Transit Executive Gets 22% Pay Hike, 4-Year Contract

Over strong objections from two board members, Orange County Transit District General Manager James P. Reichert won an unprecedented four-year contract Monday calling for pay raises totaling 22%, which would bring his salary to more than $104,000 in 1993.

On a 3-2 vote, the district board agreed to the multiyear contract, which guarantees that should Reichert be terminated for any reason, he still must be paid the full amount for the entire four years.

Tustin Councilman Richard B. Edgar, Anaheim lawyer William Farris and Huntington Beach Councilman John Erskine, all transit district board members, approved the agreement, citing Reichert’s record of non-controversial and praiseworthy performance.

But district board chairman Roger R. Stanton, who also is a member of the Board of Supervisors, called the new contract “a guaranteed giveaway of raises in advance.”

“I don’t think it’s appropriate to guarantee somebody a job four years into the future,” Stanton said after the transit district board meeting. “His performance is fine. I have no complaint about it. But I basically believe that he should serve at the will of the board, as is the case with county department heads.”

OCTD board member Don R. Roth, who also is a county supervisor, offered a compromise that would have given Reichert a 30-month contract, but none of the other agency board members went along.

Raises of 5%, 6%

Edgar and Farris had proposed a five-year contract more than a month ago, but they later reduced their request to four years.

The new contract calls for Reichert to receive 5% raises on March 15, 1990 and 1991, and 6% raises on March 15, 1992 and 1993. The contract extends through Nov. 1, 1993.

Reichert is now paid $85,442 a year.

Transit district officials said Reichert decided to seek the multiyear contract after receiving glowing praise last June during his official performance review.

Retirement Anticipated

Reichert, who did not speak on his own behalf during the meeting, said afterward:

“I’m looking at retiring four or five years from now, and this gets me pretty close to it.”

Reichert, 56, has been with transit district since 1973, and the new contract will carry him through his 20th year with the agency.

Reichert said he also was interested in securing his employment in light of pending legislation to merge OCTD with the county Transportation Commission. “It gave me pause to think,” Reichert said. “I thought that maybe I ought to make a move now, but some board members decided that they would rather have me stay around instead of having me look around.”

The transit district operates the county’s main public bus service, and the county Transportation Commission coordinates county transit and highway policies. A merger bill stalled in the Legislature this year over the makeup of a combined new board of directors, but the bill is expected to pass in 1990.

Although Reichert’s new contract raises his salary significantly, the county’s highest paid public official is William C. Woollett Jr., recently named to direct the county’s tollway agency. Woollett’s salary is $118,000.

The general manager of the Los Angeles-based Southern California Rapid Transit District (RTD) receives $118,000 a year, but that person serves at the pleasure of the RTD board.

Meanwhile, Stanton--who has sparred frequently with Reichert in recent years--acknowledged Monday that he did support a multiyear contract for Stanley T. Oftelie, executive director of the county Transportation Commission, of which Stanton is also a member. Stanton pointed out that Oftelie’s contract, which extends through 1992, only guarantees him six months’ pay should he be terminated early.