in distancing the YES campaign from TransLink, claiming it’s their regional plan and not TransLink’s. Earlier in the day, Surrey Mayor Linda Hepner, vice-chairwoman of the mayors’ council, insisted TransLink would not even get the funds from the new tax, which would be held by the province and designated to the specific projects. “This is not about a single organization, this is about our plan and that’s the message we want to get across,” she said. However, Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson said a statement later the Allen’s appointment is “an excellent first step in rebuilding the trust that TransLink needs to do its job.” “We have heard loud and clear from residents across the region that they value the services that TransLink provides, but that they want and expect meaningful change to ensure TransLink works better.” NDP critic George Heyman said the latest situation highlights the need for a better governance structure. “It’s clear there’s a crisis of confidence in TransLink and the minister also has pretty clearly directed the board to terminate Mr. Jarvis,” he said. “But what the minister is really admitting by doing this is we have a failed and unaccountable governance structure … and a whole bunch of decisions at TransLink that completely lack transparency. ”