LOS ANGELES — Two weeks after being placed on leave, the chief executive of two Orange County, Calif., toll roads has submitted his resignation.
The boards that govern the Transportation Corridor Agencies tollways are scheduled to vote Thursday on whether to accept a settlement agreement governing Neil Peterson's resignation.
Peterson, who was just named CEO last June, was placed on leave two weeks ago following a dust-up involving the approval of contracts by Peterson and one of TCA's board chairs, Lisa Bartlett.
TCA's chief engineer, Mike Kraman, has been appointed acting CEO.
Bartlett confirmed that Peterson had submitted his resignation to the boards, but said she couldn't comment further until after Thursday's meeting.
"Both boards would have to approve the settlement agreement in order to accept the resignation," said Lisa Telles, TCA's spokeswoman.
Under the settlement agreement, Peterson's resignation would not be effective until June 5, 2014, but he would remain on leave through the end of his contract. He would be paid $78,845 in compensation and benefits.
Execution of the settlement agreement would also nullify his participation in pension plans that were established for him as an employee, according to the agreement.
The issues surrounding contracts that have led to Peterson's resignation arose during the CEO's performance evaluation in early mid-February, Orange County Supervisor Todd Spitzer said in an interview for an earlier article.
Peterson and Bartlett were approving contracts over $25,000 without going before the entire board.
The TCA staff runs two separate toll road agencies, the Foothill/Eastern Transportation Corridor Agency and the San Joaquin Hills Transportation Corridor Agency.
Peterson was adhering to a board policy adopted in 2008 that allowed TCA's chief executive and board chair to approve contracts over $25,000 for legislative purposes without seeking full board approval.
The exception came about because of the community backlash that resulted from plans to extend the Foothill/Eastern. The provision was inserted in 2008 to hire consultants without alerting the opposition to the hiring.
The contract exception only applied to Foothill/Eastern, not its sister agency. Spitzer sits on both boards.
After Spitzer criticized the policy at a public meeting, the board reversed it on Feb. 13, rescinding the ability of the chief executive and board chair to sign off on contracts above $25,000.
Three contracts valued at $188,800 were approved in 2013 under the exception; the figure rises to $293,000 when counting one contract that continued a contract originally approved in 2012, Telles told the Bond Buyer in a previous article.
According to Peterson's contract, he can be terminated immediately for cause, or with 90 days' notice without cause.
Foothill/Eastern restructured its debt in December with a $2.3 billion refunding. The deal pushed final payoff of Foothill/Eastern's debt out 13 years to 2053.
