By leaving RTD, Cal Marsella now becomes the deadbeat-dad of the bastard child called Fastracks.

I hired Cal Marsella to his post at RTD, and NOW he leaves AFTER he creates the Fastracks fiasco?  Now that’s timing.  Apparently the third of a million dollars salary at RTD wasn’t enough to make ends meet.  Who could blame him?

Two thoughts come to mind after hearing that Cal was leaving RTD.  The first one is that he saved competitive contracting at RTD.  And for that he should be heartily commended.  Cal was my choice for GM while I was on the RTD Board back in 1995.  In fact, I am rather proud of my political skills needed to get the board who didn’t want him, to eventually hire him.  The staff at that time had almost destroyed the practice of contracting with private firms for fixed-route bus service.  The mandate that 20% of RTD bus service be contracted came down from the state legislature (thanks to then state rep Bill Owens, Senator Terry Considine, and Governor Roy Romer who signed it).  RTD fought it every inch of the way, to the point that they would compare the in-house service costs without including the cost of the actual buses, compared to the private firms’ cost including their cost to buy buses. (Amazingly the contracted private costs were still lower!)  Cal set the policy straight and, lo and behold, we found that the contract bus service was 40% cheaper than the in-house service.  RTD now contracts roughly 50% of its fixed-route bus service, better serving taxpayers and riders.

But that’s not why I am sorry to see Cal move on and finally make a living wage in the private sector.  It was Cal more than any other individual who is responsible for selling a naive public on the corporate-welfare scam that is the Fastracks project.  And it is Cal Marsella who should stay at RTD and oversee the financial devastation to which he gave birth.

As amazing as it is to me, not everyone follows the dysfunction that is the Regional Transportation District.  So many forget that in 1997 Cal engineered the first go-around to raise RTD taxes 67%.  Back then it was called “Guide the Ride.”  It was my first real anti-tax campaign, and we taxpayers won.  Not discouraged, Cal put the same basic plan back on the ballot in 2004, but this time with five times the campaign budget and a Kumbaya choir of mayors and newspapers.  The Independence Institute did what we always do – stand up for those who don’t have special interest money to do their talking.  Our own Randal O’Toole said in his study of Fastracks in 2004 that it was going to be over budget and under revenue.  But Cal convinced voters otherwise.  And now instead of staying and dealing with the consequences of lying to the public, he cuts and runs.

His successor will have the luxury of saying, “you can’t hold me responsible, I wasn’t in charge when it happened.”  This is just what Cal Marsella says when asked about the RTD tax election back in the 1970’s when we were promised over a hundred miles of fixed guide-way transit that never materialized.

Meet the new boss.  Same as the old boss.