COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KOAA) — The Colorado Springs Utilities Board, which is also the city council, unanimously approved a large pay raise for its Chief Executive Officer, Travas Deal, last month.
- Watch News5's coverage of the approved pay raise below:
Under the contract agreement the board approved, Deal will be making $700,000 in 2027, a $150,000 raise from his current pay. An incremental raise just went into effect, bringing his salary to $625,000.
The raise was justified based on a 2025 study from the Large Public Power Council (LPPC), which, according to its website, has 30 members of public utilities.
LPPC said among its members, Colorado Springs Utilities is the only four-service utility. Springs Utilities provides electricity, gas, water, and wastewater.
As the study has been used to justify the pay increase, News5Investigates requested the full study to see the details.
LPPC said the information was confidential. When asked why that was the case, as the information is from publicly owned utilities, an LPPC spokesperson said “confidentiality is standard practice for compensation benchmarking surveys across industries, consistent with how compensation studies are conducted by benefit consulting firms and industry associations broadly."
A Colorado Open Records Act (CORA) request for the same information was denied; Springs Utilities cited a CORA statute dealing with “trade secrets and confidential commercial information.”
News5 Investigates contacted Colorado Springs Utilities for a response to the CORA denial. They responded saying, "Records responsive to your request are withheld pursuant to Colorado Revised Statute (C.R.S.) § 24-72-204(3)(a)(IV) as such records contain trade secrets/confidential commercial information."
News5 Investigates also asked whether or not there is a confidentiality agreement in place between Colorado Springs Utilities and LPPC. A spokesperson with Colorado Springs Utilities was not aware of a confidentiality agreement with LPPC, but said they are working to address the question.
A response to News5's open records request on the confidential agreement received Thursday morning said there are "no responsive records".
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