Ada County Highway District might put in a ‘golden parachute’ agreement for director
Ada County Highway District commissioners are scheduled to vote Wednesday on an employment agreement for executive director Bruce Wong that would include a hefty payout if future commissioners decide to fire him without cause.
According to the agreement posted online, commissioners are scheduled to vote on a three-year contract for Wong, at an annual base salary of $169,750. If at any time during the three-year period, which ends Nov. 18, 2023, Wong is terminated “without cause” or if Wong were to quit “for good reason,” he would receive:
- a lump sum cash payment equal to his current annual salary for 12 months;
- a lump sum cash payment, grossed up for taxes, equal to the applicable cost of coverage for the group health benefit programs he’s enrolled in;
- a lump sum cash payment, grossed up for taxes, equal to the employer contribution he would have received under the employer’s retirement plans until the end of the 12-month period following the termination date.
It comes at a time when the ACHD commission faces a turnover of one, possibly two, commission members.
Sara Baker did not run for reelection and will be leaving the board in January, when Dave McKinney, who won the election for her seat this month, takes over. Rebecca Arnold might also be leaving the board. According to the preliminary results of the November election, Arnold lost by two votes to Alexis Pickering. That vote is subject to a recount. If results stay the same, Arnold would also be leaving the board in January.
Wong’s employment is “at will,” meaning that he can be fired for any or no reason, with advance notice.
Under the proposed employment agreement, he can be terminated “with cause” for a number of reasons, including such things as failing to perform duties, resulting in material economic injury to ACHD, engaging in a material act or acts of dishonesty, fraud, or self-dealing or getting convicted or pleading guilty to a felony criminal charge.
But if commission members fire him simply because they want to go in a different direction, Wong would be entitled to one year’s salary and the benefits listed above.
For commission member Kent Goldthorpe, the agreement is “wasting the public’s tax dollars on a golden parachute agreement like this for a public official,” he told me in a phone interview Tuesday. “It’s just wrong.”
Goldthorpe wants to make clear that this has nothing to do with Wong, himself.
“He’s doing a spectacular job managing the affairs of the Ada County Highway District,” Goldthorpe said.
That’s why commissioner Sara Baker said there should be an agreement in place to protect the director if he’s doing such a good job.
“If the organization is running smoothly, I would question why the commissioners would want to (terminate the director), if they’re just doing it because they don’t like him,” Baker told me in a phone interview Tuesday. “If the organization is running smoothly, if the policies are being implemented, if things are running along great, why would they do that, and I would question that as a citizen.”
This issue has come up before, after the 2014 ACHD commission election, when previous commission members approved a similar three-year contract that had a severance clause, according to Paul Woods, who was elected to the commission after the agreement was made.
Woods and Goldthorpe said they made sure that the 2014 agreement expired after the three years was up in 2017.
Woods said he opposed it then and opposes such agreements on principle because it creates a burden on taxpayers.
“Can you imagine if every other agency did that and every agency director had that,” Woods said. “That would be a hefty burden on the taxpayer.”
It came up again in the 2018 election, when candidate Bob Bruce said that then-Boise Mayor Dave Bieter said he’d support Bruce if he would agree to firing Wong and legal counsel Steven Price if elected to the board, according to previous articles in the Statesman.
Woods also wanted to make it clear that his opposition to agreements like this have nothing to do with Wong, himself.
Woods said he sees such agreements as an encumbrance on future commission members.
“We have this fundamental premise in state law that you can’t impose a financial burden on future commissions,” he said. “This rises to the level of an encumbrance on future commissions.”
