Coast hires former Dallas transit official to overlook finances

Coast RTA has recruited a former transit finance executive from Dallas Area Rapid Transit to temporarily serve as its finance officer to make sure, among other things, its leveraging as much of its federal dollars as it should be.

Mike Levitan, who is now retired, was in charge of the general and capital budget for Dallas Area Rapid Transit and is working through this weekend examining the books of Coast — something Horry County officials have wanted for more than a year. Levitan, who will be the first financial officer with previous transit experience in at least the last five years to look at Coast’s books, replaces Julie Norton-Dew who resigned shortly before Brian Piascik took over as the transit’s new chief financial officer earlier this month.

“Essentially he’s coming in as a temporary CFO,” Piascik said. “He’s somebody I trust, a good friend of mine. He was actually someone I was going to bring in regardless, if we had an existing CFO here or not.”