Opt-out Transit Agencies' High Overhead

High floor buses I can understand. High overhead unnecessary transit agencies are a bridge too far for me. 

A few months ago I wrote about why I think the opt-out bus agencies -- mainly Mississippi Valley Transit (MTVA) and Southwest Transit -- should be disbanded. Or, at the very least, the impending change in funding structure should give leverage to state officials to more closely scrutinize the frustrating, fragmentary arrangement. 

You can read it here, but the gist is thus:

The downsides of an opt-out system center on lack of efficiency, scale and planning conflict. As a whole, multiple overlapping government agencies are an expensive solution for “local” concerns, and the opt-out agencies have a lot of duplicative overhead. For example, instead of one branding or ad campaign, you have five. It’s the same for websites, apps or other other administrative positions that scale effectively, like HR offices or executive leadership. Today, all those costs are currently multiplied five-fold across the region.  

Since writing the piece, I received an interesting email from a Minnpost reader named Nick who had been digging into salary information, something I also tried to do without success. (Agency budgets and information is really hard to find, as the public board meetings don't have thorough minutes available.) 

Anyway, they did a public data request for top transit agency leadership salaries at MVTA versus Metro Transit and came up with the following chart:

This is 2024 public information.

I just want to point out that the (IMO excellent) GM Lesley Kanderas of Metro Transit is overseeing a staff of over 3,200 people that provides 47.5 million rides a year. She made $245,842 in 2024. The respective numbers for the CEO of MVTA are around 35 employees*, 1.6 million rides, and $326,819 dollars a year.

This is not to mention the other folks running the show at MVTA. I think this speaks for itself.

* I can't find an exact number, but it's between 30-40. I think they contract out bus drivers staffing to avoid unionization.