December 10, 1999

Batavia Mayor elected as Vice-Chairman of CATS Policy Committee

CHICAGO-- Batavia Mayor Jeffery D. Schielke was elected as the new vice chairman of the Chicago Area Transportation Study (CATS) Policy Committee on December 9, 1999. He succeeds former Chicago Department of Transportation Chairman Thomas R. Walker, who was recently named Chicago Commissioner of Aviation.

The CATS Policy Committee is comprised of leadership representatives from each of the region’s transportation agencies, including the Regional Transportation Authority, the Chicago Transit Authority, Metra, Pace, Illinois State Toll Highway Authority, Illinois Department of Transportation, Council of Mayors, City of Chicago, Federal Highway Administration, Federal Transit Administration, Private Transportation Providers, Class I Railroads, Mass Transit Districts, and county executives of the six counties in northeastern Illinois. The Policy Committee is permanently chaired by Illinois Transportation Secretary Kirk Brown.

CATS is the designated Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) for northeastern Illinois, charged with overseeing the programming and distribution of a large allocation of federal transportation funds for planning and surface transportation projects. The Policy Committee is also responsible for updating and approving the region’s long-range transportation plan, the document that identifies future transportation improvements eligible for federal funding.

As Vice Chairman of the Policy Committee, Mayor Schielke will join Chairman Brown in planning the agenda for committee meetings and act as Chairman in Secretary Brown’s absence.

Mayor Schielke was first named to the Policy Committee in 1996, when he was elected Chairman of the CATS Council of Mayors Executive Committee, a position that he still retains. He was first elected Mayor of Batavia in 1981, and was originally named as a member of the CATS Council of Mayors in 1985 as a representative of Kane County. 

The Chicago Area Transportation Study is the MPO for Northeastern Illinois, designated by state and local officials to carry out the urban transportation planning process for the region. The area covered by CATS includes all of Cook, DuPage, Lake, McHenry, and Will counties, plus a portion of Kendall county.