It didn't take me long to figure out what kind of man Mcfarlane was.
A career technocrat living off the tax payers for decades now, soulless, heartless, an arrogance so huge its astonishing.
This kind of man is rarely seen in such a high profile job, most public figures have much more skill in handling executive functions.
Fred was a great con man, but at least he appeared to care, and being a bus driver under his rule was still sorta fun.
Mcfarlane came along and changed everything for the worse.
He was probably the biggest reason I retired long before I would have otherwise. He is such a 'secretive' guy that he sent his goons to hassle me constantly.
I finally had enough of that bullshit and just left.
Now he is trying to screw me out of my retirement.
Cut services, cut benefits and GIVE OUT RAISES TO YOUR FAVORITE CRONIES.
Out of the 'contingency' budget no less.
The contingency budget is supposed to be for unseen emergencies but Mcfarlane decided to hijack it for himself and his cronies.
After all he has done to ruin Trimet, he still sits in the drivers seat backed completely by that board of puppets and that weak kneed Judas Kitzhaber.
Michael Anderson ran the story first although it appears that Joe Rose was indeed working on the story but his 'private' information was leaked publicly.
I had this information up on my blog two weeks ago.
Oregonian gets much more audience than Portland A-Foot so lets read through some of the comments about this situation
HHHEEEYYYY!!!!! Where are all the Tri-Met/Blight rail lovers today???? The Oregonian didn't get delivered to your house? This is a prime example of politics in action---makes me wanna puke---How you can sit there and slam the Clackastanis day in and day out and then not say a word when the heirarchy which you worship shows it's true colors---you people disgust me---The Tri-Met board is an appointed pile of idiots by the Gov!!! How can he and McFarland sleep at night??? birds of a feather I guess---when is there going to be a forensic audit on Tri-Met to put this horrendous night mare to rest!!! anctiously awaiting a rebuttle
Got Corruption?
Attributing organizational performance to the skills of management is difficult in the best of cases. And even then it does not imply anything about the rareness of the skill in the population, which has been a key argument for high compensation. Management invariably takes credit for all the good events and attributes unhappy events to circumstances beyond their control. That’s a heads I win tails you lose game.
In organizations, public or private, the good ol boy system reigns. It is worse in public corporations than public agencies like TriMet because executives and boards are even more unaccountable. Ownership in the form of stock is too diffused to be organized, and even pension funds that hold large blocks of stock show little inclination to exert themselves with management or boards, until the company is in trouble like Hewlett-Packard or Dell. So management often pays themselves heinous amounts of money just for showing up and playing various roles. They and boards reward them for being hired, not performing. Inevitably, this results in lower total factor productivity than a merit based system would deliver.
"Some of the biggest raises went to managers on the 7.4-mile Portland-Milwaukie Light Rail line. For example, Steven Witter, a program manager who works as a liaison to the Federal Transit Authority on the $1.5 billion project, received a $17,005 annual raise, bringing his salary to $112,005. Marilyn Becklund, the project's community relations director, received an 8.24 percent raise to $118,000."
The proposed line between Portland and Milwaukie includes 11 stations. Two of those 11 stations are in Clackamas County.
After all of these years in service it seems completely unnecessary for the organization to have a person whose job description is Community Relations Director; at least for the roughly 80% of the project which is entirely inside the city of Portland.
A Community Relations Director to meet the needs of the people likely to utilize the 2 stations in Clackamas County probably is a good idea. God knows that TriMet's relationship to the community of Clackamas is horrendous and someone who could woo the people of Clackamas County and win good favor with them and build good will could be very valuable.
If they are successful.
She isn't. The plain truth is that the Community Relations Director for this project is a miserable failure and not worth a plugged nickel.
TriMet's Board of Directors also needs to really reconsider if it needs to keep the Community Relations Wrecker it has on staff. On one hand Mr. McFarlane is very successful, he has the people of Clark and Clackamas Counties in a fury and ready to rip up the rails and tear the cars apart. On the other hand, given that the agency "is fighting for its life" it would seem to be very much in its financial interest and in building good will if it turned these employees out on the street with directions where to go and file for unemployment compensation.
McFarland has been caught red handed in a lie to the public. A GIANT cover up. McFarland has been blaming the union for TriMets financial woes when he and 50 others got a very handsome raise while hurting joe blow transit rider. McFarland you are discpicable!!!!!
And nothing will be done to correct this! No comment from the mayor! No accountability as usual. And yet, the fares went up, our property taxes go up, and no one represents the people anymore. I hope a private bus company opens up shop here, cuts the city costs, and puts these crooks out of business.
Tri-Met has become, for lack of a better word, corrupt.
Elect some new people.
Our "leaders" at city, county, Metro, state and federal have been in office way too long. Try something different and you might get a different result.
We have corrupt public officials - get them out.
This is further proof why TriMet is refusing to open the Union contract negotiations to the pubic.
For about 10% of the $1.5 BILLION that TriMet is spending on the PMLR they could have replaced every non-low-floor bus in the fleet with brand new buses, increased service instead of cutting it and saved $1.35 billion.
14 attorneys on staff is a surprise, especially when TriMet hires out its litigation to downtown Portland law firms at ridiculous hourly rates. Look at the lawsuit they filed against Clackamas County the other day. They hired Ater Wynne, an expensive law firm. When a challenge was filed to their Portland/Milwaukie expansion, they hired Stoel Rives, another big Portland law firm. If they have 14 lawyers on staff, why do they need to spend big $$$$ to downtown Portland firms to handle their lawsuits?
This is unbelievable, it's like they could care less about providing good public transit and they are really only interested in getting rich off of the taxpayers!
Hey, let's not take it out on the drivers and hard working people at Trimet that actually do something. This wasn't an article about bashing unions; It was an article about do nothing, inept, corrupt execs penalizing the public while rewarding themselves to handsome raises and trying to blame cost over-runs on the union.
"The boys [and girls] are in it for the stuff"--the quote from the Gilded Age rings just as true today.
It would be interesting to investigate how all these high-paid bureaucrats got their cushy jobs in the first place--bundling for Kitzy?
Only Los Angeles and Dallas have more light rail miles than Portland.
LA population 3.8 million, Dallas, 1.2 million, Portland 593,000.
Light rail miles LA 70, Dallas 75.6, Portland 52.4 miles.
There are 4.6 times as many people in LA, twice as many in Dallas, yet we have almost the same number of light rail miles.
What is wrong with this picture?
Another fine trick is "phantom employees". They'll "authorize" positions that they never intend to fill with actual employees. The money gets into the department budgets where it's effectively hidden from scrutiny and from there eventually makes it way back into executive accounts and out the door in the form of "bonuses" or "car allowances" or any number of slick dodges.
It's not your average, usually hard working front line employee who is the problem for the most part. It's the voracious, self perpetrating greed of administrators and their compliant boards. You want to see more of this, simply study the budget of ANY public agency. It's rampant in education as minor potentate Superintendents protect their own turf and perks.
Pathetic. Portland - our tax dollars not at work...once again.
SICKENING!!!!!
When executives are highly paid with not much to do, they invent grandiose highly visible projects such as light rail to Milwaukie. A transit system once up and rolling operates largely on its own inertia. Keeping the buses operating and on schedule is what it is about. That doesn't take a lot of MBAs.
These execs are putting up a bridge that is being paid for by car owners. Yet, those taxpayers won't be allowed to use their own bridge! About twent to forty riders go from Milwaukie to Portland daily. Is it worth it. The expo max route is a train to nowhere. No one lives at the expo center and I don't see a single business stationed there.
Thus, TriMet's massive "Capital Projects" department - whose SOLE existence (of well north of 100 employees) is to dream up light rail projects. And many of these folks are engineers and architects who get six figure salaries.
HEY! Quit your whining. It takes a lot of work to increase fares, cut routes and oversee a $12 million dollar shortfall. It takes a lot of energy to lie to the people about a pay freeze while secretly increasing wages. So back off! You should be ashamed of yourselves for demanding honesty and accountability from people who who run a public agency!
tar and feather these guys, then send them out of town on a rail.
Why should this level of nest feathering surprise anyone. The Tri-Met board is full of rubber stamping stooges. Until and unless they grow a pair or are replaced with people who are willing to hold some feet to the fire, what you see is what you're going to get.
Well, how about it? Doesn't giving yourself a raise while giving cuts to the public qualify as violating the public trust?
Whats wrong with a public flogging in Pioneer Square and escort out of town for these stooges?
It's time the Board of Director's to can this clown. This is beyond belief! While I'm at it, how the HELL does this guy and his cronies warrant those salaries when they are simply running a bus system? Not even the Director of the Oregon Department of Transportation make that much, or any of his subordinates. Which business is bigger and more complex? How no one knew of this idiot's decisions is without excuse. If the Board isn't made aware of these raises they need to change their charter NOW! Every raise for executives should be reviewed by them, especially the General Manager. I was the Chairman of the Board at a small credit union and not one raise - to anyone - was approved without the Board's approval. This system is also being subsidized by local tax revenue. That Portland Auditor needs to make a visit to the General Manager's Office and have a look around.
Its one thing to give yourself a raise if your turning a profit and the system is running without any service cuts but to give yourselves raises and in the same breath talk about fare increases service cuts because of union benfits. You cant get any lower than that. Mcfarland and the rest of his cronies are the biggest douche bags ever
There really is no excuse or explanation for this beyond it being the institutionalized corruption that has infected out entire country from the top down. There really is no reason any exec should make more than say, ten times the amount of the average worker underneath them. This idea of robbing the workers and the public for the sake of taking all you can while the getting is good is what has destroyed our nation and turned us into a third world banana republic with greed being the over riding value.
When I think of my eighty three year old Mom having to walk an extra mile now because of cuts to bus service at the same time these low life, Predatory, worthless, inept, scum of the earth executives are giving themselves raises, it makes me realize that there is only one just solution. A new form of government, a new system of justice, and corporal punishment for those at the top that harm our entire society.
Each of these parasite execs at trimet should be horsewhipped in public and left with nothing but the cloathes on their back as they are ordered to vacate our city.
PS: In a perfect world we would see refrigerated vans parked outside the Tri-Met offices waiting to whisk away the fresh organs of Trimet's Execs after a tribunal found them guilty of betraying the public trust. There are plenty of people more deserving of these vital organs than those using them now.
McFarlane is making 221,450 per year? I think I would be challenged to SPEND that much money living in Portland. As I have said before, the public are now the servants. Local government officials are our overlords.
What I find interesting (and a bit outrageous) is all these managers getting raises but it is The Oregonian that has to point out the excessive shifts some drivers were working jeopardizing the publics safety. Who is minding the store and why are no heads rolling? The Operations Manager and the Human Resources manager should have been aware of the problems with excessively long shifts long before it was revealed in The Oregonian.
If McFarlane works 40 hours a week his $221,450 annual salary comes to an hourly wage of what, $106.47 an hour?
Salaried employees aren't required to work any set number of hours (especially public 'service' employees). These types often take 2 hour 'lunches' and come in late or leave early quite frequently. Don't forget to deduct the 7 weeks of paid vacation.
TriMet's Board of Directors needs to fire Neil McFarlane and hire me instead!
I'm a 23-year veteran bus driver, and even I could do a better job at managing this public transit system than McFarlane and his predecessor have. I would return the agency to it's intended focus--a safe, efficient and sustainable public conveyance. I would return its books back to the black and guarantee to avoid bankruptcy. I would settle all labor disputes and work in concert with passenger advocates and the ATU to build a 100% career-oriented, middle-class public workforce. I would gut Capital Projects and faze out Light Rail systems and transition most lines to accommodate Bus Rapid Transit (a much less expensive system). And, I would make the transit board accountable by direct elections, transparent, and responsible to the people of this transit district.
So, what do I know more than these rich 1% bastards? After 23 years of compelling passengers to pay their fares without being brutally assaulted I have become a good judge of character who keeps faith with the good neighbors around me.
Finally, I would gladly do Neil McFarlane's job for HALF, that right, HALF of his salary and benefits! Such a deal, who could refuse?
Time to clean house at TriMet starting at the top!
McFarlane said a 3 1/2-year pay freeze had contributed to rapid turnover in the executive and management ranks at a time when the transit agency is fighting for its life.
Here's a typical excuse given by the world's greedy to justify their exorbitant pay - i.e. "if I didn't get paid this much here, I'm such a goshdarn valuable human being that I'd just get paid what I'm worth by someone else. Better pay me more to keep me here!"
In other words, the screwed-up ways of the world cannot ever change locally because we always have to keep up with the greed globally. We see this gem over and over again, especially in the finance sector.
When wages and benefits for active and retired employees are factored, Stedman said, TriMet spends $100,417 on the average full-time union worker and $103,803 on the average non-union employees. That latter average includes McFarlane.
Here we have an attempt to use average salaries to try to deflect attention from the extreme salaries of a small group of executives at the top. Again, it's not the first time that the world's greedheads have tried this tactic.
I hope a lot of people get angry as hell about this.
It's not even about union vs non-union; it's the elite management team vs. everyone else at TriMet. "Discreet" is a polite word for the way McFarlane works - one might more accurately call him a liar.
Just another reason that McFarlane should be FIRED, the entire Board of Directors (who should have known about this, and stopped it) dismissed from their Board service (and hopefully banned from any further participation in government service, paid or unpaid), and a wholesale elimination of most management and non-essential staff at TriMet - especially the Capital Projects division.
Just those steps alone would save about $20 million a year. Incidentally, the amount of money TriMet claims was short due to the "expensive" insurance benefits. At least the bus drivers and mechanics perform a service to the public; I'm not really sure what McFarlane does, except goes furniture shopping and cozies up to light rail contractors.
Tri-Met is way too top heavy, they need to do more with less; how about a 20% cut in non-union personel? Lopping off just a few of these overpaid executives could go a long way to prove to taxpayers and ridership that the Board gives a da#n. If these increases were hidden from the Board in the budget, they need to request the GM's resignation!
Even though I am a proponent of Milwaukie LR and mass transit in general, it appears Tri-Met has another rail project they kept hidden from the public; The Gravy Train.
Given the current state of Tri-Met, these managers do indeed need 'enticement'. Enticement to leave.
There seems to be an epidemic cutting across both public agencies and private corporations: managers who think they're more important than the people who do the actual work. Tri-Met with fewer executives? I bet it would work just fine, with less paperwork and fewer pointless meetings. Tri-Met without bus drivers? Non-existent.
"McFarlane said a 3 1/2-year pay freeze had contributed to rapid turnover in the executive and management ranks at a time when the transit agency is fighting for its life."
With 7.8% unemployment, I'm sure there's lots of qualified people who would work for the lower salaries. What a crock.
It's a bizarre way to "fight for its life". Looks more like "managers" are bleeding it dry.
These managers are contemptible. There should be some kind of reaction from . . . well, that's the problem, isn't it? They answer effectively to no one.
Thank you, Mr. Rose, for bringing this outrage to light.
More like par for the course, this is common practice that has been going on for decades, we only now are hearing about it because of transparency in government. Tri-met is poorly ran, metro is poorly ran, local and state governments are poorly ran. There is no reason to expect anything else out of public employees as this is what they consistently do.
As a disabled citizen who depends upon Tri Met for much of my transportation, I'm appalled at the lack of trust Tri Met has shown. Instead of pay raises, these people should be shown the door for what they've done. While they enjoy big raises, the folks depending upon them get fare increase after fare increase! Unconscionable!
These morons always say that they need to pay these clowns more to attract the best and brightest but with trimet they do it to get the dumb, dumber and dumbest. All one has to do is look at the train wreck that trimet has become. And yes an actual train is involved. Just look at the WES debacle.
The three pillars of Tri-Met: Bureaucracy, Folly, and Waste.
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