The real issue is not salaries

As a former City Councilor and member of the Colorado Springs Utilities Board, I’m troubled by the outrage over the CSU CEO’s pay increase.

I believe the outrage is feigned and politically motivated noise by the greenies who are unhappy with the successful conservative operational philosophy that keeps our utilities reliable and rates consistently lower than our peers.

Most people don’t realize that Colorado Springs Utilities is the largest community-owned, not-for-profit, four-service utility in the nation, with a $2.2 billion budget. That budget is twice the city’s entire $907 million budget.

And most people don’t know the CEO doesn’t just run one company. The CEO runs four distinct companies.

He runs an electric company, a natural gas company, a water company, and a wastewater company.

The CEO’s new salary is $625,000 with a second step to $700,000 in a year and a half. Divided across the 4 companies, his new salary is only $156,000 per company.

That salary per company is roughly 58% less than what Mayor Yemi Mobolade pays his Chief of Staff, Wayne Williams, who earns $271,000 and is the highest-paid appointed bureaucrat in the city.

The real issue is not salaries for leaders. The real issue is what we’re buying.

We have the most reliable and lowest cost utilities anywhere, on purpose. We’re a community-owned enterprise designed with that mission, and the CEO is delivering on the promise.

Additionally and likely more consequentially, Colorado Springs Utilities provides critical utility infrastructure to NORAD, Schriever, Peterson, the Air Force Academy, and Fort Carson.

Because our utilities are vital to our local security and our national security, do we really want to rely on a Schlumpf of a CEO to make sure the lights stay on?

And if we really want to get down to basics, we should move on from the salary controversy and focus on real problems like the municipal budget, structural layoffs, a police force with only 36 patrol officers on duty at any given time, and a growing homelessness crisis. We have a mayor earning $130,000. You see the results. If there is a cost for outcome, maybe a solution is to hire more qualified talent.

We need to stop exhausting ourselves on this salary noise and thank God we have leaders like Travas Deal, who is a bargain.

We need to leaders of his stripe for the municipal governance of the city where we’re running $30 million to $40 million in the red is not an option and where the only campfire is one that’s planned in Cheyenne Mountain State Park.

We have bigger problems than the utility company CEO’s salary and unless we figure out how to engage in adult conversations about their solutions, we’ll be just another lost city whose only ambition was to shine on a hill.

Tim Leigh

Colorado Springs

Give officials some grace

There has been a strong outcry over the salary increase for Travas Deal, the Colorado Springs Utility CEO, and the Council’s decision to approve it. However, I believe the anger directed toward Deal and our City Council Members is misplaced.

First, I have seen many comments implying that this job is easy and disparaging Mr. Deal’s competence. This job is highly complex and requires deep knowledge of utility operations. A utility is unlike many other industries because a power outage during a major weather event can threaten the health and safety of our most vulnerable residents. Young children, the elderly, and people with disabilities are particularly at risk during extreme heat or cold.

I would like to share some of what I learned about utilities as a cost engineer on power plant projects. The CEO is responsible for keeping power flowing, regardless of challenges. Deal oversees thousands of miles of distribution pipelines. He might face geopolitical obstacles, such as oil embargoes and wars, natural disasters that shut down infrastructure, and surges in demand from data centers and growth. If our power falls short, it must be purchased from other utilities. The CEO must adapt to a changing industry, including grid modernization and aging infrastructure. There are many environmental and government regulatory requirements. Infrastructure investment is not only for maintenance but also for planning future needs. How do you forecast future demand for a project that can cost several billion dollars and take seven years to build? The utility must also choose the most appropriate power mix for our community. Finally, this CEO must manage administrative and financial tasks and oversee a workforce of 2,000.

Second, our Council must ensure we have a competent manager with specialized skills to maintain system reliability and deliver power when needed. The average utility CEO salary in the United States is over $10 million a year. We may agree that it is too high. There is much anger over CEO salaries in the U.S. The gap between workers’ and CEOs’ salaries contributes to our growing economic inequality and the difficulty many have paying basic living expenses. Yet the Council must recruit a qualified candidate from the current market in which we are competing. Human Resource Managers who conduct compensation analyses would not consider a $700,000 salary out of line, given the required skills and the field’s average salaries.

Deal has received accolades within the industry for his innovation. Let’s give him, and our City Council members, some grace.

Susan Bolduc

Colorado Springs

From the outside looking in

Mike Rosen is on the outside looking in. But with 33 years teaching (substituting 13 more), I can say that the inside is far different than the rosy financial picture painted in his recent column.

The average Colorado teacher salary is $70,000. Teachers are not paid for holidays or summer, as Rosen implied, but paid for 186 days worked. So, if a meteorologist’s salary of $70,000 ($5,800 monthly) were paid like teachers, then the required “lay-off” of three months would result in a $52,500 gross salary ($5,800 x 9). Then an additional amount is withheld each of these 9 months (like teachers are paid) to have 12 payments of $4,375 Plus, the employee withholds 4.8% more for PERA vs Social Security and the employer contributes 6.8% more to PERA vs SS so the employer has less money for wages or raises. My district’s minimal health insurance covered just me with my spouse’s and children’s health coverage paid by me. And PERA retirees don’t get inflation-linked COLA raises like Social Security, because PERA’s COLA is legally frozen at a maximum 1.5% even during higher inflation.

Rosen was incredibly misogynistic, saying, “75% of teachers are women, most get married and will likely live well on two incomes.” Implying that females don’t need to be paid enough to be independent and live well on their salary and implying that female (and male) teachers don’t need a living wage as they can just marry someone who does have one.

I challenge Rosen to teach 9th grade social studies full-time for two weeks at any public high school- doing all planning/preparation, providing materials, instructing every class (using district’s curriculum), grading all assignments and tests, and informing parents of expectations, students’ progress and the students’ final grade for that unit and publishing the scores along with the administrator’s evaluation of Rosen’s classroom management skills.

It is far too easy for columnists like Rosen to bash teachers when on the outside looking in.

Rock Goldberg

Colorado Springs

The costs of war

In a recent Point/Counterpoint piece, the subject of America’s wars was discussed. It was debated whether there are times when war is ever justified.

I believe the United States was in the right three times in its history when it went to war. Those are the Revolutionary War, the Civil War and World War II. I don’t believe any of the other wars in which America participated were worth fighting.

The loss of lives and a large number of wounded for life, the huge amount of money spent, sacrifices civilians must make, and the material used for war that can’t be used for everyday purposes – these are a few of the costs of war. As the song says, what is war good for, absolutely nothing.

Now, Donald Trump expects Americans to support him in his war with Iran. This war is vastly unpopular with the American people. Trump has not explained to the population’s satisfaction our purpose of fighting in Iran.

War has been a large part of American history. As the song says, when will they ever learn?

David J. Baker

Colorado Springs