Despite the Regional Transportation Authority’s future being in the hands of state legislators, the executive director was considering asking the RTA board for a new three-year contract that would likely extend beyond the life of the agency itself.

RTA Executive Director Leanne Redden made calls to the board of directors in recent days seeking support for the three-year contract, according to sources familiar with the matter, but the proposed deal will not be on the board’s Aug. 21 agenda.

Redden has been with the RTA since 2005 and has served as executive director since 2014. She is earning $362,372, according to the RTA’s data portal, under her current contract.

Opposition to the contract extension materialized after board members were called and a movement was afoot to vote it down if it was placed on the August agenda. 

“A new contract for Leanne Redden is not on our August Board agenda and there are currently no plans to include a new contract on future Board agendas,” the agency said in a statement.

The contract talk comes as the RTA, which oversees planning and budgeting for Metra, Pace and the Chicago Transit Authority, is seeking state funding to avoid a $771 million fiscal cliff next year as federal grant funding expires. The RTA is seeking $1.5 billion to address the shortfall and make investments in the systems that provide bus and rail service across the region.

The General Assembly has been in negotiations for a year to provide the funding, while promising an overhaul of the governance structure of the transit agencies was also required.

"Nothing’s been decided," board Chairman Kirk Dillard told Crain’s of Redden’s contract. "It’s off the agenda, and there’s nothing to talk about at this time. I didn’t want to have it go forward.”

Dillard said he’s “waiting to see what the lay of the land is” before deciding if a new contract is in order. 

"There was just discussion as to what’s going on personnel-wise these days so that we have continuity with whatever the Legislature wants to do,” he said.

The potential contract extension angered some board members and those advocating for the state legislation.

“Trying to lock yourself into a three-year contract as workers are potentially getting layoff notices goes beyond being tone-deaf,” said Bob Reiter, president of the Chicago Federation of Labor.

The CFL is part of the union coalition seeking to overhaul the RTA to provide a new regional entity with expanded authority without consolidating the agencies, as had been previously proposed.

“It would be a giant mistake to move forward with a three-year contract for an agency that is on the chopping block to be eviscerated and replaced,” Reiter said.

State Rep. Eva-Dina Delgado, the lead House transit negotiator, told Crain’s she became aware Redden was seeking a new contract this week. 

"I’m glad to hear that the board members that represent the RTA have expressed some concern about them moving forward with something like this,” she said. 

The RTA and three transportation authorities are working to craft budget proposals to address their current dire fiscal predicament and alternate budgets if the state provides an injection of funding this fall.

The agencies have warned of drastic 40% service cuts if the state doesn’t deliver and will begin to lay out the specific reductions, as well as potential layoff notices to their unionized workforce, in the coming weeks. 

"Until they have a solid expectation for what’s coming next, entering into a three-year contract for over $300,000 a year for one person. . . .I don’t think it makes a whole lot of sense given the situation that they’re in right now,” Delgado said.

The potential contract extension is not the first time the RTA has irritated lawmakers this year. The agency was previously criticized, including by Gov. JB Pritzker, for spending money on advertising calling on lawmakers to save mass transit.

Mayor Brandon Johnson held off appointing his then-chief operating officer, John Roberson, to lead the CTA, in part, because of pushback in Springfield that argued Roberson’s role could be in jeopardy because the transit legislation would likely dampen the traditional influence Chicago mayors have held over the CTA. 

The appointment also faced resistance from the CTA board, including one of Johnson’s appointees. Roberson later left the city to join the Obama Foundation. 

Reiter wasn’t sure why Johnson held off, but said, “Putting the brakes on bringing in new leadership as we’re about to restructure how all these different levels select their leaders was in line with what was happening through our discussions around a rebuilt government structure.” 

The Illinois Senate approved a comprehensive transit bill in the final hour of the General Assembly’s spring session, but it was never considered in the House. Lawmakers are expected to take up the legislation during the fall veto session, but have yet to reach a compromise. 

Under the proposed governance structure approved in the Senate, the RTA would be remade into a 20-member Northern Illinois Transit Authority, or NITA, with the governor, mayor of Chicago and Cook County board president each having five appointments to the new board, and the remaining five appointed by the board presidents of DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry and Will counties.

But there were disagreements over the voting threshold needed to approve major board decisions, and a compromise on a revenue package has not been reached.