After 17 months on the job, Sound Transit’s CEO received a three-year contract extension that came with a $30,000 bonus. The terms of the contract mean Dow Constantine’s pay will go from an initial salary of $450,000 in April 2025, to $474,276 on Jan. 1, 2026, to $490,086 on Jan. 1, 2027, and a 4% cost of living increase on April 1 of next year. He will also be eligible for 3% to 6% salary increases in 2028 and 2029.
The Sound Transit board rationalized the contract by citing what it called Constantine’s accomplishments, among them the launch of the eastbound train across Lake Washington and Sound Transit’s successfully serving thousands of soccer fans during the FIFA World Cup. Both are laudable, but are not worthy of an extra $30,000 from taxpayers. Both should be considered basic expectations of a metropolitan transit system. What shouldn’t be expected is a line that was six years late in launching and $60 million over budget. It also resulted in the killing of thousands of fish, which was kept hush-hush for several weeks.
The Sound Transit board — made up of mostly of elected officials, many of whom were appointed by Constantine when he was King County executive — voted unanimously to award such a generous compensation package, which in addition to his salary includes a $36,000 annual expenses allowance.
By comparison, the CEO of LA Metro, Los Angeles’ transit agency, received a four-year contract extension in April 2025 with a salary of $511,000 and no bonus. Philadelphia’s general manager and CEO of its Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority received a three-year contract in February at $395,000 with no performance bonus. New York’s MTA does not offer bonuses to its CEO.
Yet, Sound Transit still has some financial obstacles in its future that will require serious attention. It plans to build forced-fare enforcement entrances at some of its train stations that will cost millions of dollars but will begin to rehabilitate its tolerance of fare-skippers. And the agency is still staring at a $35 billion long-term shortfall that has already resulted in delays in promised rail services to areas such as Ballard and Tacoma. Many taxpayers who live or work in those communities were offended by the delays announced earlier this year.
When private corporations award employees performance bonuses, that’s between the corporation and their shareholders. When a public utility grants a huge bonus to its top manager for merely fulfilling basic expectations a few months on the job, it speaks to the board’s disconnection from the realities of the current economy and the burdens of its customers and taxpayers.
