The Colorado Springs Utilities Board of Directors on Wednesday increased the pay of the agency’s CEO by nearly $42,000, the first adjustment in compensation for the executive position since 2018.

Following an hourlong closed session during which the board discussed Travas Deal’s 2023 year-end performance, members in the open session that followed said the raise was deserved. Deal was appointed to the role last February.

“We just did an evaluation of our CEO. His scorecard came out to be ‘exceeds expectations.’ When you look at the amount of accountability and responsibility that the CEO carries, and the buck stops with him. … We appointed him to take that responsibility and that accountability,” Board Member Yolanda Avila said.

The board reviewed options for increasing Deal’s pay ranging from $521,640 up to $661,788 based on market research of CEO compensation at private and public utilities as well as recent pay raises given to other Colorado Springs Utilities employees, presented by the agency’s Chief Human Resources Officer Renee Adams.

The board voted unanimously, with Councilwoman Nancy Henjum absent, to raise Deal’s salary to $521,640. The rate includes salary adjustments of 5% and 3.5% that all Colorado Springs Utilities employees except the CEO received in 2023 and 2024, respectively.

The salary increase is the first for Deal since he took the role last year. He was hired at a rate of $480,000 annually, the same salary as former CEO Aram Benyamin.

Benyamin was also hired at that rate in 2018, but when Utilities officials in the spring of 2022 reviewed options for increasing his salary, the former CEO said he was not interested in a raise.

The board’s regular review and adjustment of the CEO’s pay is a standard industry practice, Adams said. It allows the utility to keep pace with the market and maintain its competitiveness to retain talent.

The lack of increase in the CEO’s pay for the last five years has caused pay compression, or a decreased percentage in the amount of pay between Deal’s role and the utility’s highest paid officer, she said.

“Over time, especially in the last few years from 2022 to 2024, the percentage has decreased significantly,” Adams told the board.

Before the approved raise, the difference in salary between the highest paid officer and the CEO is about 25%, dropping from just over 60% in 2022, a staff presentation showed.

Among seven staff recommendations to increase or make no change in CEO pay, the board’s final decision Wednesday was to choose the third recommended option.

Staff’s top recommendation was to increase Deal’s pay to $608,961, which would have brought his salary in line with the 60th percentile for pay in 2022 at comparable utilities, because Utilities targets that range for other positions.

Before voting to approve Deal’s new salary, Board Member Mike O’Malley suggested an eighth option: increase Deal’s salary by the same 3.5% other employees with the agency received this year, or up to an annual salary of $496,800.

That rate is almost double the 2% wage increase the City Council, whose nine members also serve as the Colorado Springs Utilities Board, approved for city employees in Colorado Springs’ 2024 budget, O’Malley said.

“I think 3.5% is very fair and in line with the rest of the employee workforce,” he said.

Adams said a CEO salary increase at that rate would still result in “a significant compression issue.”

“The utilities industry is very different, from a compensation perspective, than municipal government,” and the salary increase is necessary for the utility to remain competitive, she said.

Board Member Randy Helms said the board needed to consider that Colorado Springs Utilities is a public, city-owned enterprise.

“In some cases, we have to measure that compared to the rest of our city employees,” he said.

Board Member Dave Donelson said increasing Deal’s annual pay rate to $521,640 amounted to less than a 2% annual increase over five years, the last time the CEO salary was adjusted.

The rate increase amounts to $41,640 in additional compensation a year for Deal.

“We’re trying to balance two things here: to give fair compensation to our CEO and show support for him,” Donelson said, noting he is “pleased” with Deal’s performance in the role. “I also support this option … as the right amount for Colorado Springs.”