Wallace resigned in February after admitting to stealing money from a special fund set up to help pay child care and elder care expenses for Tri-Met employees. He is now facing a federal criminal indictment.

After Wallace’s confession, he resigned and the Local was placed in trusteeship by the international union. Ken Kinoshita, a member of the Local 757 Executive Board, was named interim financial treasurer, serving until the special election. He finished second in the balloting, 214 votes behind Farra.

Farra, 37, grew up in the Portland area, graduated from Vancouver’s Mountain View High School, and met her husband at Multnomah Bible College. In 1993, she became the first in her family to work at Tri-Met, where her mother, step-father, and husband also now work. Farra’s past experience as a business owner in real estate will help in her new position, she said.

“It’s a little more involved than balancing a checkbook,” said Farra, who ran for the post against Wallace in 2006, “but it doesn’t take a financial degree.”

To bone up on union financial management, Farra will fly to the union’s Washington, D.C., headquarters in late October for a week-long training.