Five MATA Board members resign, sources tell FOX13
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MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Five Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA) Board members resigned Thursday morning, city officials confirmed to FOX13.
The board is made up of a total of nine members, meaning more than half of the board has resigned.
“The City of Memphis has accepted the resignations of five members of the MATA Board of Commissioners. We thank them for their service,” a city spokesperson said. “As we move forward, our priority remains to ensure safe and reliable transit for all riders. We will outline next steps soon, including those to provide stability and strengthen oversight.”
When FOX13 reached out to MATA Thursday afternoon, a spokesperson told FOX13, “We have not received official notification of this.”
Memphis Mayor Paul Young replaced that entire board in October 2024. He replaced the former board with Brandon Arrindale, Cynthia Bailey, Emily Greer, Sandi Klink, Brian Marflak, Jackson McNeil, Anna McQuiston, Dana Pointer, and Maya Siggers. The mayor said he wanted to create a “clean-slate environment” in MATA. That happened soon after MATA announced a $60 million budget deficit.
One of the board’s first orders of business, in January 2025, was to replace the organization’s CEO, COO, and CFO with the consulting firm TransPro. MATA paid TransPro CEO John Lewis $486 per hour, TransPro COO Steve Hamelin $205 per hour, and TransPro CFO Aaron Headly $40,000 per week.
MATA has been searching for a new, full-time CEO, but the search hit a snag Tuesday, a day before MATA was set to interview candidates for the position. MATA abruptly suspended the search. The City of Memphis said that the pause was to expand the candidate pool, a group that had shrunk from six to three during the process.
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