Feb 7, 2010 10:24 pm US/Mountain
E-470 Traffic Is Down, But Bonuses Are Up
Written by Brian Maass
AURORA, Colo. (CBS4) ―
Despite two straight years of declining traffic and a business significantly impacted by the recession, a CBS4 investigation found the E-470 public toll way authority gave every single employee raises and performance bonuses for 2008 and 2009.
The bonuses for two years totaled $256,945, split between about 50 employees. Some employees got raises above ten percent although most were in the single digit range. The money for bonuses and salary increases comes primarily from tolls paid by E-470 drivers.
"There's no way I can justify what we did those two years. I won't do it," said Commerce City Mayor Paul Natale, who recently left the board that oversees E-470.
"This was probably an error in judgment on our part as a board, probably an error," said Natale when asked about the raises and bonuses uncovered by CBS4.
He said as other government agencies were cutting expenses, freezing salaries, laying workers off and instituting furlough days, E-470 probably should have curtailed the raises and bonuses but did not.
"I can sit here and give you all kinds of reasons it happened but you'd probably see right through," said Natale.
According to figures compiled by the E-470 public highway authority, in 2008, toll revenue dropped from 2007 by about $4 million or 4.3 percent. Toll transactions fell by 3.81 percent from 2007. However, every employee from top to bottom received a salary increase and a yearend performance bonus ranging from a low of $900 for an electronics maintenance technician to a $5,000 bonus for the Director of Finance.
In 2009, toll prices were increased. That may explain why 2009 revenue was up 3.78 percent from 2008. But E-470 traffic in 2009 dropped by 7.89 percent from the previous year.
Still, even with a glaring drop off in E 470 toll transactions, every employee again received a raise and bonus.
A human resources assistant saw her salary go from $43,769 in 2008 to $49,402 in 2009 with a performance bonus of $1,730. The Manager of Human Resources saw his pay in 2009 increase from $69,992 to $84,073 with a bonus added on of $2,945.
For 47 E-470 employees in 2009, the performance bonuses added up to $132, 345.
"Most all of them deserve it," said E-470 Executive Director Ed Delozier, who received approximately 5 percent raises the last two years. He also received a roughly ten percent bonus contribution made each year to his government retirement plan.
His 2009 salary increased to $195,000 with a performance bonus to his retirement plan of $22,000.
"We're doing more with less people than we've ever done before," said Delozier. "The workload has increased because we have less staff."
In 2008, E-470 had 50 full time employees but showed 47 full time employees in 2009.
"We're pretty lean and mean," Delozier said."These people are working harder and smarter and doing the same duties plus additional duties they have had to absorb."
E-470's executive director said there is no correlation between last year's bonuses and salary increases and the 2009 toll increase. The toll increase, said Delozier, was part of long term planning. He also said salaries and bonuses are only a fraction of E-470's annual operating budget.
Delozier said even with traffic down two years in a row, "We're a successful enterprise."
So are other toll ways. But faced with declining traffic and the same gloomy economic conditions as E-470, those toll ways froze salaries and eliminated bonuses.
The Georgia State Road and Toll Way Authority manages toll roads in Georgia. It has 53 employees who are all state workers. None of its employees have received raises or bonuses in the last two years according to Cherie Gibson, SRTA spokesperson. Gibson said the state of Georgia suspended all raises and bonuses for state employees "as it deals with the current budget shortfalls."
In Florida, the Orlando-Orange County Expressway Authority has faced declining traffic much like E-470. So OOCEA froze salaries for all 58 of its employees in 2009 and did not award any performance bonuses.
"Given the state of the economy," wrote spokesperson Lindsay Hodges, "rising unemployment and declining traffic we did everything we could to hold back costs while preserving jobs."
The North Texas Toll Way Authority, with 781 employees, eliminated bonuses in 2008 to be more "fiscally responsible" said a spokesperson. She said only 3 of the 781 workers will get bonuses for 2009 and only because it is written into their employment contracts.
After two years of declining traffic coupled with across the board bonuses and raises, E-470 seems to have gotten the message that something doesn't add up. For 2010, staff members will receive one percent salary increases. If they do receive performance bonuses, those bonuses will be smaller than in years past.
Natale, the former E-470 board member said,"It takes us longer to smarten up."
(© MMX CBS Television Stations, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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