SMART set to hire Colorado transit executive as new finance chief

The North Bay’s passenger rail system is poised on Wednesday to name its next finance chief, with SMART eyeing a veteran transit executive from Colorado to help guide the agency through the next phase of an economic recession tied to the pandemic, and beyond.

SMART is expected to turn to Heather A. McKillop, the chief financial officer since 2015 of the Denver-metro area’s much larger-scale public transit system. Previously, McKillop, 53, worked for a dozen years at the Colorado Department of Transportation, rising to the chief financial officer post with the state’s equivalent of Caltrans.

SMART’s 12-member board of directors will meet to discuss and vote on formalizing McKillop’s selection at its regularly scheduled bimonthly meeting on Wednesday. A four-member subcommittee met in-person with her last month and unanimously supported hiring her. If approved, McKillop is slated to replace Erin McGrath, SMART’s outgoing chief financial officer, on Nov. 30.

Her tentative five-year contract includes an annual starting salary of $252,200, plus benefits and relocation costs.

“Obviously it’s a very critical position, and you want to make sure it’s filled with someone who will come in and be incredibly competent and put in the effort, and I think we have that with this candidate,” said Supervisor David Rabbitt, a SMART director and member of the hiring subcommittee. “It’s no secret that public transit throughout the Bay Area — all 25 agencies — are going to in some time forward meet a fiscal cliff. You don’t want a novice dealing with any applications.”

At Denver’s Regional Transportation District, or RTD, McKillop has been tasked with overseeing the finances of a 2,342-square-mile transit network, including buses, senior and handicap shuttles, light rail and more recently a commuter rail system similar to SMART. RTD recorded more than 95 million passenger boardings last year, with a staff of nearly 3,000 and an operating budget of about $740 million.

By comparison, Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit operates along a 45-mile rail line from Larkspur to north of Santa Rosa. It plans to reach Windsor by the end of next year as part of long-range plan for a 70-mile system connecting Cloverdale to the bay shore. SMART has served a little more than 1.9 million passengers in just over three years of operations, with roughly 200 employees and an operating budget of just over $55 million during the current budget year.

Reached by email Monday, McKillop declined an interview, saying it as “premature” until the SMART board acts on her proposed contract. Her exit from RTD, where last year she earned $226,315 in salary, plus benefits, was signaled last week during a public meeting to appoint a replacement director to the agency’s 15-member elected board.

RTD is among the many U.S. public transit agencies struggling financially due to the coronavirus. It faces deep cuts to address a $140 million deficit in next year’s budget. That includes a recent proposal to lay off more than 400 workers, or nearly a fifth of the agency’s overall staff, and require furloughs of salaried executives, including McKillop, of up to 18 days, the equivalent of a 6% pay cut. RTD already slashed service this spring by 40%, moves tied to plummeting ridership numbers due to stay-at-home orders.

SMART, likewise, has pursued its own cost-saving measures related to the pandemic, scaling back its weekday train schedule by almost 60% and suspending all weekend service until further notice. In the final stretch of McGrath’s nearly 10-year tenure, the agency cut $7 million from this year’s budget, and last week sold $123 million in new bonds in a refinancing strategy to address rising debt payments connected to construction of SMART’s initial operating line, which opened in August 2017.

Novato Councilman Eric Lucan, SMART’s board chair and a member of the hiring subcommittee, could not immediately be reached Monday for comment. But, according to a staff report signed by SMART General Manager Farhad Mansourian, the agency believes McKillop is the favored choice to oversee SMART’s finances.

It would not be her first job in California. She previously worked for about a year and a half as the chief financial officer of the Southern California Association of Governments in the greater Los Angeles area.

Eight candidates were interviewed for SMART position, including six women and two men, according to Mansourian’s report. Four of the applicants were named finalists based on an interview scoring system. “One candidate stood apart from all others,” the report reads.

Windsor Councilwoman Deb Fudge, another hiring subcommittee member who has twice served as SMART’s board chair, declined an interview Monday, citing a need to maintain her focus on her Town Council reelection bid. She instead offered a written statement.

“I was very impressed with Heather’s qualifications and breadth of experience,” Fudge said in statement. “She understands our challenges and I know she is up to the job. Having said that, I’ve worked closely with Erin for over a decade and she has done an outstanding job for SMART as CFO. Erin will be missed.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story has been revised to correct the Regional Transportation District’s updated budget gap and projected layoff total.

You can reach Staff Writer Kevin Fixler at 707-521-5336 or kevin.fixler@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @kfixler.