LITTLE ROCK -- Rock Region Metro will be searching for a new boss to lead the Pulaski County transit agency in 2022 after it announced that Chief Executive Officer Charles Frazier will leave before year's end.
Frazier, who has led Rock Region since 2018, is stepping down to take an undisclosed leadership position with "a leading transportation authority," the agency announced Friday.
His last day is Dec. 10.
Frazier, a former Florida transit executive, replaced Jarod Varner, who left in August 2017 after four years. Frazier draws a $180,000 annual salary under a three-year contract the Rock Region board of directors approved in 2020.
Little Rock City Manager Bruce Moore, a member of the transit board, said Frazier's departure represented a "huge loss for public transportation in our region."
"Through his leadership, METRO has been able to offer new and different affordable transportation to more Arkansans and guests, while providing development opportunities to our essential public workers," Moore said in a news release.
He and other board members say Frazier had a lasting effect on transit services in Central Arkansas even as he dealt with the challenges of the covid-19 pandemic, impressing board members before he was offered the job by taking rides on Rock Region routes to assess successes and challenges firsthand. He continued to periodically take bus rides.
Notably, his tenure saw Rock Region overhaul its regular bus route system and draw up a new way to finance the agency in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.
Under his leadership, Rock Region won two competitive grants from the Federal Transit Agency, including a $4.98 million grant to fund up to five electric buses and the charging infrastructure for them. The award was the largest competitive Federal Transit Agency grant in the local agency's history.
Rock Region also developed a van pool program, transitioned to fare-free streetcar service, carried out its first mobile fare payment app and expanded its footprint beyond Pulaski County for the first time with pending microtransit service in Conway.