Toll Road Board Drops Marketing Bonus Idea

County toll road authorities abandoned a plan Wednesday to offer cash incentives to a marketing firm if toll collections exceeded annual projections.

At a committee meeting of the Transportation Corridor Agencies on Wednesday, directors said it was premature to offer such an incentive and voted overwhelmingly against it.

The proposal would have paid the Irvine marketing firm Johnson/Ukropina a $100,000 bonus for every $1 million in toll fees the agency collected beyond a target of $71.43 million. The incentive was aimed only at the Eastern and Foothill toll roads, which are performing beyond expectations, and not at the struggling San Joaquin Hills toll road.

While several officials said they wanted further time to study the idea, one TCA board member said he opposed it because the timing was wrong.

Board member and County Supervisor Todd Spitzer said a steady increase in use was projected for the Eastern and Foothill toll roads, but usage was expected to level off sometime next year.

Spitzer said it didn’t make sense to offer an incentive when ridership was all but guaranteed to increase through next year. “When things level off is when you want an incentive plan,” he said.

Wednesday’s decision must be confirmed at a full board meeting next week, but it left little doubt that the issue had been put to rest for this year.

Even one of the plan’s main proponents--TCA board member and Dana Point Councilman Harold R. Kaufman--was critical. He called for penalties in case revenues fell below expectations.

“The carrot’s phenomenal, but there’s no stick,” Kaufman said.