Firms asked to fund MARTA workers party

By Ariel Hart

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

MARTA is asking private companies that do business with the transit service for money to fund a holiday-time “employee appreciation event.”

Although the same board that's asking for money also votes on major contract awards, MARTA's board chairman said he sees no conflict of interest in the request.

"The beneficiaries of this request are the 4,400 MARTA employees," said Chairman Michael Tyler, who signed the letter on behalf of the MARTA board. "There is no implication of any undue pressure on any of the parties being asked to voluntarily consider giving."

MARTA picked 40 to 50 companies from among those who had received more than $50,000 from MARTA in the last fiscal year, asking each for $5,000 to $10,000 to fund the Dec. 11 event, Tyler said.

He said MARTA had held the event in the past. This year, MARTA revived it but changed the funding method to private donations, which it has used before for some other events, because of the agency’s dire financial situation. He said that other government agencies have had similar functions, citing a recent city of Atlanta ball for senior citizens. He said the event is intended to do something positive for stressed employees without drawing on strained public finances.

He added that MARTA chose to solicit donations from vendors because they were best positioned to understand the "extraordinary sacrifices" MARTA employees have made in the tough economy.

"We were forced to eliminate over 700 positions," the letter from Tyler reads. "We have given no merit wage increases to any of our non-union employees for the past three years, and for the past two  years, these employees have been forced to take 10-day furloughs without pay."

It adds that MARTA employees now must pay more of their health care costs, and that union employees recently agreed to a new contract with no wage increases.

Calling the event a "modest gesture," the letter continued, “Accordingly, this letter is written to request that you assist the MARTA Board by serving as a sponsor of our Employee Appreciation Event…Because of MARTA’s financial constraints, this event can only take place if it is funded by third-party sponsorships.”

The cost of the event will depend on how much money comes in, Tyler said, but MARTA intends to hold it at the Freight Depot event space in downtown Atlanta over a long enough period of time that MARTA employees from different shifts can attend with their families.  Specifics of food and entertainment aren't set but the event will include "some sort of revelry," Tyler said.

MARTA officials said the event is in full compliance with MARTA's ethics policy, which prohibits solicitation of gifts to a board member, but not to the agency. In any case, MARTA officials said, whether a company donates to the party will not affect its ability to do business with MARTA.

Last summer, the city of Atlanta's ethics officer, Virginia Looney, said a party for outgoing airport chief Ben DeCosta was "not in strict compliance" with city ethics guidelines because airport workers targeted companies doing business with the airport to ask for the funding. Mayor Kasim Reed sought her ruling on the fundraising method, first reported in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

City ethics guidelines prohibit solicitations from city vendors unless it is part of a broader public appeal for money.

Asked Monday about the MARTA event, Looney said her office only had jurisdiction over the members of the MARTA board appointed by the city. That doesn't include  Tyler, who was appointed by Fulton County.  She said she could not comment on whether the city-appointed members of the board could send such a letter, because "generally I don’t comment on things that might be the subject of a complaint, because that’s prejudging it."

Donald Edwards, the chairman of the Fulton County board of ethics, said late Monday he could not comment on the issue.

The MARTA board's intent may well be a good one, said a spokeswoman for Common Cause, a government watchdog group based in Washington, D.C.  But it can have unintended consequences, she said.

"It appears on its face like they’re trying to do a good thing and a nice thing for their employees," said the spokeswoman, Mary Boyle, after hearing a brief description of the facts. However, "for a firm doing business with MARTA, it could feel like a pressuring situation. The question would arise from anyone doing business with the transit agency, ‘What if we don’t?'...Things like this can be viewed as a loophole to gain access and influence."

MARTA would not provide a copy of the full mailing list for the letter on Monday. One went to McKenna, Long and Aldridge, a law firm that works on bond issues and has registered to lobby for MARTA, according to the firm and to the state Ethics Commission website.

The McKenna lawyer that the MARTA letter is addressed to, Thomas Lauth, said he had received the letter but would not comment on it.  Tyler said he was aware of the law firm's work for MARTA, but he did not recall board votes on it, since the board generally only approves contracts over $100,000, and the law firm was hired by another MARTA attorney.  Two other vendors that recently won large MARTA contracts did not respond to questions left by phone messages.

-- Staff writer Megan Matteucci contributed to this report