The Central Ohio Transit Authority's (COTA) board of trustees named COTA's 10-story Downtown Columbus administrative headquarters building the William J. Lhota Building in honor of its retiring president/CEO.

The 80,000 square-foot building was purchased by COTA in 2008 and houses its administrative staff, bus operator check-in and pass sales functions. Lhota pursued the relocation of COTA's headquarters to the central business district in order to be at the hub of COTA's service and to demonstrate the agency's commitment to Downtown. In addition, the Downtown location enables employees to ride the bus. COTA does not provide any parking for its employees Downtown.

The board also named COTA's leadership development program after Lhota. The William J. Lhota Leaders of the Future Program was conceived and launched by Lhota. The program identifies potential leaders within COTA while providing training and development opportunities to candidates for advancement.

Additionally, COTA's board also named W. Curtis Stitt to replace Lhota, who is retiring after seven and a half years.

Stitt's appointment is effective Feb. 1, 2012.

Stitt has been with COTA since 1999 serving as legislative and government affairs counsel, VP of legal and government affairs/general counsel, and most recently as sr. VP/COO.