Transit district calls outsourcing only option

Tucker, the district's executive director, along with board chairman Bob Campbell and district spokeswoman Sarah Benson, sat down Monday with the North County Times editorial board to discuss the drastic personnel changes NCTD is considering and the crushing financial straits driving those moves.

The district's board on Thursday is expected to approve a plan to outsource its nearly 325 bus workers, including about 240 drivers and 85 mechanics and maintenance workers to Ohio-based transit operator First Transit. The company, which employs drivers in Orange and Los Angeles counties and across the nation, would gain a seven-year, $178-million contract. The district projects it will save about $10 million annually through pay and benefit reductions by First Transit to its workers.

"For the situation we're dealing with, this is by far the best opportunity," said Tucker, whose district provides bus, commuter train and light-rail service across the region. "This gives us the best chance to keep people employed and keep service on the streets."

Huge drops in revenue, ridership and state funding have devastated NCTD's finances, officials said. Over the past seven years, the district estimates it has lost $30 million in diverted State Transit Assistance funds it and other transit districts across California have regularly counted on. An additional $30 million in state funds could be withheld over the next three fiscal years for a district whose annual budget has hovered near $90 million in recent years.

Through the outsourcing plan and future layoffs to human resources, payroll, marketing and customer service staff, the district will eventually trim itself from its current 523 employees to just 85 in coming months, Tucker said.

District leaders maintain that the personnel changes are the only way to prevent future deficits reaching $20 million annually. But many of the employees who will be forced to take lower pay and benefits through the outsourcing plan say NCTD administration could have done more to share the pain.

"Our district is leaving us high and dry after years of dedication," bus driver Kathleen Oliver, 51, said in a phone interview Monday. Oliver, who drives Breeze buses in the Escondido area, said she's been an NCTD driver for more than 28 years.

She and others have asked why top administrators have not taken a pay cut in recent years to show that the cost-cutting won't only fall on the backs of the district's blue-collar workers.

"It would have been a nice symbolic gesture," said Oliver, noting she expects she will be forced to retire from the district, draw her pension and then find another job to continue earning her current level of pay.

All district employees, except for the 85 mechanics and maintenance workers, agreed to a wage freeze earlier this year. None agreed to a pay cut.

Campbell, who is also a Vista councilman, said forcing transit district management alone to take a pay cut did not seem "equitable."

To buoy the district in future years, all employees would have needed to take a 30 percent pay cut, officials said. Tucker said wage cuts were discussed this summer by the board and with the bus workers. All sides, he said, agreed the cuts were too high and rejected the plan in favor of outsourcing.

In negotiating with First Transit, Tucker said he set a minimum the company could pay its bus workers: $12 per hour in combined pay and benefits. NCTD pays those workers from $14 per hour to $21.65 per hour based on seniority, with the opportunity to earn up to six weeks paid vacation. It also contributes to the workers' Public Employees Retirement System.

New wages and benefits will have to be negotiated by the company and Teamsters Local 542, the bus workers' union.

Tucker would not specify the wages First Transit said it could pay the workers. But he said their pay would be "much better" than the district's briefly discussed 30 percent cut. "It was actually better than the 25 percent and 20 percent cut," he said.

"Obviously, one of the biggest changes is (First Transit) will give less time off," Tucker added. "They dial down that pretty significantly."

District officials expect about 85 percent of the bus workers to shift over to First Transit, a company they praised for its strong safety record. Tucker said there's a "good chance" all employees will have the opportunity to work for the new employer.

Should a large number of bus workers retire, or not gain employment with the company, officials said new drivers will be trained in the more than seven month-interim period. The contract would not take effect until June 30, 2010.

"For the most part, our customers are going to see the same drivers," said Benson, the district spokeswoman.

Thursday's NCTD board meeting will be held at 2 p.m. at 810 Mission Ave., Oceanside.

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