RTD has selected a team led by prominent public relations professional Maria Garcia Berry to be the public information consultant on the $4.7 billion FasTracks transit expansion plan.
The initial contract is expected to be worth a minimum of $1.2 million over the next three years, said Cal Marsella, general manager of the Regional Transportation District.
More money is likely to flow to the FasTracks public relations effort as RTD begins construction of rail lines, Marsella added.
FasTracks calls for building at least six rail lines in the metro area in 12 years. Design and planning will occur over the next several years with construction due to start around 2009.
Berry joined with Karen Morales, spokeswoman for the $1.67 billion T-REX light-rail and highway expansion project, in bidding for the FasTracks job.
The joint venture Berry and Morales set up to do the work is called Strategic Community Partners. Morales plans to leave T-REX to work with Berry.
FasTracks “is a historic project for RTD and the community it serves,” Morales said. “I believe it will completely change the face of the region.”
Berry headed the FasTracks Yes! ballot campaign last year that persuaded voters in metro Denver to support a sales-tax increase to pay for the bulk of FasTracks rail expansion.
FasTracks Yes! raised about $3.6 million from contractors and others for the pro-transit vote, and Berry and her firm, CRL Associates, were paid about $265,000 for leading the campaign effort, she said.
Berry said she saw no conflict in bidding for, and winning, the job as RTD’s public information consultant on FasTracks.
Marsella agreed. Berry and her company were not chosen by RTD to lead the FasTracks election campaign, he said. Rather, Berry and CRL were selected by a citizens group that was set up to promote the transit plan, Marsella added.
Berry and her firm have shown “great skills” in leading the public information effort on the Union Station environmental study, Marsella said, and Morales has done a “spectacular job” as spokeswoman for Southeast Corridor Constructors, which is building T-REX.
T-REX, which stands for Transportation Expansion Project, is a joint venture of RTD and the Colorado Department of Transportation.
In winning the FasTracks consulting contract, the Berry-Morales team beat out PRACO Ltd. of Colorado Springs.
Since 2000, PRACO has been paid about $5.4 million for public information work on T-REX, said Toni Gatzen, spokeswoman for the CDOT-RTD team that is building T-REX. But much of that money has flowed through PRACO to subcontractors for printing services and website development, she said.
Staff writer Jeffrey Leib can be reached at 303-820-1645 or jleib@denverpost.com.
