Accused of sex harassment, Muni chief retires early

John Haley, director of transit for the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, is retiring, the transit agency announced last Friday.

Haley has worked for the transit agency since 2010 in charge of Muni operations and has been accused of sexual harassment last month by his former assistant Sabrina Suzuki.

In the lawsuit, Suzuki accuses of Haley inappropriately touching her, belittling her in front of her male colleagues and making inappropriate comments about women.

Since the lawsuit, Mayor London Breed has hired an independent ombudsperson to specifically to look at harassment complaints made by employees who work at the SFMTA.

The ombudsperson will be able to make correction actions to claims made by employees, make sure the Equal Employment Opportunity division issues the appropriate discipline action and will track keep track of complaints and corrective actions issued.

SFMTA Director of Transportation Ed Reiskin praised Haley’s work at the transit agency in a statement:

“John has played a significant role in improving transit for San Francisco, including making Muni more reliable and transforming one of the oldest fleets in the nation to the newest. His experience, expertise, dedication and commitment to improving Muni service has been indispensable.”

During Haley’s tenure at the SFMTA, Haley oversaw the replacement of Muni’s old buses and train fleet, the completion of the SFMTA’s blueprint to overhaul the entire transit system and increasing Muni service.

Haley previously worked as the general manager for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, Deputy Executive Director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and Deputy General Manager for BART.

Meanwhile, Reiskin plans to give an update to the SFMTA Citizens Advisory Committee on upcoming policy changes in regards to harassment within the transit agency.

Jerold Chinn

Jerold serves as a reporter and San Francisco Bureau Chief for SFBay covering transportation and occasionally City Hall and the Mayor's Office in San Francisco. His work on transportation has been recognized by the San Francisco Press Club. Born and raised in San Francisco, he graduated from San Francisco State University with a degree in journalism. Jerold previously wrote for the San Francisco Public Press, a nonprofit, noncommercial news organization. When not reporting, you can find Jerold taking Muni to check out new places to eat in the city.