TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The head of the Florida's Turnpike system who grappled with last year's fiasco involving SunPass has been reassigned.
- Turnpike Enterprise director Paul Wai reassigned
- Wai was in charge of turnpike during SunPass transactions fiasco
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A spokesman with the Florida Department of Transportation confirmed to Spectrum News that Paul Wai, the executive director of Florida's Turnpike Enterprise, is being moved to an undisclosed position within FDOT.
Wai will be replaced by Nicola Liquori, who is currently CEO of SunRail, Central Florida's commuter rail system. She used to be turnpike CFO.
An official statement released by FDOT Friday says the change was effective immediately.
"Nicola brings more than 17 years of experience in the transportation industry along with eight years in public accounting in both auditing and tax," said the FDOT statement.
Wai was the executive director of Turnpike Enterprise when Conduent, the contractor tapped to oversee the toll payment system, instituted a new payment processing system that led to a backlog of millions of transactions. It led to headaches for SunPass users for months.
When asked whether Wai was reassigned because of the SunPass issues, an FDOT spokesperson told Spectrum News, "We will let the press release stand and speak for itself."
Customers have also been getting errant bills for transactions.
FDOT is not renewing its contract with Conduent to manage SunPass. The Florida Senate will be holding hearings in the fall on the SunPass debacle.