Only Highly Organised Criminal Syndicates as our Canadian Governments, TransLink and the Other Bureaucracies Could, or Would; Find a “Sway” to “Shoehorn” More Money Into Chief Executive Offices.

When the TransLink board of directors replaced Ian Jarvis as Chief Executive yesterday, they said it was to restore public confidence.  However, the decision to continue paying Jarvis’ $39,000 a month salary until his contract expires in June 2016, rather than give him severance, has most definitely had the opposite effect. Taxpayers Are Now Paying Out Two Salaries---Grand Total More Than A Million Dollars A Year—Plus There Will Be Pensions.

Only highly organised criminal syndicates as our Canadian Governments, TransLink and the other bureaucracies could or would find a “sway” to “shoehorn” more money into Chief Executive Offices.

The wages of executives at TransLink has been scrutinized for several years. Jarvis’ base salary of $319,000, plus executive bonuses, is higher than the compensation given to the leaders of most other North American local transit systems.

Ian Jarvis received $394,730 in salary, incentives and taxable benefits in 2012, plus another $32,552 in taxpayer-funded petition contributions. On top of that, Jarvis took $11,418 in “other” benefits, including a “Wellness Allowance” that apparently only the Chief Executive is eligible for. That’s a total compensation package of $438,700.

However, let’s stick to the $394,730 in salary, incentives and taxable benefits, and do some comparison shopping to put that amount into perspective.

Jarvis made $140,000 more last year than the province’s deputy transportation minister, Grant Main. He made $200,000 more than Premier Christy Clark did. Clark wasn’t alone; Jarvis out-earned Prime Minister Stephen Harper by over $75,000. But then, none of these government???politicians is in the least worried—THEY HAVE THEIR SIZABLE EXPENSE ACCOUNTS, HOLIDAY ALLOWANCES, PENSIONS, AND OTHER “PERKS”

The Toronto Transit Commission by no means a lean organization, paid its Chief Executive Andy Byford $294,366 plus $14,000 in taxable benefits. That’s $88,000 less than Jarvis was paid, despite the fact the Toronto Transit Commission’s total revenue is double TransLink’s.

Byford was hired away from Sydney, Australia, taking a 28 percent pay cut to go to Toronto. Clearly, there is enough value in living and running transit systems in Canada that TAXPAYERS do not need to overpay to get people.

In Seattle, King County Metro general manager Kevin Desmond’s 2012 salary works out to $191,645 Canadian, an astonishing $203,000 a year less than Jarvis.

Joni Earl, the Chief Executive of Washington State’s Sound Transit, made just over $201,000, including a $6,000 bonus, in 2011. Amazingly, Jarvis’s bonus was close to ten times what Earl received. Earl also turned down a raise in January 2010—something TransLink officials would be wise to emulate given their never-ending demands for more taxes and fares.

Other facts you might find of interest:

Translink’s two Chief Executive is also paid more than NYC's MTA CEO, over $100,000 more.

Translink administrative costs are 8% of it's total budget. For comparison Seattle's KCM spends 2% of it's budget on administration, and NYC's MTA spends 3.3%. New Yorkers often comment their MTA is top heavy and full of red tape, imagine what they would say if they had Translink using over 4% more money on administrative costs!

Before TransLink executives continue their push for massive tax increases to pay for their $23 billion  PERSONAL WISH LIST, they would be wise to slash their own salaries. It is clear from looking at the marketplace—if one can ALLOWED to utter such a words to include a government, transit monopoly—that Lower Mainland taxpayers are overpaying CRIMINALS.
©Al (Alex-Alexander) D. Girvan. All rights reserved.