The Greater Cleveland Regional Transportation Authority elected a new board president on Tuesday after the previous president resigned for improperly receiving more than $1 million in healthcare benefits.
Westlake Mayor Dennis Clough has been named board president and Rev. Charles Lucas as vice president. They were elected by the ten-member RTA board and will each serve a one-year term.
Clough is the longest serving member of the board. He was appointed in 1999 by the Cuyahoga County Mayors and the City Managers Association. He was then elected board vice president in 2011.
Lucas joined the RTA Board in 2016. He is Vicar of St. James AME Church on Cedar Avenue and also serves as Chairman of the City's Community Relations Board and the Chairman of the Council of Economic Opportunities in Greater Cleveland. He is also the past president of the Cleveland Chapter of the NAACP.
An investigation found that the previous RTA board president George F. Dixon, III improperly received more than $1.1 million in healthcare benefits and unpaid premiums over a 24-year period. The investigation also claimed he did not reimburse RTA for his "extensive personal use" of a company-issued cell phone during a 10-year period.
