State audit calls out RTD for fiscal shortcomings
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An engineer runs testing on an RTD commuter trail line in Denver in 2015. Photo: Greg Mionske/Bloomberg via Getty Images
The Regional Transportation District is falling short when it comes to fiscal management and oversight, a state performance audit published Monday found.
State of play: The report comes as lawmakers renew efforts to reform the struggling public transit agency and the state prepares to send millions of new dollars to help expand services.
The latest: RTD was in good financial standing as of 2022 — the most recent data available — but could face financial instability due to leaders' lapses in planning, tracking and reporting, the Office of the State Auditor's report said.
What they found: Auditors revealed that RTD's 2024 projections for the cost of new improvements failed to plan for $153 million in projects its board of directors, which governs the agency, approved for the year.
- The audit uncovered that RTD management, headed by CEO Debra Johnson, did not give the board of directors complete budget information or adhere to budget filing rules — both required by statute.
- RTD was faulted for failing to track and report its complete financial performance and cost metrics, as well as not fully implementing about half of the 43 recommendations a state-created "accountability" committee made in 2021.
The intrigue: Board member training appears to be insufficient, with new members missing timely onboarding and tenured members lacking ongoing development, auditors said.
- The board has drawn interest from Gov. Jared Polis, who plans in this fall's election to endorse and support RTD board candidates who back reforms, CPR reports.
The other side: The agency has agreed or "partially" agreed with most of the audit's 24 recommendations related to improving transparency and financial health practices, it said in a statement.
- One way RTD says it's already doing that is by recently launching an online performance dashboard that publicly shares reports and metrics.
What we're watching: Auditors warned that RTD could see future fiscal challenges because it recently slashed fares to boost ridership, lost federal pandemic relief funding, and needs to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on asset replacements in the next five years to "prevent them [from] falling into disrepair."