On Wednesday, TransLink announced Thomas Prendergast, who ran subway and commuter rail systems for New York's Metropolitan Transportation, had been hired as the regional transportation authority's new chief executive officer. That quite a catch. So it seems somewhart coincidental that, yesterday, TransLink quietly began looking for an "external independent professional compensation consultant" to advise its human resource and compensation committee on "compensation matters, particularly as they relate to the Chief Executive Officer and other Officers of TransLink." But, in an interview with Public Eye, TransLink corporate and public affairs vice-president Bob Paddon assured us that contract is "not related at all to Tom. We do compensation reviews from time to time - looking at executive compensation in the organization. And that has no relationship to Tom's arrival here." Mr. Prendergast's starting salary will be $325,000 per year.