Taken for a Ride? Action News investigates Nat Ford

[marcuscnelson]

A few minutes ago, Action News Jax released what appears to be a trailer for a Special Report on JTA CEO Nat Ford, set to broadcast at 5:45pm today.

Of note appears to be his high salary ($459,000 as of June, second only to JEA CEO Jay Stowe), frequent international trips, and (ironically for the head of a transit agency) expensive personal vehicle.

Wonder where this might go.

[thelakelander]

I wonder how his salary compares to similar sized transit agencies. Hopefully, they've done some of that research to make a rational nexus to whatever the goal of the story is.

[jaxlongtimer]

^ Maybe they have been reading the Jaxson and will unveil for the general public the less than savory project, AV's + Skyway.

[Charles Hunter]

Yeah, they've been promoting this since some time last week. Have to remember to tune in.

[CityLife]

Miami-Dade's transit director was hired in 2021 with a starting salary of $270k. That said, he just got suspended for offering free rides for the remainder of the year without clearing it with other departments.

"Eulois Cleckley serves as the Director and CEO of the Department of Transportation and Public Works for Miami-Dade County. As Director and CEO, Cleckley oversees the 15th largest public transit system in the country and the largest transit agency in the State of Florida. With approximately 4,000 employees, DTPW is one of the largest departments in Miami-Dade County government serving a population of 2.8 million residents."

For comparison, Miami has a higher cost of living than Jax and Miami-Dade transit has an average daily ridership of 251,000. JTA's average daily ridership is less than 10% of that at only 21,400. Despite being a relatively small transit agency, JTA has 9 employees making more than $200k, 5 of which make more than $250k.

[CityLife]

2022 salaries of some of the biggest transit agencies in the USA:

https://bankerandtradesman.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/03-06_GBCC_Transit_Pay_Comparison.pdf

Chicago Transit Authority: Daily Ridership 851k            Salary $350k
Southeastern Penn:          Daily Ridership 450k            Salary $368k
Washington (DC) Transit:  Daily Ridership 766k            Salary  $485k
NJ Transit:                       Daily Ridership 800k            Salary  $313k
LA Metro Transit:              Daily Ridership  881k           Salary  $415k
Bay Area Rapid Transit:     Daily Ridership 160k            Salary  $429k
MARTA (Atlanta):              Daily Ridership 210k            Salary  $400k
Toronto Transit:                Daily Ridership 2.2 Million    Salary  $454k
JTA:                                Daily Ridership 22k             Salary  $458k


Time to change the slogan to:

Jacksonville: It Is So Much F'n Easier Here

[Ken_FSU]

Personally speaking, I've got absolutely no problem with Nat Ford's salary. Ford has decades of experience in transportation, worked his way to the top of the ladder at major transportation authorities in NYC, San Francisco, and Atlanta, and has made significant improvements to the bus systems, at the very least, since he came aboard at JTA. $450k for a guy with his experience, in a top-40 market, seems to be relatively fair market value in 2023, and it's dangerous as a city to want to staff one of the most important executive positions shaping our future on the cheap.

That said, I don't think he's the right guy to lead the JTA into the future either. His stubborn insistence on pushing AV at the expense of tried-and-true fixed transit is not what the city needs.

Focusing on the salary and a questionable expense account kind of distracts from the much bigger problem. $450k would be a STEAL if Ford was slaying in this position.

[Ken_FSU]

Of note appears to be his expensive personal vehicle.

Gotta be a clown car, right? 6x the price of a Bugatti with 5% of the speed.

[Jax_Developer]

Citylife breaks down the compensation perfectly. I would agree with you Ken, if it wasn't for the active rider base being 1/10 of any competing position. I think that this is an example where his resume is "justifying" his salary, not the work and result... & I only think that gives you so much rope.

[CityLife]

Citylife breaks down the compensation perfectly. I would agree with you Ken, if it wasn't for the active rider base being 1/10 of any competing position. I think that this is an example where his resume is "justifying" his salary, not the work and result... & I only think that gives you so much rope.

Agreed. If you are going to get paid top tier level compensation in a secondary market with minimal ridership, you better make it rain. JTA still hasn't done anything with commuter rail and the bus ridership numbers are not good. Speaking of which, does anyone know what the average daily ridership numbers are over Ford's tenure? I believe they have gone down overall but can't find any definitive data.

Imagine how much better the overall system could be if so much time, effort, and resources weren't wasted on the U2C system.

[Charles Hunter]

Yes, Ken_FSU, Mr. Ford has an impressive resume.
To use a baseball analogy, he's let the Yankees, Giants, and Braves - and now he's playing for the Jumbo Shrimp, but still being paid as if he was in the Major Leagues.

Tonight's story focused on his travel expenses (nearly $200k so far this year) and salary, contrasted with declining ridership. Action News had his travel records, and requested his badge access records to the JTA HQ - they are still waiting for the access records. They are trying to build a picture of how much time he actually spends working in Jacksonville. They only mentioned his personal vehicle allowance in passing, it went by so quickly, I missed it ($50K/year?).

Tomorrow's report (yes! it's a series!) will be during the six o'clock program and look at his claim that much of his travel is for "lobbying" for Jacksonville and JTA. Hmmm, if any of his salary comes from federal funds, that would not be allowed.

CityLife - they touched on ridership. It is down considerably post-pandemic, but JTA sent Action News data to show last quarter's ridership wasn't down as much as the same quarter last year. I would have liked them to compare post-pandemic ridership changes at other systems. Is the twenty-something percent decline for JTA outrageously bad, or about the norm, or better than the average bear?

[Ken_FSU]

Yes, Ken_FSU, Mr. Ford has an impressive resume.
To use a baseball analogy, he's let the Yankees, Giants, and Braves - and now he's playing for the Jumbo Shrimp, but still being paid as if he was in the Major Leagues.

Thinking like this will doom us before we even get started. Jacksonville is a very complex market with lots challenges and lots of opportunity. It’s worth spending an extra $100k in salary for someone with a proven track record, which Ford had when he came in. It’s harder to support continuing to spend it, however, when he’s almost single handedly betting our future on a pie in the sky AV system. Using the sports analogy, he seems more like the GM willing to leverage the entire franchise’s future on a risky QB that he thinks will cement his own personal legacy.

Tomorrow's report (yes! it's a series!) will be during the six o'clock program and look CityLife - they touched on ridership. It is down considerably post-pandemic, but JTA sent Action News data to show last quarter's ridership wasn't down as much as the same quarter last year. I would have liked them to compare post-pandemic ridership changes at other systems. Is the twenty-something percent decline for JTA outrageously bad, or about the norm, or better than the average bear?

I occasionally pull ridership numbers for clients in NY and the West Coast. MTA is around 70% of pre pandemic numbers and considers 80% to be their five-year goal for a new normal. Something like BART is under 50% of pre pandemic ridership.  Again, I don’t think Nat Ford is the guy for the job, but I also don’t think 20 percent declines with the shift to more widespread WFH and driver shortages at JTA is necessarily a smoking gun either.

Wouldn’t be heartbroken if $200k in travel expenses brought him down before we go further in the whole on U2C though.

That’s ultimately the biggest issue. The long term strategy that’s clearly setting us up to fall backwards about 20 years.

[marcuscnelson]

Watched the segment, here's the full compensation breakdown:

• Base Salary: $458,923
• Travel Expenses: $189,573
• Yearly Bonus: $91,785
• Cost of Living Adjustment: $13,768
• Deferred Compensation: $50,000
• Vehicle Allowance: $12,000
• Total Compensation: $626,475

Personally, I'd argue the vehicle allowance was overhyped, although it's concerning that it appears questionable whether the CEO of our transit agency even rides it regularly. He probably doesn't commute on it, assuming the Queens Harbor address in his name from the Property Appraiser is accurate. $12k a year is definitely not nothing, but for an executive I don't think it's completely ridiculous. The bonus and deferred compensation I am curious about, seeing as by itself they're 30% of his base salary and 23% of his total compensation. What performance would that be based on?

For some other comparisons, Michael Blaylock's salary was $287k the year he left JTA, while Nat Ford's final salary at SFMTA was $308k, down from $315k before taking a salary cut. I will note that adjusted for inflation, his pre-cut salary would be $445k today.

The travel expenses do seem like overkill, although I wonder how this compares to other local movers and shakers. But at the end of the day, JTA's FY 22/23 operating budget was $173 million, of which Ford's compensation would be 0.4%. That doesn't mean it's fine but I'd question the value of making scandal out of this.

Which is to say that I was pretty disappointed that other than "the ever unpopular Skyway" at the beginning, there's no mention of the actual serious problem with Nat Ford's leadership, of the U2C program. Forget half a million, he's trying to bet half a billion in public money on self-driving cars that may not work and carry fewer people than the trains that cost half that! Look at Cruise, look at Navya, look at Local Motors! Private companies in this sector are collapsing and Nat Ford is trying to drag the public sector down the same hole! How's that not a story? Or look at his wife, Jannet Walker-Ford, who is an executive at a company (WSP) that is awarded million-dollar JTA contracts! Is there nothing there? Have they checked? If they're looking for a scandal, look for a scandal!

[Charles Hunter]

The "travel allowance" part was not really clear. It seems like he has been reimbursed $189,573 this year. If he had spent twice that much, would all of it been reimbursed?

But, as Marcus says, his compensation is not the real story. But, in a city where the Median Household Income is $58,263 (US Census Bur.), a $626K compensation package people's attention.  "Nat Ford gets paid More Than One Thousand percent of average Jacksonville Household's pay" (yes, there are errors [e.g. Median <> Average] in that headline, but you know that's what a local news headline could say)

I, too, hope they will come around to the U2C boondoggle and the contract to his wife issue. Not that I have much confidence they will, but I can hope.  Nate Monroe? C/m Howland?

[CityLife]

The $1k a month car allowance is a complete non-issue. My monthly car allowance is similar to his and I make nowhere near the salary. Virtually every city manager and high-ranking government employee has a similar or greater allowance.

That said, those are some stunning numbers. I recently traveled around the country as a lobbyist/developer of a portfolio with billions of dollars of renewable energy projects for a huge company. I had carte blanche to stay where I wanted, frequently wined and dined people, and took big groups to sporting events. I never spent anything close to $190k in a year and that was me traveling 40-50% of the time. With those type of travel expenses, I wouldn't be surprised if he was bringing a spouse and/or family along with him or mixing work travel with pleasure travel. Would be curious to see if Action News can get a breakdown of his expense reports.

The total budget of the agency he manages isn't really germane to the discussion. The yearly Marta budget is $1.3 billion. Should the CEO there make $4 million? Ford is already being compensated very handsomely for the level he is working at, the number of staff he has to manage, and the complexity of the system he has to oversee relative to peers. Seems like he is really pushing the limit on travel expenses, when he already has a very nice compensation package.

Knowing how Jax and politics in general work. It's likely that this whole story has been fed to the media to tarnish Ford's name, so that when they come after him for U2C or whatever, he will not have anyone coming to his defense.