Reported Shake-Up in Tollway Agency Denied

County tollway board members Tuesday disputed reports that Executive Director John Meyer may be forced to step aside or share his duties with someone new. Instead, they said Meyer has been considering personal options and will propose a change in his job at Thursday’s regular board meeting in Santa Ana.

Meyer’s fate, said Santa Ana Mayor Daniel H. Young, “is up to the personal desires of John Meyer.”

Young, who is board chairman of the Foothill/Eastern Transportation Corridor Agency, declined to elaborate except to say that a Times story published Tuesday indicating that Meyer was under pressure to relinquish or share his post “was absolutely inaccurate.” Young also said there would be no meeting early Thursday of a so-called tollway personnel committee to discuss Meyer’s performance.

“There is no personnel committee,” Young said.

Young’s comments were at odds with those of four board members who told The Times on Monday that moves were afoot that would result in Meyer either leaving the top post or transferring some of his duties to someone new.

Those same board sources did not return a reporter’s telephone calls Tuesday, but another tollway board member said that Meyer talked to friends last week about the possibility of resigning or becoming a consultant.

Meyer could not be reached for comment Tuesday. A day earlier, however, Meyer said he had scheduled a closed personnel session for Thursday’s tollway board meeting on his own behalf.