RTD’s board of directors Tuesday chose Phillip Washington, 51, as the interim general manager to run the transit agency when current GM Cal Marsella leaves at the end of next month.
For the past nine years, Washington has been assistant general manager for administration at the Regional Transportation District, with responsibility for departments that included finance, procurement, human resources and information technology.
Before joining RTD, Washington spent 24 years in the military, retiring from the Army after reaching the rank of command sergeant major.
Washington’s annual salary at RTD is $172,790. Noting the agency’s troubled financial condition, he told directors, “I’m not going to take an increase of one nickel.”
Marsella’s compensation, which included an annual base salary of about $300,000 and what some considered an overly rich benefit package, has been a point of controversy in recent months.
RTD’s board plans to hire an executive- search firm to help find a permanent replacement for Mar sella, and some directors say the agency should consider hiring two top officials to lead RTD — one to run the current bus and light-rail operation and the other to be a large-project “czar” responsible for getting FasTracks built.
FasTracks includes at least six new rail lines, yet the agency is short about $2.2 billion to get it built on time.
The RTD board hopes to have permanent leadership in place by early next year.
“We have many challenges right now,” Washington told directors, including “critical questions for FasTracks.”
“We will get this investment initiative done,” he said, referring to the $6.9 billion program, and “build out this transit system so it is the envy of the world.”
Washington said he will be a candidate for permanent general manager “if the board thinks that it is in the best interest of the district.”
Also Tuesday night, RTD officials reported that the agency’s sales-and- use tax collections declined 18.7 percent in April compared with the same month last year. For the first four months of this year, they are down 13.8 percent from the comparable 2008 period.
RTD depends on sales-and-use taxes to fund about 60 percent of its operations.
Finance chief Terry Howerter told directors he planned this year and next to transfer $24 million from RTD’s capital-acquisition reserve “to beef up” the agency’s operating budget.
The capital fund is used to buy equipment such as new buses, but Marsella said RTD used some federal stimulus money for bus acquisition, which helped allow for the transfer.
Jeffrey Leib: 303-954-1645 or jleib@denverpost.com
