WATCH: A decision by TransLink to keep their old CEO on the books is putting focus once again on executive wages at the organization. John Daly reports.
When the TransLink board of directors replaced Ian Jarvis as CEO yesterday, they said it was to restore public confidence.
“The person selected as the permanent CEO will be responsible for meeting the challenges of a growing region that expects to see one million new residents in the next 30 years. Either there will be major new investments to implement or there will be the challenge of underfunding,” said TransLink Board of Directors Chair Marcella Szel in a statement.
“Regardless, TransLink must restore public confidence, and new leadership is the first step.”
READ MORE: 5 reasons TransLink needed to ‘restore public confidence’
However, the decision to continue paying Jarvis’ $39,000 a month salary until his contract expires in June 2016, rather than give him severance, may have had the opposite effect.
“Only TransLink would find a way to shoehorn more money into the CEO office,” said Canadian Taxpayers Federation spokesman Jordan Bateman.
“The old guy who is apparently so bad that public confidence is so eroded, now advises the board of directors.”
Interim CEO Doug Allen will be making $35,000 a month for the next six months while a permanent successor is found.
The wages of executives at TransLink has been scrutinized for several years. Jarvis’ base salary of $319,000, plus executive bonuses, is higher than the compensation given to the leaders of most other North American local transit systems.
“They really didn’t think out fully, I don’t think they estimated what the public’s reaction was going to be,” said Integrity BC executive director Dermod Travis. “The public wants to understand, and when you do things that the public recognizes doesn’t seem right, they generally gets irate.”