RTD general manager Cal Marsella said Thursday that he will forgo 3 percent of a $14,137 salary increase this year and similarly give up 3 percent of a $36,286 performance bonus to be consistent with sacrifices asked of FasTracks consultants.
In all, Marsella will give up about $1,500 of the combined $50,423 in salary increase and bonus that he was to get. Last year, Marsella made $290,000 in base salary.
On Tuesday, Regional Transportation District directors rejected Marsella’s request to defer the full salary increase and performance bonus for a year as a gesture to help out the financially stretched transit agency.
Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper weighed in on the issue Thursday, saying he agreed with Marsella’s original request for a one-year deferment.
“As with the decision of our city Cabinet officers to forgo pay raises this year, Cal’s request recognizes the need for everyone to share the burden of this recession and do all they can to help us emerge from it as quickly as possible,” Hickenlooper said.
But RTD board chairman Lee Kemp said deferring Marsella’s salary hike and bonus for a year would not help the agency’s financial picture because the awards still would have to be carried as a liability and paid next year.
Noel Busck, another RTD director, said Marsella had a contract with provisions for an annual salary increase and performance bonus, which the agency had an obligation to honor.
On Thursday, some noted that firms performing consulting services for RTD on FasTracks also have contracts with the agency yet still were asked recently by RTD to give up at least 3 percent of their 2009 contract awards as a way to help the agency out of a financial jam.
“I would be amenable to that (cutting 3 percent from his bonus and salary increase) in recognition of the contribution they are making,” Marsella said Thursday.
Kemp said board members will take up Marsella’s request to forgo the $1,500.
“It shows consistency across the board,” Kemp said. “He’s staying consistent with what he’s asking the private contractors to do.”
A month ago, RTD said four private consulting groups doing program management, systems engineering, quality management and public information work on FasTracks had been asked to give up at least 3 percent of their 2009 contract amounts to help RTD meet a $23 million shortfall in this year’s budget.
The private firms agreed to the cuts, saving RTD about $1.7 million, said agency spokeswoman Pauletta Tonilas. FasTracks is RTD’s $6.9 billion transit expansion project that has been encountering significant financial difficulty. Currently, RTD is short $2.2 billion for completing FasTracks by 2017, as originally planned.
The consulting companies were asked to accept reduced funding in part because RTD had instituted a freeze on hiring salaried employees and eliminated the possibility of a merit raise for existing salaried personnel this year. Those two measures are expected to save the agency about $2.8 million.
“I appreciate that (Marsella) took the stance of wanting to defer, and I’m critical of the board for not accepting,” Centennial Mayor Randy Pye said Thursday.
“He should be paid the bonus because he met goals based on his performance to date,” Pye said.
But of Marsella’s salary increase, Pye added, “I’m not a big fan of automatic pay increases for public officials, or anybody. He should be deferring it to a point” where RTD’s finances are sounder.
“That would send a message to the union and send a message to the people who are going to be asked to fund FasTracks,” Pye said, referring to a pay dispute with the transit workers union and a possible ballot measure this November asking voters to approve a doubling of the current FasTracks sales tax.
The hike is needed to close the project’s $2.2 billion gap.
Jeffrey Leib: 303-954-1645 or jleib@denverpost.com
