Departing RTD CFO Heather McKillop: ‘I’ve always kept true to being honest and open’

Heather McKillop has served as RTD’s chief financial officer and assistant general manager of finance and administration since May 2015. Later this month, she is leaving the agency to join Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit as its CFO starting Nov. 30. Before she leaves Colorado for Northern California, the longtime transit executive answered a few questions.

You have served as a chief financial officer for about 24 years, with most of that time in the transit industry and at public agencies in Colorado. Have your approach, attitudes and views toward this work changed over that time? If so, how?

In some ways they’ve changed, and in some ways they’ve stayed the same. I’ve always felt that it was a privilege to work for government. I kind of fell into it, but once I got into it, I’ve stayed in the government sector, and I really think it’s because I feel like I’m a steward of the taxpayers’ money. I always try to look at how I can do the best job with that money. I look at it from the standpoint of, I want people like me in government, because we all pay taxes and it’s a big chunk of our income every month. And I want to know that there are people like me who really care about doing the right thing, and the right thing isn’t always the right thing for everybody, but for most of the people. How I’ve changed: I’ve hopefully gotten smarter and made better decisions and provided better advice than when I was in my 20s. I’ve learned that you can’t solve all of life’s problems, but if you take one issue at a time and you try to address it, you can make a difference. I’m replaceable like everyone else, but you hope that along the way, you made some difference, and that the place you left is better than when you came.

Like transit agencies across the country, RTD is now having to make hard financial decisions about its future because of the pandemic. What should the public know about how you, and those around you, are approaching those decisions?

It’s not about any one of us. I think the one thing that’s impressed me most about what’s gone on here is the teamwork: everybody coming together in a crisis. And not just at RTD, but across the country, because we’re all going through this. Even in a recession, we weren’t all going through the same things at the same time. But this is something that has just been profound across the country. One of the things that really comes to mind is that the RTD folks have taken it extremely seriously, and we’re trying to take all of our past knowledge and apply it to this situation, to make it a safe place for our customers to come and ride, so if they need to get to work and they need to use the system, it’s safe for them, as much as we can make it safe.

I think the other thing we’ve learned is that we can be really flexible. We’ve been able to stick together as a management team and think through decisions quickly. We’re used to having time on our side, and time has not been on our side in this situation. So, being able to adjust. A good example is at first we heard that masks weren’t important, so we tried to deal with that. And then we heard that masks are important, and so we tried to get as many masks as possible. It’s trying to adapt as much as possible to the situation. I don’t think we’ve been perfect, but I’ve really been proud to be part of this team, because I think it’s been a well-oiled machine. We’re used to having time to think things through, and make the best decision after it has been well thought out. Now, we have to make decisions, and we then have to change them if they’re not right.

Is COVID-19 the hardest professional challenge you’ve ever faced?

I would say so, just because of the sheer speed at which it happened. When I went through the Great Recession in 2008, ’09, we lost a tremendous amount of money at CDOT (Colorado Department of Transportation), and we had to make some really tough decisions about stopping projects. But we had a series of, probably, six months when we started seeing things happening to when we got into the thick of it. This (COVID-19) all happened in a week. To go from things being somewhat normal at the beginning of March and within a week or two, the whole bottom falling out, has definitely been one of the most challenging parts of my career.

In what ways has COVID-19 made urban and government planning harder than it was before the pandemic? What are your thoughts about how RTD is moving through that process?

Uncertainty. As much as we have ups and downs with sales and use tax and fare revenues in the transportation world, things don’t change super fast. We usually have six months of planning to deal with things and figure out what we’re going to do in the future – we’ll just wait for the next forecast. You can’t do that right now. And I think the big thing is also, not only the uncertainty of the moment that we’re in, but the uncertainty of not knowing if ridership’s going to come back, when it’s going to come back, what impact telework is going to have on our industry. I think the biggest hurdle is the uncertainty.

What advice do you have for your successor if COVID-19 remains prevalent in Colorado next year?

I think we have worked really hard at putting a really solid 2021 and 2022 plan together from a financial standpoint. We have reserves that we’re setting aside, and we have a little bit of money – not a lot, small in our world – of about $19 million if things start looking better. We could actually do some projects or add a little bit of service back. But I think the good thing that’s come out of this is it’s going to allow us to reset and come out as a stronger, financially sound organization. I think if people hold steady and don’t panic and don’t start adding a bunch of things back, but slowly evaluate how things are doing, then making those decisions accordingly. I think if the Board approves this budget, they’ve got a good foundation for 2021. I finally feel pretty comfortable about that.

What do you wish people understood about public finance? What misconceptions persist that you have to correct or explain?

There’s so many, but I think the big one is, people say that government should operate like a private business. We’re not a private business, we’re not for profit. Our job is to use the taxpayer money as best as we can to serve the most amount of people, and that’s a really difficult situation. Private businesses can pick and choose their customers, they can change product lines, they can react. We don’t do that in the government. We provide services that no one else can provide because they’re not profitable. Your motivation is different – it’s really about the most efficient use of the dollar to serve the most amount of people as you can. The problem with that becomes, in government, we want to be all things to all people. That’s one thing that the private sector does a little better than I think we do, is they can identify their market segment better and who they’re going to cater to. We tend to have to cater to all of the market, whatever that looks like. It’s just a different way of approaching finances and money.

If you had one final opportunity to speak to the public about FasTracks, what would you say?

It is an extremely ambitious program that has provided the Denver metropolitan area with a world-class system. It’s a privilege to have gotten the federal money and the taxpayer money to build that system. It just doesn’t happen in a city of our size. I really wish we could celebrate what a good system we have instead of fighting over what has not been done. We know that we have more to accomplish – but really, step back and see the exciting things that have been done. I just wish we’d celebrate the incredible system and work together to figure out what it needs to look like in the future.

What are you most proud of professionally?

I’ve been always proud that I’ve been able to serve with integrity, that I’ve always kept true to being honest and open, and even though people say sometimes, you’re not, I feel I have been. I think that sometimes they don’t really want to hear what I have to say. I think that I’ve been able to spend this much of my career in government, where politics is a big thing, and still maintain my integrity, I’m really proud of that.