Metro Chief Surpasses Peers in Severance

Other Large Systems In U.S. Less Generous

Ousted Metro chief Richard A. White will receive $116,000 a year in pension for life. (James A. Parcell - Twp)

The severance package for outgoing Metro Chief Executive Richard A. White, which includes a six-figure salary for life, is more generous than ones offered by three of the nation's other large transit agencies.

The deal, giving White a $238,000 one-time payment and an annual pension of $116,000, was revealed last week when Metro board members announced that they were asking for White's resignation after he had led the agency for almost a decade. Board members said his severance package was in line with deals at other systems, and they handed out news clippings to support the claim.

Metro board Chairman T. Dana Kauffman, who helped negotiate White's contract in 2001, said Wednesday that its terms were designed to keep a man who was then the toast of the transit world.

"At the time we entered into it, Dick was being actively courted by a number of authorities, and he was recognized as one of if not the best in the industry," said Kauffman, who represents Fairfax County on the board. "A decision was reached by voting members of the board at that time that this is what needed to be done to make it financially desirable for Dick to remain."

Kauffman said that if other transit chiefs were removed, they would receive lump sums equal to as much as two years' salary, whereas White's one-time payment is equivalent to 10 months' salary.

Other transit systems cited by Metro included ones in Los Angeles, Pittsburgh and the San Francisco area suburbs. They also pointed to the agency that runs streetcars and buses in San Francisco. None of them is near the size of Metro.

In an interview Friday, Kauffman said: "Would I, as the chairman today, love to have a do-over? You bet."

Kauffman added that future contracts would be "incentive-based and not guarantee-based."

Only a handful of U.S. transit systems are comparable to Washington's in size and complexity. Interviews with officials at three -- in the San Francisco Bay area, Chicago and Philadelphia area -- indicate that White got a better deal than comparable officials in those systems would get.

Bay Area Rapid Transit, which serves the San Francisco area and is often called Metro's "sister" system, operates in a region with a similar labor market and costs of living. White was the head of BART before coming to Washington, so he and his successor at BART have served nearly identical tenures in their respective jobs.

Yet White's severance package is significantly more lucrative because of his pension. If BART's general manager, Thomas E. Margro, 61, were to leave under circumstances similar to White's, his annual pension would be $72,000 to $81,000, said Linton Johnson, chief spokesman for BART. The difference would favor White, who is 53, by $35,000 to $44,000 a year.

Johnson said Margro's one-time severance payment would be $283,000, which is $45,000 more than White will receive.