Efficiency? What Efficiency?

By Scott Smith in News on Jul 14, 2005 3:34PM

When the CTA's proposed methods for streamlining their operations and generating revenue sound like ideas generated by drunks in bars, you know things are bad.

Back in March, the CTA hired AECOM Consulting (for the bargain price of $1.2 million) to look at ways of making the agency more efficient. We thought Idea #1 would be to stop spending so much money on outside consultants but we were wrong. In fact, AECOM says the best way for the CTA to be more efficient is to acquire corporate sponsorship for the el trains and install more ATMs in the stations. Would this be similar to the way Pennzoil used to sponsor pitching changes at Comiskey Park? If so, expect to hear train announcements like “While the CTA is delayed, consider keeping track of the time you’ll never get back on a new Seiko watch. Seiko: the official timepiece of CTA’s pissed off commuters.”

Frankly, we’re wondering if we’ll even see the full AECOM report as the CTA is notorious for keeping efficiency reports from commuters. But since the $1.2 million contract was paid for with public money, we’re sure somebody like the Tribune’s Jon Hilkevitch will be filing a Freedom of Information request any day now.

One suggestion you probably won’t see in that report is to reduce salaries or cut some higher-paid positions. A recent Crain’s article noted that the agency employs “67 mid and upper-level executives making more than $100,000 a year.” Eleven of those 67 employees are lawyers—the same number of 100K lawyers working for the Illinois Attorney General’s Office—and few actually live in the city. Instead, they choose to live in tonier suburbs like Glen Ellyn and Naperville. Little surprise then that executives at the CTA don’t get too concerned about service cuts in the city.

Chicagoist wondered what CTA Board Chair Carole Brown had to say about these recent developments but a visit to her blog revealed nothing. In fact, the only post from Carol since the funding “bailout” on June 23rd deals with the additional security in place at CTA stations since last week’s London bombing. Odd. We thought the CTA already had a website devoted to nothing but press releases.