*sigh*

Metra to open doors on top executive's salary talks

By Virginia Groark
Tribune staff reporter

March 2, 2005

Metra board members will take action on the 2005 salary of its executive director for a second time at an upcoming board meeting, but this time it will be done in public.

Agency officials made that decision at the request of an Illinois assistant attorney general who said a previous decision made in December violated the Open Meetings Act. Though Metra officials do not agree with the opinion, the board will abide by the request at an undetermined future board meeting, agency spokeswoman Judy Pardonnet said Tuesday.

"Because the attorney general's office is making the recommendation that we do this in a public forum, certainly we will comply with the recommendation, and we will take an official vote on the matter at a future meeting," she said.

The first decision on the salary of Executive Director Philip Pagano and Deputy Executive Director Richard Tidwell was reached in a consensus during executive session Dec. 17. After a reporter complained, the attorney general's office looked into it and decided the action should have been taken in public, according to a Feb. 28 letter from Assistant Atty. Gen. Terry Mutchler.

In the letter, Mutchler said even though Metra Chairman Jeffrey Ladd has the authority to grant the raises he does not do so without informing the board and receiving its approval.

"It is our position that board action was necessary to move forward with the salary changes, and as such, the board was required to take action in an open meeting," Mutchler wrote.

Mutchler asked the board to correct its behavior by taking up the issue in public at a regularly scheduled board meeting and offered to conduct a training session on the Open Meetings Act.

From 1996 to 2004, Pagano and Tidwell received bonuses in addition to base pay increases. In the December executive session, the board agreed the level of pay was appropriate but decided to eliminate the practice of giving bonuses, or so-called non-based payments.

Ultimately, Ladd decided to pay Pagano $243,678 for 2005, up from the $238,900 he received last year, which included a $40,000 bonus. Tidwell's salary was increased to $217,770, up from the $213,000 he received last year that included a $35,000 bonus.

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