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SALT LAKE CITY -- The Utah Transit Authority is facing harsh criticism for the way it reorganized the upper tier of the company.
Since UTA is publicly funded, it is required to follow Utah's Open Meetings Act. Attorneys say the company made these decisions without public knowledge.
UTA is constantly expanding service, like its bus rapid transit lanes revealed earlier this week. Apparently, with expansion come promotions.
General Manager John Inglish is now UTA's chief executive officer. The company says it will keep Inglish's total compensation at roughly $339,000.
Board members are hopeful the change will free up Inglish to work on national transit initiatives and to find new funding for the transit authority.
"He has been doing some great work in those areas already," says UTA chairman Larry Ellertson. "The long-term hope is by being involved in that, it does position us to be in a better position in order to bring resources to us and help us to further our program here in the state."
But the problem some people have with the change is that the decisions were made behind closed doors.
"The law requires them to do it in an open session and open meeting so that there's accountability," says attorney David Reymann.
"We went through the process in a manner that was appropriate, and which is legal and we're authorized to do," Ellertson says. "Quite honestly, I think we were responsible in the way we handled it."
UTA says this was a personnel matter, and the initial discussion had to be held in private to protect the people in question.
Michael Allegra now assumes day-to-day operations as the general manager, making $250,000, and general counsel Bruce Jones will add president of government resources to his duties. He'll make $237,000.
Media attorneys say UTA hasn't followed the law in this reorganization.
"These people are already working in their jobs. All of this has taken place behind closed doors, and the public has been denied the right to see the decision-making process," Reymann says.
The Open and Public Meetings Act is supposed to keep public companies from conducting important business in private. On March 24, UTA met secretly to talk about the restructuring, then it had a public vote on what it discussed privately.
"Could there have been more openness? Always, someone could say I suppose there could be. But the other thing you have to balance against that is the privacy of the individuals involved," Ellertson says.
A UTA news release Thursday said the changes were to take effect immediately, but UTA's board of directors will have to ratify the decisions on April 28, at their next board meeting.
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Story compiled with contributions from Nicole Gonzales and Andrew Adams.
