Don Skelton is the new interim executive director of the Tampa Bay Area Regional Transportation Authority board of directors.
He replaces Bob Clifford, TBARTA’s first executive director, who resigned to join the engineering firm Parsons Brinckerhoff, according to a release.
Skelton has a lengthy career in transportation planning and programs, including serving as secretary of the District 7 office for the Florida Department of Transportation for seven years, ending in 2012. During that time, he was on the board of directors as an “ex officio” member, and was instrumental in providing support for the development of TBARTA’s master transportation plan.
Right now, however, he is vice president at H.W. Lochner, where he provides transportation engineering services for the Tampa Bay region and Central Florida.
“Don was there when we started, and played a major role in our early success,” said Ronnie Duncan, TBARTA’s chair, in a release. “There could not be (a) better person to serve in this capacity as we work through the process of selecting a permanent executive director.”
TBARTA was created in 2007 by the Legislature to plan and develop a multimodal transportation system that will connect the second counties of the Tampa Bay region — Pasco, Hillsborough, Hernando, Citrus, Manatee, Pinellas and Sarasota.
