COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KOAA) — Colorado Springs Utilities CEO Travas Deal will be getting a $150,000 pay raise over the course of the next several months after the Utilities Board approved an amendment to his contract on Wednesday.
With the approved raise, Deal will be paid $700,000 a year beginning in 2027. The Utilities Board, which is also the Colorado Springs City Council, said the raise is needed to bring Travas Deal up to the market median for other CEOs of "Large Public Power Council (LPPC)" utilities.
Board President Dave Donelson spoke to reporters after the decision on Wednesday and said that currently the CEO's salary makes up about $0.11 a month for every ratepayer's bill. This increase in his pay will ultimately total $0.14 a month, but Donelson said it will not increase bills as the raise had already been budgeted in the event of the Utilities Board approval.
Deal’s current salary is $550,014. Now that the raise has been approved, it will happen in two stages. A $74,986 raise beginning May 24 for a total annual pay of $625,000, and then on Dec. 20 of this year, Deal would get another $75,000 raise to bring his annual pay to $700,000.
"This is always going to be a hard issue, it's a large amount of money, but again it is the market rate" Donelson said.
While the raise is spread out over two fiscal years, News5 Investigates asked why the raise would not be spread out over five years, as ratepayers are currently in the midst of a five-year rate increase.
"At the end of '27 he’s gonna be at the 50th percentile for '25, okay, so we’re not even because we don’t know what the medium the middle point will be in '27 so if we stretch it out to four years, you know we would be four years behind the newest 50th percentile," Donelson said.
In what’s titled an “employment agreement amendment” in the agenda, Deal also asked for six months of guaranteed severance if he is fired without cause. Utilities Board members also approved the severance change, which they said was to bring Deal in line with other CEO agreements.
"That's not unusual, we didn't do something that was out of alignment with typical, "Donelson said.
His current contract requires a minimum of three months' severance and a maximum of six months.
News5 Investigates reached out to Colorado Springs Utilities on Tuesday afternoon to ask about the proposal.
In a statement to News5, Colorado Springs Utilities objected to News5’s original reporting that the request came from CEO Travas Deal. Springs Utilities said, “The Utilities Board committed to revisiting CEO compensation in 2026 and considering alignment with the market median.” The CEO's salary is discussed annually by the Utilities Board.
The agenda for Wednesday's meeting said the board memo agenda item was from Travas Deal, Chief Executive Officer (CEO).
Additionally, Colorado Springs Utilities said it’s “standard protocol” that all “Utilities Board agenda items are formally submitted through the CEO’s office.”
When asked if Mr. Deal supports the amendment to his contract, Colorado Springs Utilities said: “Mr. Deal does not advocate for or against those decisions and respects the Board’s governance role and process.”
Utilities Board President, Councilman Dave Donelson, sent News5 a statement supporting the pay raise, saying "the right thing to do is to compensate him at least at the 'average' level for CEOs of public utilities similar to CSU."
Donelson's full statement:
The citizens of Colorado Springs deserve an outstanding CEO to lead Colorado Springs Utilities. And we currently have one - Travas Deal.
At our CSU Board meeting on Wednesday, May 20, the Utilities Board will consider increasing the CEO's pay to bring him to the 50th percentile (midpoint in pay) for CEO's of comparable utility companies. Our CEO is currently paid significantly less than that - and this is while he leads a larger organization (roughly 2,000 employees) with a larger budget (roughly 2 billion dollars) than many of those he is compared with in the salary survey. He also leads a four service utility (electric, gas, water, wastewater), while many of those in the survey lead only one or two service utilities.
Most recently, our CEO led the effort to keep the Ray Nixon power plant open for an additional three years. That effort was successful - and it will save CSU millions of dollars, and those savings will be passed on to all of us.
Our CEO is well respected at the local, state, and federal level. He is sought out for advice, and CSU is looked to for best practices - our Large Load Tariff on electric users of 10MW or more is a recent example.
The right thing to do is compensate him at least at the "average" level for CEOs of public utilities similar to CSU.
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