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SALT LAKE CITY -- UTA's top executive rode off into the sunset this year with a hefty annual retirement.
Four months after KSL-TV and the Deseret News first requested details of the retirement benefits for UTA's former top official, the agency finally released them. Records show former CEO and GM John Inglish will receive a pension of $200,000 a year, funded by public money.
UTA had refused to divulge Inglish's pension since he retired in April, citing state privacy laws. The agency pointed to its website section describing its employee pension plan.
Under that plan, Inglish, whose salary and benefits peaked at $350,000 a year in 2009, is due 2 percent of his average pay the past five years multiplied by his 35 years of service. That came out to about $205,000 per year. UTA spokesman Gerry Carpenter would not confirm that number at the time.
Longtime watchdog Claire Geddes said, "This is really discouraging to see public funds being used to support a golden parachute."
The Deseret News and KSL then filed a request for details about the retirement package under the Government Records Access and Management, which UTA denied. The newspaper and the television station appealed to the State Records Committee.
The committee was due to hear the case last week, but state records ombudsman Rosemary Cundiff held a mediation meeting between lawyers for UTA and the media outlets. UTA confirmed the $200,000 pension in the meeting.
I don't believe it was ever an expectation or intention of the state Legislature that the agency would become a mechanism by which a small handful of individuals could enrich themselves at taxpayer expense.
–David Irvine
"UTA offers a fairly generous retirement package," said agency spokesman Gerry Carpenter. "It includes both elective retirement benefits similar to a 401K plan, as well as a pension plan."
Inglish declined our request for an interview Monday, but when asked two years ago about a generous compensation package of salary and benefits well over $300,000 a year, he responded, "I'm comfortable with it, yes. I think the public is entitled to the best management and leadership that can be provided."
At that time, KSL News reported total compensation for UTA's top executive easily topped transit officials in Chicago, Vegas, Phoenix, Washington D.C., Denver and San Francisco, and rivaled New York City.
David Irvine served in the legislature when it established UTA.
I'm comfortable with it, yes. I think the public is entitled to the best management and leadership that can be provided.
–John Inglish, April 2010, in response to question about compensation package.
"I don't believe it was ever an expectation or intention of the state Legislature that the agency would become a mechanism by which a small handful of individuals could enrich themselves at taxpayer expense," he said. "So yeah, I'm troubled by that."
This comes as the agency faces severe budget problems. In the past two years, they've laid off employees, raised fares and cut bus routes.
Geddes notes Inglish's retirement pension exceeds that of the president of the United States.
"This money will go on forever," she said. "No one should be able to get rich and pad their pocket while we have people and bus lines being cut."
Carpenter said UTA continues to maintain retirement benefits are private information but released the number "in the spirit of trying to come together in agreement to disclose that he is receiving the capped amount."
Inglish is actually eligible for more under the agency's formula, but the IRS caps annual pensions at $200,000, he said.
Geddes wants the governor and state lawmakers to strip UTA of its quasi-governmental status and fold it into another state agency. Attempts to contact Greg Hughes, chairman of UTA's board, which decides executive compensation, were unsuccessful.
Contributing: Dennis Romboy
