Metro’s Board of Directors canceled Wednesday’s interviews with potential general managers Monday after learning Dan Tangherlini will accept a position as the District’s city administrator if Adrian Fenty wins November’s general election.

Tangherlini, 39, and Fenty, 36, announced the appointment Monday, appearing together on the steps of the Wilson Building. Fenty called Tangherlini “a person of immense talent and responsibility.”

But, by the afternoon, Metro Board Chair Gladys Mack said the search for Metro’s new general manager had restarted, delaying the recruiting process.

“He was certainly a leading candidate and because of that, there may have been other people who didn’t apply because they thought he was a leading candidate and wouldn’t go through the process,” Mack said.

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There were only two candidates left after Tangherlini and another candidate dropped out Monday, said Charles Deegan, a Maryland representative on the board.

“If my colleagues in Virginia had voted for Dan in June, we wouldn’t be talking today,” he added.

D.C. Councilman Jim Graham, D-Ward 1, who also sits on the Metro board, echoed Deegan’s sentiment Monday. The city administrator oversees more than 20,000 employees and a $9 billion annual budget.

“I’m in an unusual situation,” Graham said. “At once, I am elated and enormously disappointed.”

The incoming mayor cannot make appointments until Jan. 2. Tangherlini said he would work with Metro until then, as well as with Fenty, to discuss other cabinet-level appointments in coming months. Tangherlini’s Metro contract is set to expire Feb. 16, he said, though he added he will work to be released from it sooner than later.

Tangherlini, who earns $235,000, said he had spoken with Fenty about the job, which pays $195,000 annually, within the last three weeks. His added that his decision was not a result of friction between himself and Virginia board members who have said they feared he would be too District-centric.

Chris Zimmerman, a Virginia representative on the Metro board, added that the new search will have a much wider pool of candidates and can be done much faster than if the board had to start “from scratch.”

“It seems pretty illogical to me to hire someone without a search process, for which we would have been criticized,” Zimmerman said.

cgoodman@dcexamainer.com cmabeus@dcexaminer.com