Tollway ready to end free tolls on employees' commutes

The free ride is over for Illinois tollway employees accustomed to getting back and forth from work using a complimentary I-PASS.

The policy shift came Thursday during a meeting where administrators announced that five employees had been referred to the agency's inspector general for possibly abusing the perk.

Numerous staff members also were required to reimburse the tollway for misuse of transponders, which are supposed to be used only for commuting back and forth to work or for official business.

But that privilege will be eliminated Jan. 1, Executive Director Kristi Lafleur said, the same day the agency raises tolls by between 35 cents and 45 cents at most plazas. A consensus of tollway directors, who talked the issue over in an executive session not open to the media, agreed to end the perk.

“We recognized that there's a cost and a hardship for everyone in every aspect of the economy and government has to reflect the realities of what everyone's dealing with,” tollway Director Jeff Reddick of Elmhurst said.

“We've been working for transparency since I've been on the board — this is part of making sure everything is on the up and up and beyond reproach,” tollway Director and Aurora Mayor Tom Weisner said.

The benefit cost $255,800 in lost revenues this year. In 2012, that amount would have risen to $478,300 with the rate hikes.

With the Jan. 1 toll increase just weeks away, it was important to review whether it's appropriate to keep the perk in place, Lafleur said.

The vast majority of workers are ethical about transponder use but “we wanted to make sure we were sensitive to the additional expense our customers will incur,” she added.

A total of 1,156 workers use the complimentary transponders. The agency began auditing transponder use a year ago and has been reimbursed by about $1,200 for unauthorized tolls.

Some instances involved honest mistakes and a number of workers came forward to settle accounts prior to being notified of questionable I-PASS activity, Lafleur said.

In five instances, where transponder use indicated a pattern of abuse, the inspector general's office was asked to investigate. Of those cases, one employee was fired, another suspended without pay and one left the agency. Two cases are still being reviewed by authorities.

Former Tollway Director Bill Morris, who had advocated for the removal of the perk, praised the decision. “You have to make every effort possible to show you're being as efficient and using money as frugally as possible,” he said. “Most employees don't get free tolls to and from work.”