Metra to spend $100,000 to examine nonunion staff salaries

Lost amid the frenzy at last month's Metra board meeting when directors approved a 25 percent fare hike was a contract that passed with little comment.

But it's worth noting that the agency will spend $100,000 to pay an Arizona-based consulting firm to examine salaries of nonunion employees.

The consultants, who are blessed with the catchy name Public Sector Personnel Consultants, will be “conducting a needs assessment, performing jobs analyses and assigning classifications, determining exempt and nonexempt classifications, performing a compensation study that includes internal and external pay equity analyses, and documenting Metra's formal job classification.” They also will “review the current salary structure ... and make recommendations for salary balancing and or/adjustments as necessary.”

I'm not very fluent in HR, so bear with my translation.

Essentially, the consultants will evaluate all nonunion jobs, see if current job descriptions make sense, compare Metra employees' wages to those in other commuter rail agencies and report on whether salary increases are necessary.

Metra CEO Alex Clifford has stressed the study doesn't guarantee raises.

“The classification element can result in a change in job specification and a review of compensation may result in pay adjustments up or down,” Clifford said Friday in an email.

Compensation is one major issue “contributing to low morale,” Clifford said on Nov. 11.

Three points to note:

Ÿ Clifford's predecessor Phil Pagano ran an autocratic, top-down organization. A study by yet another Metra consultant, Blackman Kallick, found that salary increases were done willy-nilly and that Pagano conducted a dubious reorganization of the agency that requires reassessment.

Ÿ Metra's last wage increase took effect in January 2009 and ranged from 2.5 percent to 3.25 percent.

Ÿ A Freedom of Information Act request this summer showed that 33 out of 84 of Metra's department heads, directors and senior directors make more than $100,000 annually. These range from $155,000 for the head of human relations to $100,000 for the chief of police. And 29 high-ranking employees make between $90,000 and $100,000. That's 74 percent of senior staff members earning between $90,000 and $155,000.

Will the study result in any salary cuts? Metra watchdogs are dubious.

State Sen. Susan Garrett, a Lake Forest Democrat who's held hearings on Metra, questioned the cost of the study in the midst of the bad economy and with fare hikes ahead.

“It's an expensive price tag,” Garrett said, adding she wondered why the survey couldn't have been done in-house. “I don't understand what the administration of Metra is doing, when, every time they take on a project, they continue to hire consultants to do the work.”

In regard to low morale, she said, “I thought everyone was happy to have a job until we get through this recession.”

Asked about the need for the consultants, Clifford said, “The classification and compensation study is a responsible action to ensure that employees are compensated appropriately for the job responsibilities they perform.

“As proposed, any recommendation resulting from this study will be vetted with transparency in the board's finance committee.”

What do you think? Drop me an email at mpyke@dailyherald.com.

You should know

Is Kankakee “preposterous”? As a lawsuit over tax-dodging continues, mild-mannered Regional Transportation Authority officials are now using fighting language. The RTA sued Kankakee and Channahon this summer, saying the towns are acting as tax havens for local retailers causing transit agencies (Metra, Pace and the CTA) to lose millions in sales tax dollars. Essentially, the towns allow major merchants to set up phony headquarters and take advantage of their lower tax rates, the RTA claims. The towns benefit from new sales taxes and the companies get generous rebates, officials say.

In the latest legal wrangling, Kankakee is balking at producing documents that the RTA says would prove its case, RTA Executive Director Joe Costello said Friday. “Kankakee is simply stalling for time by preposterously claiming that the tax rebates agreements at the center of the lawsuit are irrelevant,” he said. For their part, Kankakee and Channahon leaders have dismissed the lawsuit, saying it's trumped-up and frivolous.

Gridlock alert

Ÿ Some good news for a change. IDOT says widening and reconstruction of Route 45 in Grayslake is finito as of this week.

Ÿ But I-88 road warriors should beware of pavement patching between Route 56 and Route 30 today.

Your voice

Metra spokesman Michael Gillis rebuts a letter in last week's column where a reader lamented that “weekend express trains are not running on all the lines. For example, the line that runs through Arlington Heights is No. 2 in terms of ridership, yet it does not get this service. The Milwaukee North line does get this service, even though it is way down the list in terms of ridership. Could the fact that it runs through some wealthy suburbs like Deerfield and Lake Forest explain this?”

Gillis wrote, “We added two round trips on Saturday and one on Sunday on both the Milwaukee North and UP North. This service was added not because those lines run through wealthy suburbs, as implied, but in response to the CTA Brown Line and especially the Edens Expressway construction projects. The new trains also addressed overcrowding and gaps in the weekend schedules.

“We did a great deal of due diligence in regards to that service ... putting two options on the table for cutting service. Each of those options called for the elimination of weekend service that was added to the UP North and Milwaukee North in 2008. Option 1 would have cut that weekend service (and new weekend service on the Southwest Service) in addition to two to four trains on nearly every line on weekdays. Option 1A, which the staff recommended, would have cut the new weekend service on those three lines only. Among the factors cited by staff for cutting the UP North and Milwaukee North weekend additions was that the Edens and CTA work was complete. The board ultimately decided to leave service alone and balance the budget with fare increases only.”

Coming soon

IDOT will hold an open house on the proposed grade separation project at Ogden Avenue (Route 34) and former EJ&E Railroad tracks, now owned by CN. The meeting runs from 4 to 8 p.m. Tuesday at the Village Baptist Church, 515 S. Frontenac St., Aurora.

Candy cane train

The words “CTA train” don't necessarily evoke comfort and joy, but December's the exception. The agency's Holiday Train will run between 2 and 8 p.m. on weekends and between 3 and 7 p.m. on certain weekdays. Colored lights, decorated poles, plus Santa and the elves will make you forget that recent crowded rush-hour trip. If you're heading into the city with the kids, you can check out the Holiday Train schedule at <a href="http://transitchicago.com/holidaytrain.">transitchicago.com/holidaytrain.</a>