On July 14, Mayor Brandon Johnson’s picks for the Northern Illinois Transit Authority and its service boards appeared before the City Council Transportation Committee for questioning of their qualifications for the positions, which featured the renomination of two current CTA board members, Lester Barclay and the Rev. Michael Eaddy. These two stick out among a slate of otherwise qualified candidates.

A primary goal of NITA is increasing regional coordination so that Metra, the CTA and Pace are not planning in silos. A lack of coordination is evidenced in the Belmont Cragin and Montclare neighborhoods, where a Metra line, multiple CTA lines and multiple Pace lines almost converge but remain blocks away from each other’s terminus. This is frustrating and an obvious problem if you ride the system. If you don’t ride the system, you might never know.

This is the crux of the issue with Barclay and Eaddy; they don’t ride the system frequently, not even once a week on average. Since 2023, I have obtained information on the ridership of CTA board members and top staff members through public records requests. All CTA staff and board members are provided with a Ventra card that grants them free access to the system they oversee. Once this information became public, some staff members began to use their cards more. This cannot be said for Barclay and Eaddy.

In 2025, Barclay rode the system 49 times, up from 17 rides in 2022. Eaddy rode the CTA 21 times that year, with all rides taking place in two months. In May 2024, Eaddy was appointed. His first ride on the system did not happen until March 2025. Then, no rides for 10 months after being appointed. For comparison, acting President Nora Leerhsen rode the system 549 times.

Commuter advocates: Make Nora Leerhsen the CTA’s permanent president

You may want to write off the drastic difference because the CTA president should be taking the system they oversee. (Former President Dorval Carter took 58 rides in 2023.)

However, the CTA board is expected to be the check on the CTA’s actions and ensure the health of the system. You cannot do this if you do not ride the system. Knowing its issues is learned by relying on the system. These two members do not. As one public commenter pointed out, “If I were appointing someone to the Chicago Public Library board, I wouldn’t want someone who didn’t read books.”

Public commenters and aldermen alike had this concern. Asked by Ald. Andre Vasquez, Eaddy decried the question by stating, “That is very inaccurate. I have a pass; I just don’t choose to use it. Whatever I am a part of, I invest in it.”

This reeks of willfully evading accountability. Implying you’re on a moral high ground for paying is flawed when you are a public official who will be asked this question. It’s one of the only ways to know how a board member is fulfilling or not fulfilling their duty.

Barclay had a less stark reaction, stating that he tries to average one ride per week. That is both not enough rides to understand the concerns of frequent riders and flatly untrue. Barclay’s 49 rides, while close to that average, would be recognized as a true statement if 43% of those rides had not been completed in two months. Additionally, during questioning, he struggled to articulate his position and instead agreed to broad statements of support for “any collaborative effort” that would address issues.

Underscoring the concern was Johnson’s habit of announcing nominations immediately before deadlines that have the effect of the City Council feeling compelled to agree so that positions do not remain vacant. In this instance, if Barclay and Eaddy had not been confirmed, it is likely that two seats on the NITA board would not be filled by Sept. 1, the day the new NITA board members start their term.

The City Council is in recess for August, which leaves no future meeting for nominees to be appointed before September. Johnson tried to pull a similar maneuver in May when he asked CTA board members to conduct a national search for a permanent CTA president three weeks before his power to make such an appointment expired. 

Last-minute maneuvers to force the hands of aldermen on what looks more like appointments of friends and allies than people with leadership potential is cronyism that is being supported by those the mayor chooses to surround himself with.

Not all nominees suffer from the shortcomings of Barclay and Eaddy. Dee Atkins and Natasha Jenkins demonstrated their understanding of the system’s shortcomings during the hearing. A point of personal frustration for Atkins is that she gets “flustered because I have to pay again when transferring from the Metra to the L,” a well-understood feeling for a region that is supposed to have coordinated transit.

Jenkins, without being prompted, brought up the lack of fare capping in fare payment systems. This is a need known by those who may take an unexpected third trip and now must pay $7.50 instead of benefiting from a daily capped fare of $5, the cost of a day pass.

The Johnson administration’s maneuvers cost us the potential of greater success. With the full City Council giving approval, Chicagoland is likely stuck with Barclay and Eaddy until at least September 2029.

Nik Hunder is a policy analyst, researcher and safe transportation advocate based in Chicago.

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