Metra signs off on $1 million in consulting contracts

Despite budget constraints, Metra board directors approved contracts worth more than $1 million for PR and lobbying consultants Friday.

Paying four lobbyists a combined $624,000 over two years is necessary to ensure the agency gets its fair share of state and federal grants, officials said.

The media relations contract with Chicago-based Mack Communications for up to $500,000 over three years is only for “crisis situations,” CEO Alex Clifford said.

Agency communications staff can handle most emergencies, such as a recent derailment near Bartlett involving a CN freight train that affected Metra's Milwaukee District West Line, Clifford added.

A crisis requiring the consultants might be a situation such as the one in fall 2005 when a Rock Island Line train derailed and two passengers died, he said.

Board Chairman Larry Huggins said board directors Jack Partelow of Naperville and Brad O'Halloran of Orland Park participated in interviewing and evaluating the lobbyists.

The finalists and contract amounts are: Capricorn Communications, which is headed by former Congressman Bill Lipinski, for $240,000; national firm McGuire Woods Consulting for $168,000; John T. O'Connell (a former state representative) and Mathew O'Shea (a former aide to state House GOP Leader Tom Cross) for $120,000; and Springfield-based Cullen & Associates for $96,000.

The lobbyists are essential to fight for limited funding from the federal and state governments, administrators said.

“Transit is under siege in Washington,” Director Jim LaBelle of Zion said. “In Springfield, it's tough going now.”

“At the end of the day, we have to have consultants and we have to pick the best,” Huggins said. “We need to go out and get grants.”

Clifford also told directors that the agency is in sore need of capital dollars and staff members are re-examining long-range goals, such as the expensive suburb-to-suburb STAR Line, to come up with realistic priorities for the future.