Touting Hartnett’s tenure

When he was hired, Hartnett was an attorney, a former Redwood City mayor and a former member of both the SamTrans and Caltrain boards. The decision to hire someone who was not a transit lifer was what was needed. What he may have lacked in technical expertise, he knew how to find in others.

What he brought to the job were political savvy, political contacts and a doggedness to pursue the larger and largely external goals of an organization that was well-run, lean, efficient and effective.

By any measure, Hartnett’s tenure has been a phenomenal success. He is leaving to pursue other interests, a cliché that actually warrants its full value. And he is leaving SamTrans and Caltrain better than he found them.

Thanks to the passage of a sales tax measure in 2018, SamTrans is on sound financial footing for the first time since the agency put up its own money to extend BART down the Peninsula and to cover the purchase price of Caltrain for San Francisco and Santa Clara counties.

Even then, Caltrain had financial struggles. It was one of the few transit agencies in the country that did not have its own dedicated source of reliable funding. That was fixed in November with the passage of a three-county sales tax that he steered through a dense political thicket of parochial and egotistical interests.

That would have been a good day’s work. But at the same time, Hartnett pursued and won $647 million in federal funding for the Caltrain electrification project, despite skepticism and even outright opposition from those who thought the Trump administration would never allocate the funds.

And there are dozens of smaller successes, including an array of partnerships that manifest themselves in projects and funding.

So, as Hartnett takes his leave this week after six years of a promised five-year commitment, he can look forward to a new chapter in a varied career that is not over.

“I’m not old enough to run for president yet,” Hartnett said, “but I’m getting closer to that age and there are some things I want to do and not regret I didn’t try to do them.”

He had a long and successful career as an attorney. At the same time, he served the public at length on the Redwood City Council.

Going to work at SamTrans and Caltrain “was a major change in life and profession for me, something I’m so happy I did because it allowed me to spend 100% of my time on public service and cap my career on a public mission. I’ve done that. It’s time for me to pursue some other passions.”

A Navy veteran, Hartnett long has been fascinated with national security and military affairs. He is considering publishing in the field, and becoming a member of the Intelligence and National Security Alliance, a nonprofit forum that addresses national security challenges. He also has applied to a national security program at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey.

He was asked to reflect on his years at SamTrans and Caltrain, and to comment on the brewing fight over the structure and governance of the Caltrain board and the historic management of the railroad by SamTrans.

The conflict is “probably an inevitable circumstance arising out of the success of Caltrain,” he said. “(SamTrans) does a fantastic job as the managing agency.” A recent Caltrain business plan, prepared by an independent consultant, described Caltrain as the seventh largest commuter rail system in the country and “the most efficiently run,” Hartnett noted.

As for why there is conflict over the management of a transit agency that is, by all measures, a success, Hartnett passed.

Except to respond to one Caltrain board member’s repeated and unsupported assertion that Caltrain has been managed by SamTrans to the benefit of SamTrans.

“It’s absolutely not true,” Hartnett said, “but on the policy side and the political side, it’s best for other people to talk about this.”

Beyond that, Hartnett responded with typical succinctness: “I don’t look backwards. I just look forward.”

Mark Simon is a veteran journalist, whose career included 15 years as an executive at SamTrans and Caltrain. He can be reached at marksimon@smdailyjournal.com.