Many decry Baltimore’s transportation department as the city’s most dysfunctional agency. But its new director, confirmed last week, has the bona fides that just may be able to resurrect it.

Veronica McBeth, who just months ago was a deputy secretary in former President Joe Biden’s transportation department, carries a long list of credentials into what is now her second stint with the Baltimore City Department of Transportation, where she previously served as chief of local transit operations.

“I want to thank Mayor Brandon Scott for this opportunity … to serve this city that I love so much,” McBeth said at her confirmation hearing Thursday night. She called it a full circle moment to come back and lead the department where she “cut her teeth.”

McBeth’s reputation precedes her as she steps into the role. She oversaw multiple federal subagencies as a direct report to former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and managed some of the marquee grant programs created under the Biden Administration. But she’ll face myriad hurdles as she tries to right the ship of what many call a broken agency plagued by staffing shortages, communication issues and even political interference.

The challenges are significant, McBeth acknowledged in her opening remarks. And they’re coming from all sides — including her former workplace.

The local transportation department, with its roughly 1,000 employees and $400 million budget for this fiscal year, controls its day-to-day operations, including managing the city’s streets, sidewalks and parking enforcement, but federal changes can create strong ripple effects.

President Donald Trump already has tried dismantling federal grant and loan programs that are funding major Baltimore projects — everything from the reimagining of the Highway to Nowhere to transit and streetscape improvements.

Her insider knowledge from the federal level, her technical expertise and her ability to foster good relationships with lawmakers will help her navigate this landscape, said Liam Davis, the department’s former legislative affairs coordinator, in a phone interview.

“She’s not going to be coming in there in a deer-in-the-headlights sort of situation,” Davis said.

The agency has spent years tripping over itself, both with major capital projects and smaller, day-to-day responsibilities.

It’s struggled to finish a Broening Highway bridge project critical for the Port of Baltimore. Enforcement of certain parking violations has fallen off a cliff. The backlog of residents waiting for traffic calming in their neighborhoods is yearslong. It’s had a revolving door of staff coming and going.

McBeth has plans for all of that.

She wants to “better track projects from the cradle to the grave,” she told the council , as well as integrate data more closely into safety protocols and modernize the city’s traffic signals. She‘s planning sweeping changes, for things as little as how the agency issues permits for neighborhood events to bolstering professional development for her staff, and wants to decrease the department’s reliance on outside consultants.

A couple of former colleagues waited hours to testify in support of McBeth, praising her detailed knowledge of policy and law as well as her ability to build trust with her employees.

She brings a “what’s good for Baltimore lens,” said Liz Gordon, an assistant deputy administrator with the Maryland Transit Administration who worked with McBeth on local transit initiatives in a prior role.

“Her skill at weighing priorities and planning set her apart in her leadership,” said Meg Young, who worked with McBeth at the federal level and is currently a deputy director for Maryland’s transportation department.

The uncertainty at the federal level doesn’t preclude McBeth and the agency from doing things that are “truly transformative,” said Jed Weeks, director of the advocacy organization Bikemore. But that will require breaking down silos within the department and not caving to local political pressure — be it from the City Council, community voices, even the mayor — when it goes against her technical prowess, he added.

Past directors haven’t felt “the support or the mandate” to push projects forward, especially controversial ones, Weeks said.

“She’s gonna need to make some pretty massive changes as to how projects are conceived and delivered. ... and I think that’s going to ruffle a lot of feathers” even within the department, he added.

McBeth directly addressed the siloing of agency teams as a problem. She also said she’ll lean on insights gained from traveling and working with local transportation departments nationwide in her last role.

The general message from advocates and those who worked with McBeth in the past is: Let her do her job.

The City Council will be watching as she does. Council President Zeke Cohen and Isaac “Yitzy” Schleifer made that abundantly clear Thursday night — they peppered her with questions about staffing, 311 requests, red light cameras and more.

Ryan Dorsey, the new chair of the Transportation and Land Use Committee, plans to hold regular oversight meetings for the agency, including one this week concerning parking enforcement.

Though the deck may feel stacked, plenty think McBeth can play any hand that she’s dealt.

“People have said the agency is broken, and I’ve never thought that,” Davis said. “We just need to empower the people who know best and have consistent leadership to back them.”