Tollway Agency Proposal for Pay Study Criticized

Orange County tollway officials want to spend $24,000 on a salary survey to make sure paychecks at the agency are “comparable with peer positions in similar organizations,” a proposal that is drawing criticism from a citizen watchdog group.

“It’s part of a periodic personnel checkup,” said Lisa Telles, a spokeswoman for the Transportation Corridor Agencies.

“It does not mean instant raises or huge increases. It could mean we’re right in line” with other public and private agencies, Telles said. If so, “nothing will change.”

But Bill Ward, a member of the anti-tax group Committees of Correspondence, called the survey “a ridiculous waste.”

Less than 18 months ago, tollway officials drew criticism for spending thousands of dollars on merit raises, cash bonuses and other compensation while the county weathered a recession and struggled to recover from its late 1994 bankruptcy filing.

“These perks and salaries are just not justifiable,” said Paula Werner, a member of the tollway agency board and an Irvine City Council member at the time. “Our staff is definitely working hard, but do we have to compensate them at this level? No.”

County officials also have raised questions about the agency’s salary structure.

The agency’s chief executive officer, William Woollett, earned $142,000 last year, more than most Orange County city managers; and at least seven of its 44 employees draw annual salaries of more than $101,000.

“Between [Woollett] and Michael Ovitz, they could have gotten us out of the bankruptcy themselves,” Ward said, referring to the former Walt Disney Co. executive whose $96-million severance package drew stockholders’ ire.

Tollway officials said the survey is necessary because the agency is reorganizing positions to focus more on finance and operations and less on planning and construction.

The public agency, which has a $594-million annual budget, is building three county tollways, using development fees and assessments, state loans and money borrowed against future tolls. As the projects evolve, so must the staff, Telles said.

Instead of replacing a top design and construction executive who left last month, for example, the tollway agency will split the duties among several managers, she said. Four other positions were redefined.

In addition, tollway agency salary ranges have not changed since 1992, when the last compensation survey was done, Telles said. Thirty-five positions covering all levels of work, from engineers to administrative staff, would be reviewed in the new study.

“Whenever we’ve compared our salaries to other organizations’, they are not outlandish,” Telles said. If the tollway agency pay ranges seem high, she said, it is because the agency consists mostly of upper-level managers and engineers.

“We don’t have a whole floor of junior engineers or toll collectors,” Telles said. “We have a handful of specialized, project engineers, and we contract out for everything else.”

The survey proposal, which has been approved unanimously by all three subcommittees of the tollway agency, will be forwarded to the full board next Friday. Tollway officials a few weeks ago shelved an employee bonus plan as too extravagant.

Member Pat Bates said the agency must be competitive in its compensation packages, though, to keep employees for the continuity of its projects.

“This agency is not like most public agencies,” said Bates, a Laguna Niguel councilwoman. “It’s a laboratory for development, a model for managing huge public works projects through private sector funding. These people must be top-notch.”

Tollway officials said the study, to be done by an independent consulting firm, would not guarantee pay raises. Increases would be contingent on annual performance evaluations.

Ward, however, scoffed at conducting salary surveys for an agency that has nearly $2 billion in bonds and loans outstanding.

“They’re setting themselves up for fatter paychecks, pure and simple,” he said. “Do you think they’d pay $24,000 to do a study to lower their paychecks? Please.”

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Corridor Cash

Current salary ranges for several Transportation Corridor Agencies positions:

* Administrative secretary (three positions): $29,110-$40,756

* Accountant (one position): $33,170-$46,440

* Corridor manager (three positions, one for each project; civil engineers overseeing design and construction contracts): $75,393-$105,546

* Director of toll operations (one position; manages toll collection programs, outside contracts): $70,863-$99,208

* Manager of treasury operations (one position; manages investments, tracks payments): $58,539-$81,954

* Associate environmental analyst (one position; oversees environmental improvement commitments, ensures implementation): $40,283-$56,393

Source: Transportation Corridor Agencies; Researched by BONNIE HAYES / For The Times