A former Regional Transit Authority executive who last month was knocked out of consideration in the agency's search for a new CEO is in line to get a second shot at the top job.

At a meeting Tuesday, the RTA's board of commissioners is expected to vote on a resolution adding former RTA deputy CEO Mark Major to its list of finalists, after a New York City transit executive who initially made the cut dropped out.

Major was one of five semi-finalists interviewed by the RTA board in executive session in August. In a public vote that followed, Major didn't receive enough support from board members to advance to the final round of three.

Last week, however, one of those three finalists, Bernard Jackson, the chief operating officer at the New York City Transit Authority, withdrew from consideration, according to an RTA press release. The resolution Tuesday will replace Jackson with Major, the next runner-up in the vote tally, maintaining a pool of three finalists.

Major began working at the RTA in 1983 and was the runner-up during the agency’s last CEO search in 2023. He filed a lawsuit against the RTA last year claiming he was wrongfully terminated by former CEO Lona Edwards Hankins, but dropped the suit in July before submitting his application.

The CEO search, which has been underway since May, began drawing more questions last week after WBOK radio host and attorney Suzette Bagneris said on air that the executive search firm hired by the RTA, North Carolina-based KL2 Connects, initially didn't score Major high enough to be one of its five semi-finalists.

On Friday, Mayor Helena Moreno told WWL-Louisiana that when she learned Major and another local candidate, Justin Augustine, the former manager of the RTA when it was operated by a private company, didn't score among the top candidates in an initial review of qualifications, she urged the consultants to give them another look.

"As mayor, I absolutely did provide stakeholder input into this search process," Moreno told WWL-Louisiana, "especially when it's my vision for an improved RTA that we are working to accomplish."

Before Jackson dropped out, Moreno in a letter asked the RTA to reconsider all five semi-finalists in its final round, though board chair Ann Duplessis said they planned to stick with a final three.

After the WBOK report, transit advocacy group RIDE New Orleans last week announced that it was withdrawing from a public forum for the CEO candidates that had been planned for Monday, stating they were concerned about the process.

"RIDE believes any additional steps in the search for RTA's next CEO must pause until the public receives clarity on these issues," RIDE executive director Courtney Jackson wrote Thursday.

The RTA said in its press release Friday that the next phase of the search will include "engagement with local transit experts and the New Orleans community," though it said it is still confirming details.

The board is expected to interview the candidates again in executive session at an Oct. 27 meeting, followed by a public vote on a final selection.

“The selection of RTA’s next Chief Executive Officer is one of the board’s most important responsibilities,” Duplessis said in a statement. “We remain focused on completing a thoughtful process and identifying the leader best prepared to serve RTA’s employees, riders and the New Orleans community.”

The RTA board meeting begins at 10 a.m. and will take place at the agency's headquarters at 2817 Canal Street.

© 2026 The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate.
Visit www.nola.com.
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.