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ANNAPOLIS — A couple of transportation projects dear to Montgomery County may have gotten a new ally when former Montgomery County budget director Beverley K. Swaim-Staley became the state's acting transportation secretary Monday.
Swaim-Staley succeeds John D. Porcari, who was confirmed by the U.S. Senate last month as deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation.
"The secretary had done a very good job to achieve the governor's vision," Swaim-Staley said in a telephone interview Tuesday. "My job will be to continue that vision."
That vision includes preparing Maryland to compete for federal transit dollars for the Purple Line and the Corridor Cities Transitway, Swaim-Staley said. The two Montgomery County projects, along with the Red Line in metropolitan Baltimore, comprise Gov. Martin O'Malley's transit priorities.
The state is preparing environmental impact statements and data on estimated ridership and costs of the projects to submit to the Federal Transit Administration.
The Corridor Cities Transitway would be a light rail or rapid bus line connecting the Shady Grove Metro station to Clarksburg. The Purple Line is a proposed 16-mile light rail or bus line from Bethesda to New Carrollton. They would compete with other projects from around the country under the federal New Starts program.
Congress will consider reauthorization of the massive federal transportation funding bill in the fall.
Swaim-Staley said she also is focused on continuing short-term projects funded by $610 million that Maryland received in federal stimulus dollars. Those projects include transit system maintenance and station upgrades, as well as road upgrades, such as the mile-long repaving of New Hampshire Avenue in White Oak that President Barack H. Obama announced in March as the first highway project in the country to receive stimulus funds.
Porcari, who served two tours as chief of the state's roads and transit system, was sworn in to his new federal job Monday. Swaim-Staley also was in her second stint as deputy transportation secretary. Both held the same titles under former Gov. Parris N. Glendening (D).
It's unclear when O'Malley intends to appoint a permanent secretary, said his spokesman, Shaun Adamec. Swaim-Staley, who said she is interested in the permanent post, is in the mix, he said.
"Her position as deputy [secretary] brings an experience that is particularly valuable to the transition process," Adamec said.
A nationwide search has been ongoing since shortly after Obama (D) nominated Porcari for the federal post in April, he added.
As deputy secretary, Swaim-Staley served as chief operating officer for the 9,000-employee department that oversees Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, the Port of Baltimore, the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration and the state's highways and mass transit systems.
As Montgomery County's budget chief under County Executive Douglas M. Duncan (D), Swaim-Staley managed a $3.8 billion operating budget. She also served five years as the Maryland Department of Transportation's chief financial officer.
That background gives Swaim-Staley the "deep knowledge of transportation, along with the management and financial expertise that are necessary for us to move forward," O'Malley (D) said in a statement.
A Hagerstown native, she lives in Davidsonville.