IN SEPTEMBER 2011 former Ann Arbor News government reporter Tom Gantert filed a Freedom of Information Act request for information concerning the compensation of then AATA managers. The FOIA revealed that while AATA was running a deficit of over $1 million dollars on revenues of $27.1 million dollars, top-level managers at AATA were taking home some of the largest paychecks among city transit managers in the state of Michigan.
The ensuing response from AATA CEO Michael Ford, which he shared with then AnnArbor.com, included the justification that “AATA competes, not only with other transit systems, but with all businesses and organizations within southeast Michigan.”
In his 2011 statement, Ford went on to say that all AATA employees are rated and rewarded based on their individual performance and that the organization’s compensation schedule is designed to “attract and retain high-caliber employees, recognize and compensate employees for varying degrees of job responsibilities and reward individual employee contributions and motivate employees to improve their level of job performance.” At the time, Michael Ford was the highest paid administrator with an annual salary of $183,895. AATA employed seven administrators who earned well above $90,000 per year. Today, there are ten administrators, according to Mr. Ford.
In AATA’s 2012 approved budget, managerial compensation was hiked 12.4 percent. In the AAATA 2014 adopted budget, managerial wages were raised another five percent, even while the organization’s operating surplus plummeted over 90 percent to $20,501 on revenues of $33.9 million dollars.
In its 2014 adopted budget, AAATA expects to employ eight community relations managers/staff. In total, there are 224 AAATA employees. In 2010, AATA employed three community relations staffers. Between 2010 and 2014, that number rose from three to eight, two of whom work for the getDowntown program.
“Those are salesman,” said former AATA Treasurer Ted Annis. “They are employing those people to sell their transit plans to the public. It’s obscene.”
Michael Ford commented in an email, “Over the past three years, TheRide merged GetDowntown and MyRide (previously known as RideConnect) employees into its management staff and added staffing for the new VanRide, AirRide and expansion of NightRide services.”