Ken Lawrence Jr., SEPTA’s new board chairman, wants fewer strikes and no more smoking on the El

Ken Lawrence Jr. became SEPTA’s first new board chairman in a quarter century Thursday and joked that part of him wished he hadn’t.

“I wasn’t entirely sure whether I was going to vote no or abstain,” Lawrence said after the roll call, a self-effacing nod to the crises the transit agency confronts.

With a structural deficit of at least $240 million and looking at possible service cuts of 20% and a fare increase, SEPTA must devote energy to muscle Gov. Josh Shapiro’s proposal to increase public transit funding through the legislature, a key part of building up stable revenue sources.

Lawrence, 52, and a former Montgomery County commissioner, is the first Black person and the first Democrat to lead the SEPTA board in the authority’s 60 years of existence.

He succeeds GOP power broker Pat Deon Sr., who retired last month after 24 years as chairman. During that time, Deon used political skills honed over years as a major fundraiser and collector of favors to broker deals among lawmakers and governors of both parties in Harrisburg, stabilizing state funding for public transit.

Chester County Commissioner Marian Moskowitz was elected vice chairwoman at the Thursday meeting, the first woman to be an officer of the board.

As chairman and a veteran of politics, Lawrence will have a role in setting the agenda, and he’s no rookie, with 12½ years as a board member as well as seven years as chair of the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners.

“Ken knows his way around the Capitol and is well positioned to assume that advocacy role,” said State Sen. Frank Farry (R., Bucks), a transit supporter who has known and worked with Lawrence for 15 years. “He’s not seen as an uber-partisan guy. He’s a straight talker, a consensus builder.”

And a little lower-key than his colorful predecessor. Said Lawrence: “I’m not going to out-Pat-Deon Pat Deon. There is only one.”

Here are some things to know about the new chairman and his early goals:

”We’ve developed a culture or a pattern that we have to have a strike to get an agreement. And I think that’s on both sides. … But I would like us not to be known as the most strike-prone transit agency.”

SEPTA and its customers have endured 14 strikes since 1975. The latest: Transit police officers walked off the job for three days last December before a deal was reached.

Lawrence said he’s not sure exactly how labor relations became acrimonious but points generally to a lack of trust between union workers and management. The keys to fixing it will be honest communication and transparency over time, he said. “I think it starts at the top, with the board.”

“We understand that, particularly in the Senate, we’re talking about districts that don’t have SEPTA, but I think it’s important to note, too, that the governor’s budget proposal will help all mass transit across the state.” It’s important to advocate together, Lawrence said.

SEPTA will stress its role in the economy of the Southeast and also point to the companies that sell goods and services to the agency in many legislative districts. “I look forward to us making that case on the Hill.”

Lawrence has a good relationship with the governor, who also is from Montgomery County. They met in about 1999 when Shapiro was chief of staff to former U.S. Rep. Joe Hoeffel (D., Pa).

“I knocked on doors with him when he first ran for the state legislature in 2004,” Lawrence said. “We like each other. We respect each other.”

But, he said of his friend: “I’ve never played poker with him, and I wouldn’t want to play poker with him.”

Ridership has been ticking up lately, and SEPTA will continue to hire transit police officers, Lawrence said.

“During the pandemic, I’ll call them quality of life things — smoking and drug use — it’s not acceptable on the system, and we need to get that off the system. People don’t want to use it for their daily commute if they’re going to see someone using drugs. So, particularly on certain lines, we have to make sure that it’s unacceptable.”

He also thinks that fare evasion is a much bigger problem than simply lost revenue. “There’s no buy-in. If you don’t pay for the service, are you going to respect the service and the paying customers?”

In addition to the political career as a Montgomery County commissioner and the unpaid SEPTA position, Lawrence has deep experience as a government and public affairs professional.

He’s worked as a senior executive vice president in that role for Temple University and Merck & Co., and owned his own public affairs consulting agency.

Mayor Cherelle L. Parker said she first got to know Lawrence in the early 2000s, when she was a state representative and he was representing the university. “I’ve always known Ken to be forthright and a man of his word,” Parker said. “Ken knows Philadelphia and understands how vital public transit is.”

Currently, Lawrence is senior vice president of corporate affairs for Highmark Health, a Pennsylvania insurance company. He earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from Temple University and a master’s in government administration at the University of Pennsylvania’s Fels Institute.

Those years working with political leaders before he became one were also good preparation to negotiate financial help for SEPTA, Lawrence said, as well as his experience as a rider.

“I‘ve been using SEPTA since I was a kid. I would take the train down to North Philly to get my hair cut,” Lawrence said “You know, when I went to Temple, I lived in University City, and I took the trolley to City Hall and then took the Broad Street Line.”