Friday it was reported that the Regional Transportation District was introducing a salary freeze on its staff in the wake of a report showing a 9.6% decline in revenues.  Certainly like all businesses, RTD is going to be forced to make some tough choices and freezing salaries is better than being on the street hunting for a job. 

However, in light of this news, one does have to wonder how the RTD board can justify the recent quadrupling of their pay?  This past session the state legislature authorized a 400% pay raise for RTD board members to $12,000 a year for a job that requires going to one meeting a month.  Of course they also receive travel benefits and other perks.

They are the ones that oversee the district and are responsible for its overall health and considering what sort of a disaster FasTracks has become, this doesn’t seem right.  Since they are asking their employees to sacrifice and forgo a raise, shouldn’t the board demand the same of themselves?  After all, the board has overseen a 61% – and growing – budget increase for FasTracks.  I believe this would be called accountability and responsibility. 

Let us also not forget Mr. Cal Marsella, RTD General Manager, who is the highest paid bureaucrat in the state with a base salary of $290,000.  Other managers have received pay raises of nearly 50% in recent years.  Mr. Marsella even recently said that his salary and those of other managers should not suffer any hits due to RTD’s problems – see the video below.

So in the end it is the rank and file RTD work who will bear the brunt while those at the top continue with their raises.  Sadly this is pretty typical for RTD isn’t it?

Click the read more link to watch the video.