"Panel signs off on raise for Hartsfield General Manager"

Thursday, March 17, 2005

Panel signs off on raise for airport chief
DeCosta in line to become Atlanta's highest-paid official
By KIRSTEN TAGAMI
The Atlanta (GA) Journal-Constitution


Atlanta airport General Manager Ben DeCosta would get a raise of more than
15 percent and become the city's highest-paid official if the City Council
approves his new contract.

DeCosta, who has been in charge of Hartsfield-Jackson International since
1998, has been working without a contract since his expired March 6.

After a last-minute request from Mayor Shirley Franklin's office Thursday,
the council's Finance/Executive Committee approved raising DeCosta's pay to
$240,000 a year from $208,000, with no dissenting votes. The matter goes to
the full council Monday.

DeCosta also would get a 4 percent raise next year under the terms of the
two-year contract. In addition, he would get $10,000 in annual deferred
compensation, a car and a severance package including full pay for the rest
of his contract if the city lets him go early.

DeCosta's proposed pay increase comes one month after the city approved its
2005 budget, which included a 1 percent across-the-board pay raise for city
employees and 4 percent for the police. After much protest, the city agreed
to give 4 percent to firefighters as well.

Although DeCosta's pay is high for city government, council members said it
isn't that high for the job of running the world's busiest airport. The
chief executive of the Dallas airport makes $275,000 a year, and the general
manager at Los Angeles International Airport makes $230,500.

The new contract raises DeCosta's pay above that of John Boatright, a
consultant appointed by the mayor who reports to DeCosta. Boatright, a
former Delta Air Lines executive who oversees the airport's expansion, had
been making more than DeCosta - about $230,000 a year - which was said to be
a sore point. DeCosta's proposed pay is about $100,000 more than Franklin
earns.

Two council members had harsh words for the mayor's tardiness. The fact that
she waited so long to renew DeCosta's contract led to speculation that she
didn't want to keep him.

"It strikes me as highly unprofessional that we didn't have this done on
time," council member Howard Shook said.

Council member Clair Muller told the mayor's chief of staff, Greg Pridgeon,
that it "would have been courteous" for someone in the administration to
tell council members what was going on.

Pridgeon apologized repeatedly and said the mayor had been "very engaged" in
contract discussions with DeCosta and that those talks "had become more
cumbersome and difficult."

Shook asked Pridgeon to elaborate, but he declined.

Despite the tensions, council members said they're glad DeCosta wants to
stay in his job, and several applauded him.


 Do you have an opinion about this story?
Share it with other readers in our CAA Discussion Forums

http://www.californiaaviation.org/dcfp/dcboard.php


*****************************************