Calling out in transit: Advocates ridicule mayor for re-nominating NITA-skeptical Barclay, Pastor Eaddy to new CTA board, leaving behind eTOD expert Requejo

Today Mayor Brandon Johnson took steps toward reifying our region’s new transit governance structure, as dictated by the Northern Illinois Transit Authority Act. He nominated directors for the remixed CTA board, as well as the NITA (the replacement for the Regional Transit Authority umbrella agency), Metra, and Pace boards. The Chicago City Council will have to approve Johnson’s picks.

The suburban transit advocacy guru known as Star:Line Chicago created the following graphic, which shows the current board composition for the four transit agencies, and what it will be when the new boards launch on September 1. In the past, the Chicago mayor tapped four out of seven CTA directors, but under the new structure, Johnson only gets to choose three out of seven.

Here are screenshots of City documents listing the mayor’s nominees and their reported credentials, shared on Twitter by Block Club Chicago reporter Quinn Myers.

Tribune transportation reporter Talia Soglin did a good summary of the nomination process, and some of the issues involved. If you have a subscription, I’d suggest giving it a read to get up to speed on the somewhat arcane proceedings.

Streetsblog reached out to several local transit advocacy organizations and experts to get their opinions on Johnson’s picks. But none of those who responded were prepared to give a statement by press time. If we hear from any of them in the near future, this post will be updated.

The main thing that seemed odd when I saw the list of board candidates was that the mayor was re-appointing Pastor Michael Eaddy to the CTA board. While Eaddy has been a a key figure in the West Side’s faith community and no stranger to West Side politics, when Johnson nominated him in 2024, he had zero transit expertise. And he doesn’t seem to have done much to distinguish himself during his two years on the board.

But over on Bluesky, Star:Line Chicago also poked fun at the mayor for re-appointing current CTA Board Chair Lester Barclay (Johnson also picked him for the NITA board), but leaving behind director Roberto Requejo. Last November in a Trib op-ed, Barclay expressed skepticism about the Chicago mayor losing dominance over the CTA, warning that it could dilute “the local accountability and autonomy that have been essential to delivering responsive, community-centered service.” So after second-guessing the NITA Act, he seems like an unusual choice to serve on the NITA board.

Meanwhile, Requejo was formerly the executive director of Elevated Chicago, a nonprofit that promotes equitable transit-oriented development and helped coordinate the creation of the City’s eTOD plan. The Trib’s Talia Soglin implied that Johnson may have abandoned Requejo as payback for him opposing the mayor’s plan to nominate his ex-chief operating officer John Roberson who, again, had little or no transit expertise, to be CTA President. That happened during a surreal May 2025 CTA board meeting I call The Notorious “Don’t Be A Backbiting Snake” Incident.

Here’s some more commentary on Johnson’s selections from the Star:Line Chicago discussion.

Again, we’ll update this article with formal statements from other transit advocacy organizations and experts, as opposed to incisive Bluesky posts and amusing memes, if we hear back from them.

Update 7/8/26, 4:15 PM: Better Streets Chicago Executive Director Kyle Lucas provided the following statement on Mayor Johnson’s transit board choices.

“The Johnson administration’s appointment of Chairman Lester Barclay to the NITA board is profoundly baffling. Barclay’s leadership on the Chicago Transit Board spanned the pandemic, where riders saw on full display what a lack of oversight means for their day-to-day: “ghost” buses and trains, long waits, and problems ignored until they become longstanding crises. In response to Chairman Barclay’s refusal to hold former CTA leadership accountable, City Council was forced to step in and conduct its own oversight.”

“In November, Chairman Barclay demonstrated no lessons had been learned from this experience, when after the passage of NITA he wrote an op-ed slamming the governance reforms that are designed to make our systems better connected, eliminate silos between our agencies, provide more frequent, reliable, and accessible service – and most importantly, provide real accountability to riders. He has consistently shown throughout his tenure and in monthly board meetings a lack of interest in improving service reliability and frequency, key priorities for transit riders. Ultimately, the reforms in NITA are only as good as those who will implement them, and it’s critical that the board consists of members who believe in the future that advocates, community members, and Illinois lawmakers fought so hard to win in 2025.”

“Transit riders deserve NITA board members who ride the system, who understand and listen to their concerns, and who are going to get on board the NITA train to deliver the regional transit system that we know is possible.”

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