Nice Work If You Can Get It (and Keep It)

Stephen Banta, the CEO of Phoenix’s Valley Metro transit agency, resigned in disgrace after revelations that taxpayers paid for him to fly first class around the world, stay in $600-per-night hotel rooms, and take elected officials out to expensive dinners trying to woo them into supporting light rail. After resigning, he then tried to rescind his resignation, apparently wanting to negotiate a better golden parachute.

This tactic apparently worked, as the Valley Metro board has agreed to pay him $265,000 if he leaves on January 4. That’s approximately his average annual pay.

CEOs of rail transit agencies tend to get paid a lot more than CEOs of bus agencies. This is arguably because rail transit is so much more difficult to manage, but in fact few do it well. As the Antiplanner has shown, Phoenix bus ridership grew rapidly before light-rail opened (and before Banta took the helm of the transit agency). Since then, the region has lost one bus rider for every rail rider gained.

Not surprisingly, this story has an Oregon connection. Before going to Phoenix, Banta earned $185,000 a year as director of operations for Portland’s TriMet transit agency. In 2009, Valley Metro offered him an $80,000 boost in pay to run Phoenix’s light-rail system.

Though he accepted that job, Banta kept his house in Portland and Phoenix taxpayers payed more than $15,000 for Banta and his wife to make dozens of round-trip flights between Arizona and Oregon. The Valley Metro board said they let him get away with this because he gave up a $15,000 retention bonus to accept their job. This seems especially strange since operation of Phoenix’s light rail is contracted out to a private company, so its CEO’s main job, it seems, was to lobby elected officials to support expansion of the system.
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In 2012, Banta was made CEO of Phoenix’s entire transit system. In that position, he frequently paid for expensive dinners–including plenty of alcohol–for public officials. Strangely, the Arizona Republic found at least ten dinners where Banta charged taxpayers for entertaining public officials, yet those officials say they were not present at those dinners. This, says a Phoenix city councilor, was either “poor record keeping . . . or a willful submission of false documents.”

Banta also spent nearly $19,000 in public funds taking the city council of Glendale–a Phoenix suburb that so far lacks light rail–to Portland to see that region’s light-rail system.

Banta defended his travel to conferences in Munich, Milan, and other cities “saying his attendance at international conferences allows Phoenix to be a player in the worldwide transit industry.” But why does Phoenix need to be such a player? It’s not like many of Valley Metro’s customers are from Germany or Italy.

His other spending is even more indefensible. Taking elected officials to Portland to show of that city’s rail system? Taking Portland’s mayor and city council out to dinner at a cost of nearly $4,700? $75 a steak?

As pleased as I am to see the Arizona Republic uncover some of this dirt, I have to wonder about the timing. If they had raised these issues before last August’s election, Phoenix voters would have been a lot less likely to support higher taxes for light rail. But the Republic supported the light-rail measure; crucifying Banta now makes them feel powerful even though all they will do is trade one slick lobbyist for another. It reminds me of Oregon’s newspapers, who uncovered the story of the girlfriend of Oregon’s governor using her position as “first lady” to get contracts when the governor was running for re-election, but then sat on it until after the election to make sure that his Republican opponent couldn’t use it to unseat him.

For as shocking as the revelations of Banta’s spending seem, they are all just part of the business of selling light rail to the public, not just in Phoenix and Portland but in every city that is proposing new light-rail lines. After all, Phoenix hired Banta because of what he learned in Portland, which seems to be where all light-rail proponents turn to as a model. And the Portland model, as the Antiplanner has shown, is really not one that other cities should want to emulate.

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About The Antiplanner

The Antiplanner is a forester and economist with more than fifty years of experience critiquing government land-use and transportation plans.

5 Responses to Nice Work If You Can Get It (and Keep It)

  1. OFP2003 says:

    Slow down, take deep breaths, and proof your writing before posting. 😉

  2. MJ says:

    To quote the late Christopher Hitchens: “This is how far the termites have spread, and how long and well they’ve dined.”

    I’m almost certain that Banta must have been a politician at some point in his career. That kind of sense of entitlement doesn’t appear overnight. It develops among those who have become accustomed to living a life of luxury at taxpayer expense, to the point where they don’t even question the righteousness of what they’re doing. $4,700 dinners are the kind of thing that pro football players do as hazing by sticking a recently-signed rookie with the bill. I can only wonder about how many people accounted for that bill, but I’m not sure I want to know.

    The fact that the Board allowed him to renegotiate his resignation and walk off with a full year’s pay is just insult on top of injury.

  3. JOHN1000 says:

    There are many people in prison who stole a lot less money. And they weren’t offered a $265,000.00 bonus for getting caught stealing the money.

    Many taxpayers had to work long and hard to earn enough money to pay $265,000.00 in taxes (so they could be handed over to this crook). If they didn’t pay the taxes, they would go to jail.

  4. prk166 says:

    So no word from the AZ Attorney General on their office pressing charges?

  5. C. P. Zilliacus says:

    The Antiplanner wrote:

    Banta also spent nearly $19,000 in public funds taking the city council of Glendale–a Phoenix suburb that so far lacks light rail–to Portland to see that region’s light-rail system.

    Why did he need to take everyone to Portland to look at light rail?

    I thought Phoenix had light rail already? Would seem a little closer than Portland.

    For that matter, Los Angeles and San Diego are closer (San Diego roughly 350 miles by highway; Los Angeles 370 miles; and Portland over 1,300 miles). Both California cities have light rail now. Had they gone to L.A., Banta could have treated everyone to a ride on the Blue Line through South-Central.

    Banta defended his travel to conferences in Munich, Milan, and other cities “saying his attendance at international conferences allows Phoenix to be a player in the worldwide transit industry.” But why does Phoenix need to be such a player? It’s not like many of Valley Metro’s customers are from Germany or Italy.

    Agreed. He can come to one such meeting in the United States run by APTA or TRB to be that player and save taxpayers back home some money.

    His other spending is even more indefensible. Taking elected officials to Portland to show of that city’s rail system? Taking Portland’s mayor and city council out to dinner at a cost of nearly $4,700? $75 a steak?

    I hope it was all mighty tasty. If you are a public employee (and not an elected official – I can see where an elected official might need to wine and dine others – sometimes), this is something you just do not do.

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