By Tim Sheehan

Jeff Morales, who for the past five years has been the chief executive officer in charge of California’s embattled high-speed rail project, announced Friday that he is stepping down as head of the state’s High-Speed Rail Authority.

Related Articles Feinstein urges Silicon Valley to fight GOP on Caltrain upgrade The formal announcement came in a letter to Gov. Jerry Brown and to the rail agency’s board of directors.

“We’ve gotten the program moving,” Morales, 57, told The Bee on Friday. “Look at where we’ve come in five years, taking this from not much more than an idea to having 1,000 construction jobs in place and all the work you can see there in Fresno and Madera.”

“My goal, and I shared this with the board and the governor, was to get the program up and running and to hit some key milestones,” he added. With the sale this week by the state treasurer of the first bonds from Proposition 1A — the $9.9 billion rail bond measure approved by California voters in 2008 — and progress in construction of the first sections of the project in the Valley, “it’s just a good time now to transition and bring in a fresh horse to run the next leg.”

Morales’ official last day is June 2, but he said he will work with the agency during a transition to new leadership. Morales said he’s been in discussions with the authority’s board for a couple of months on a transition plan even as the agency has been conducting a recruitment and search for a new chief operating officer. “Everything is moving forward together,” he said Friday. “Over the next few weeks we’ll see how this all comes together. We’re working on it as a package.”

Morales was hired by the rail authority in mid-2012, and he was someone the agency already knew well as a vice president for Parsons Brinckerhoff, the international consulting company that was the authority’s main project management firm on the statewide project. Morales worked 12 years for Parsons Brinckerhoff.

Prior to that, Morales was head of the California Department of Transportation from 2000 to 2004.

Morales said there was no particular thing that precipitated his decision beyond determining that it was simply time to move on.

“It’s been five years in this role,” he said. “In some ways it feels like dog years in a program like this. I am really very proud of what we’ve accomplished, and you see it most directly in Fresno, with all the businesses working on the project. It’s something you don’t get to do very often.”

In a written statement, authority board chairman Dan Richard praised Morales: “Jeff has successfully built the organization over the past five years and we’re grateful for his leadership. He moved the high-speed rail project from the planning phase into construction, laying the groundwork for commercial operation.”

Brown was similarly complimentary. “Jeff was instrumental at a crucial point in time and led California’s high-speed rail project through a very challenging period,” the governor said. “His dedicated and skillful leadership is exactly what was needed.”

Both before and during Morales’ tenure, the rail project was dogged by legal, political and financial challenges. Morales replaced Roelof Van Ark, a former rail company executive who was widely respected as an engineer but who some observers suggested lacked the political skills needed to steer the controversial project in Sacramento.

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—2017 The Fresno Bee (Fresno, Calif.)

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