UTA board, salaries, subsidies flayed

State lawmakers took jabs at the Utah Transit Authority for about two hours Wednesday night, calling into question the independence of the agency's board, the salaries of its top executives and also the amount of its public subsidies.

Their questioning was result of a recent audit that said the UTA Board of Trustees relied too heavily on agency staff to help with decisions and also that public subsidies were slightly higher at UTA than surrounding states, at 83 percent.

"There's a culture of going along and in what I would call in a sense, rubber-stamping," Sen. Howard Stephenson, R-Draper, said in regard to his feelings about the UTA board. "They are taught not to rock the boat and learn the UTA way."

Stephenson asked that one legislator who has filed a bill to change the structure of UTA's board insert a requirement that the board be allowed to publicly disagree about decisions once made. The board currently follows a policy where board members uniformly stand behind a choice, despite disagreement.

Beyond that, no other action was taken at Wednesday's meeting, which was an unusual gathering of four legislative committees. UTA officials defended its board as efficient, professional and well-qualified.

"I don't think anything comes through that board meeting that is rubber-stamped," said Terry Diehl, chair of the board's planning committee. "There's no way this board is controlled by the staff."

As for the issue of subsidies, Diehl said UTA's board has set a goal to increase its fare-box recovery to 20 percent by 2015. At present, it is about 13 percent. Federal tax dollars and local money help to subsidize the remainder of UTA's operations.

Diehl also said that the salary of top executives at UTA were competitive with transit agencies and the private sector. He said if salaries were decreased, top management might leave.

In 2006, top UTA boss John Inglish had a base salary of $266,614. Other transit bosses around the country had an average salary of about $196,000, according to the legislative audit.

Sen. Karen Mayne, D-West Valley, a former UTA board member, said she was OK with the salary of Inglish, but wished his bonus and incentives of about $100,000 were lower. In addition, she asked that legislators consider adding people to the board who ride the bus or have expertise in serving the disadvantaged.