ST. LOUIS — The region’s tourism bureau will pay its embattled chief at least $540,000 in a retirement payout, including a performance bonus not yet “earned,†according to an agreement released this week.
Kathleen “Kitty†Ratcliffe, 65, will also get to keep her health insurance and her work car, a 2019 Volvo S60, after she retires later this month from the ºüÀêÊÓƵ Convention and Visitors Commission, about 10 months before her contract expires.
Ratcliffe announced in July she would leave her job early amid concerns about sales, staff morale and the management of the downtown convention center expansion. The project’s original cost had increased by millions by this spring, records show.
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Ratcliffe didn’t return a request for comment Tuesday. The commission’s board chair, Steve O’Loughlin, directed inquiries to the bureau.
Commission spokesman Brian Hall said the board is focused on finding a replacement for Ratcliffe, and appreciates her 18 years at the agency.
“We chose to honor the terms of her contract,†Hall wrote in an email.
ºüÀêÊÓƵ County Councilman Ernie Trakas, a vocal critic of Ratcliffe and cost overruns in the convention center project, which county taxpayers help fund, said he was disappointed in Ratcliffe’s retirement terms.
“All this does is perpetuate the perception that these independent subdivisions do not take seriously their fiduciary duty, nor their obligation to the well-being of the ºüÀêÊÓƵ region,†Trakas wrote in an email.
The retirement agreement, released late Monday, didn’t specify dollar amounts for Ratcliffe’s payments and bonuses, but it spelled out the terms.
Last year, she made $396,237. This year, her base pay is $408,124, according to Hall.
After she retires, no later than Aug. 31, Ratcliffe gets a year’s base pay in a lump sum at the current rate.
She also gets this year’s performance bonus: 13.3% of her base salary, or $54,280.
And though she hasn’t yet earned it — the agreement calls it “compensation for executive’s performance bonuses, which have not yet been earned†— she’ll also get next year’s bonus: $77,543, or 19% of her base salary, to be paid within a month of June 30, 2025.
The commission will also cover the cost of Ratcliffe’s Continuation of Health Coverage payments, commonly known as COBRA, through June 30, 2025.
And Ratcliffe will receive cash bonuses equal to what she would have contributed to her pension plan, starting from her retirement date through June 30, 2025. The bonuses will be paid quarterly.
The value of the health care and cash bonus payments weren’t immediately available.
Kelsey Landis – 314-340-8304 klandis@post-dispatch.com