Former Chicago aviation boss Jamie Rhee will serve as the interim executive director of the state’s new governing body for public transit, the board of the nascent Northern Illinois Transit Authority voted during its first meeting Thursday.
Rhee oversaw Chicago’s O’Hare and Midway airports under three Chicago mayors before retiring last year amid a spate of departures from Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration. As interim head of NITA — which now oversees the Chicago Transit Authority, Metra and Pace — she’ll be tasked with guiding the Chicago area’s mass transit systems through a critical transition period.
A veteran of Chicago city government, Rhee also worked as the city’s chief procurement officer and as deputy chief of staff to former Mayor Richard M. Daley. At the Aviation Department, she oversaw major construction projects at both airports.
The announcement of Rhee’s exit from Aviation last year came days after Johnson pledged to purge the city of officials who weren’t sufficiently loyal to him.
Now, she’ll be charged — on an interim basis — with leading NITA, which is intended to become a more powerful version of the now-defunct Regional Transportation Authority with broader authority over the CTA, Metra and Pace, and more cash on hand to fund regional transit service.
Rhee was named to the interim post in a 19-1 vote after a lengthy executive session. Before the vote, board member and Johnson appointee Oswaldo Alvarez pushed back, suggesting members should consider holding an emergency meeting to vet more candidates. “I was not aware that we had an open seat, I was not aware that we had candidates and I was not aware that there was a vetting process until just right now,” he said. Ultimately, Alvarez was the only no vote on Rhee’s temporary appointment.
Rhee’s appointment to the temporary top job comes after the longtime head of the RTA, Leanne Redden, announced her retirement earlier this month. It wasn’t immediately clear what Rhee’s salary as interim transit boss would be.
During the discussion of Rhee’s appointment, board member Dennis Mondero said Rhee had pledged not to seek the permanent appointment unless the NITA board unanimously agreed to it.
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In brief remarks to the board, Rhee said she was “deeply honored” to take on the role. “My career has been spent leading large, complex organizations through moments of challenge, transformation and growth, and I bring that same steadiness and strategic focus to NITA,” she said.
“For years, transit was my lifeline to get to school, work and places that shaped my life,” she said. “The perspective grounds me in what riders need and deserve: safety, reliability, dignity and access.”
Appointing Rhee to lead the agency through its infancy was one of the first actions the 20-member NITA board took during its first meeting Thursday. The board also named Tom Kotarac, a former RTA board member and senior vice president at the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago, as their chair. He will also need confirmation from the Illinois Senate.
Kotarac, who now serves on the new boards of NITA and the CTA, leads transportation and infrastructure work for the Civic Committee. Before joining the Civic Committee, Kotarac worked at the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning and for U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin on Capitol Hill. He emerged as a key figure during the transition to NITA, presiding over transition committee meetings at the RTA. According to a news release put out by NITA after Thursday’s meeting, Kotarac is a “daily” CTA train rider. The same release described Rhee as a “regular” CTA rider.
In brief remarks during Thursday’s board meeting, Kotarac said the NITA legislation had given the region “a genuine opportunity for a fresh start.”
He said the new agency could create a transit system “where a bus stop or a train station is one of the safest places … where a rider can seamlessly move from a train to a bus to a shared bike or scooter and maybe someday, even a robotaxi or an autonomous vehicle.” The new system, Kotarac said, would be one in which “transit is the first choice people make when they think about how to move around the region.”
Though Kotarac was appointed to the RTA’s board by Johnson in 2024, his appointments to the new boards came from Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle. The NITA legislation gives him the authority to appoint a permanent executive director for NITA, with the agreement of 11 other board members.
Later Thursday, the NITA board approved a national search process for a new permanent leader. The board voted to allow Kotarac to execute a contract with the Washington, D.C.-based search firm Krauthamer & Associates for the search.
“I think we start with the assumption we’re looking internationally,” Kotarac said when asked after the meeting whether the future leader might be a local candidate or one from outside the region. “We’re going for the best of the best.”
Asked whether there would be national searches for the heads of the CTA, Metra and Pace as well, Kotarac said that was “unclear” at the moment. The transit legislation calls for Kotarac as board chair and whomever is ultimately selected as NITA executive director to be involved in any search process for new heads of those agencies.
The legislation also calls for the NITA board to give its “advice and consent” for the approval of any new service board executives. That’s a change from the past, when, for instance, only CTA board votes were needed to approve a new CTA head.
Also Thursday, the new NITA board approved an expansion of a low-income fare pilot program that already exists on Metra. Later this fall, reduced fares for people receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits will be available to CTA and Pace riders, too.
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