As Transit agencies cut service, lower benefits and freeze pay raises, the CEO or GMs salaries typically comes into play. So this brings the question, What does your Transit agencies CEO or GM make?
This was posted back in February, I have moved it up to reflect updated information.
Here are the Annual Pay Rates of Select NW Agencies head Transit Execs:
(From Highest to Lowest)
(Daily Ridership, Routes & Fleet B=Bus, LR=Lightrail, CR=Commuter Rail)
Fred Hansen, General Manager TriMet, Portland $256,954
(Neil McFarlane, GM As of July 1, 2010 $217,000)
(324,080/Routes 81B, 4LR, 1CR/Fleet 660B, 127LR, 6CR)
Joyce Eleanor, CEO Community Transit, Everett $204,341
(40,000/Routes 63B/Fleet 282B)
Joni Earl, CEO Sound Transit, Seattle $195,467
(57,725/Routes 30B, 2LR, 2CR/Fleet 240B, 38LR, 58CR)
Kevin Desmond, General Manger King County Metro, Seattle $170,869
(400,457/Routes 223B/Fleet 1443B)
Lynne Griffith, CEO Pierce Transit, Lakewood $169,180
(57,689/Routes 52B/Fleet 200B)
Mark Pangborn, General Manager Lane Transit District, Eugene $125,358
(38,376/Routes 38B/Fleet 102B)
Jeff Hamm, CEO/Executive Director C-Tran, Vancouver $123,496
(19,000/Routes 29B/Fleet 111B)
Mike Harbour, General Manager Intercity Transit, Olympia $122,990
(14,000/Routes 23B/Fleet 135B)
Allan Pollock, General Manager Cherriots, Salem $108,737 (apporx)
(10,000/Routes 24B/Fleet 65B)
Note: Puget Sound agencies have contracts to operate Sound Transit routes that originate in their county. These agencies numbers may not include Sound Transit Route ridership. Amounts are pay rates from 07-09, depending on the most current information available.
Originally posted 2/2010, Updated 6/2010
5 comments:
Excellent research! The differences would become even more obvious if you added the total revenues, total employees, and ideally the average compensation per employee. For instance, in 2007, #4 Mr. Desmond managed $673 million in revenues and 3711 FTE (some of those are FTE working at contracted services), had 1423 buses, 336 paratransit, 1286 vanpool vans, and 8 streetcars, an enormous operation. Conversely, #2 Ms. Eleanor managed $119 million in revenues for 988 employees (some of those are contracted services') for 270 buses, 54 paratransit, and 384 vans. See [http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/Publications/Manuals/PTSummary.htm] or, more consistent reporting, [http://www.ntdprogram.gov/ntdprogram/data.htm]From the above, one would rightfully conclude that either the first is underpaid or the second is overpaid. However, that's only part of the story. If you published the # of employees whose salaries were over $100,000, or even those that are more than Mr. Pollock's, I'm sure we'd find that many managers make more than that, while many directors make more than Mr. Pangborn. Shedding light on this would reveal what it is that these agencies are protecting.
Hey, thanks for the comment, happy to hear from my readers. This update was because I just got the employee list from Community Transit literally 2 days ago. I have not had the time to work with it much yet. Community Transit has the highest paid CEO in the Puget Sound among Transit Agencies, yet the agency is sticking it more to the customers than any other agency around (besides TriMet in Portland, I think they are related). Thats what prompted me to request the info, the Sunday cuts. So hopefully sometime next week I will break it down and do a blog piece on it.
Kevin Desmond is only #4 on your list, and their ridership, routes, and fleet are the highest? It looks like King County has a bargain for a change! Are the number of routes the same after the cuts? It would be interesting to see how many of each agency's staff are making over $100,000, though cost of living differs.
Hey, nice work, Chad. Thanks for including this in your year-end roundup -- I'd missed it before.
An interesting post, particularly as the leader of our own union, ATU 587, makes over $167,000.00 in salary and benefits. I have an upcoming blog post on this (planned to deal with both "pro" and "con"), but it's an interesting topic to think about. Pretty hard for our own union leaders to go after high-level salaries when they themsleves are pulling down well over $100K.
-jw
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