Dorinda McCombs, the former chief program officer for the Central Ohio Transit Authority's LinkUS initiative, resigned in April due to differences between how she was leading the initiative and what COTA expected of her, COTA President and CEO Monica Téllez-Fowler said in an exclusive interview with The Dispatch.
Téllez-Fowler's comment to The Dispatch is the first time a COTA leader has provided a direct answer about McCombs' departure since she left in April.
"We had very clear discussions about the expectations, and it was a little bit of the ball is in her court and she decided to resign," Téllez-Fowler said.
The LinkUS initiative is an $8 billion effort led by COTA to revamp central Ohio's transit system with new bus rapid transit lines, improved
COTA services, and hundreds of miles of sidewalks, trails and bikeways. Téllez-Fowler has been leading the initiative since McCombs' departure.
McCombs did not submit a resignation letter when she departed on April 8, and she did not send or receive any written documents outlining the specific reasons for her departure, according to a response by COTA's legal department to a Dispatch public records request.
McCombs has not made any public statements since her departure, and she could not be reached by The Dispatch for comment for this story.
Téllez-Fowler previously declined to comment on McCombs' departure after a May board of trustees meeting, citing personnel matters.
When asked to explain what specific differences COTA had with McCombs, Téllez-Fowler said McCombs' leadership was different than what COTA expected of her and that she, in general, did not fit with what the authority needed.
After McCombs' departure in April, Téllez-Fowler told her leadership team in an email that McCombs left because "it has become clear that a leadership change is necessary to ensure alignment on how the program is delivered." The Dispatch obtained Téllez-Fowler's email via an Ohio Public Records Act request.
COTA did not give McCombs any official goals for 2025 when she joined the authority in September, according to a copy of her 2025 performance review obtained by The Dispatch via a public records request. Still, Téllez-Fowler marked McCombs down as meeting COTA's expectations for five "core competencies." They were: accountability and dependability, communication, customer service, problem-solving and decision-making, and teamwork and collaboration.
"Dorinda stepped into her role, presenting to partners and the Board of Trustees in her first week. She has brought a real shift to program-wide focus versus corridor-by-corridor. She continues to seek efficiencies and opportunities to build a stronger, more capable team to deliver on the promise of LinkUS in capital delivery. I could not be happier to have Dorinda on the team and look forward to moving into construction in 2026," Téllez-Fowler wrote in a 2025 evaluation of McCombs.
Transportation and neighborhoods reporter Nathan Hart can be reached at NHart@dispatch.com, @NathanRHart on X and nathanhart.dispatch.com on Bluesky.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: COTA CEO breaks silence on why LinkUS leader left after just 7 months | Exclusive
