Update: What credit card records show about Tri-Cities transit CEO’s spending
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- State auditors conduct a targeted audit of Drozt’s credit card spending.
- Records show a series of questionable flights and other spending.
- Agency paid $85k+ in severance between three former executive employees.
Newly released records raise more questions about the alleged overspending of the embattled CEO of the Tri-Cities’ transit agency.
The Washington State Auditor’s Office is investigating spending by Ben Franklin Transit CEO Thomas Drozt. The agency is paying thousands of dollars for state auditors to review credit card receipts and supporting documents, records obtained by the Tri-City Herald show.
What they will find in those credit card receipts raises even more questions than the initial claims made by the transit agency’s former finance leader when he resigned in protest last fall.
Drozt told the Herald in an email that the records lacked context, and his decisions were made in accordance with agency policy.
Drozt has been on voluntary paid administrative leave since the beginning of February, while an outside law firm investigates the allegations about some of his spending.
Ben Franklin Transit’s board of directors are expected to receive a report on the investigation at their next board meeting. The meeting is set for 6 p.m. on April 9, at 1000 Columbia Park Trail. It can also be watched online via Zoom.
“I respect the review process currently underway and remain available to participate as needed,” Drozt said in the email. “I stand by the intent behind the decisions made and believe it is important that all matters be understood based on the complete set of facts.”
What the audit is for
The Washington state Auditor’s office is performing a targeted audit related to Drozt’s spending. The audit covers three key points at a cost of $9,700 to the transit agency.
• Drozt’s credit card receipts from April 2025 to October 2025. The auditor’s office appears to be looking for two specific contracts awarded to friends and family. The Herald obtained credit card statements from September 2024 through February 2026. One statement related to these contracts was not provided because it is under investigation, according to the agency’s records clerk.
• The first contract is for Something Unlimited. Drozt awarded the no-bid contract worth up to $131,000 to convicted sex offender Daniel Matta of Phoenix, Ariz. Drozt had previously worked with Matta. This contract was paid monthly in amounts ranging from $10,000 to $15,000, according to board meeting minutes showing the payments.
• The second contract was with Civic Edge Consulting. The contract was awarded to a company owned by Drozt’s former son-in-law, according to public records. An invoice shows the transit agency paid $4,900 for a two-day leadership workshop.
• It is unclear how the Civic Edge contract was paid, but emails to Drozt show staff saying it needed to be paid around July 2025 along with a credit card charge for a Tri-Cities nonprofit. The transit agency withheld the credit card statement covering the first three weeks of July.
Flights on BFT credit card
Records obtained by the Tri-City Herald show a number of flights paid for on Drozt’s agency credit card.
On at least one occasion, Drozt paid for a flight from Phoenix for his wife using BFT funds. He appears to have been in Phoenix at the time, having flown back to his former home after a work trip, instead of returning to Pasco. It’s unclear when he returned to Pasco, but documents show he took a one-way flight back to Phoenix about two weeks later.
“In one instance involving a personal flight, a charge was made in error due to a stored payment method,” Drozt said. “This was identified, reported, and fully reimbursed immediately upon discovery in accordance with agency policy.”
Most work trips Drozt has taken either started or ended in Phoenix, according to travel itineraries and credit card receipts obtained under the Washington Public Records Act. He likely paid out of pocket to fly back to Pasco after the trips. The itineraries do not list the purpose of the trips.
The agency’s employee handbook does not specify whether employees can end trips in cities other than the Tri-Cities, but does say they cannot be reimbursed for personal travel when combined with business-related travel.
Drozt said that these flights were for conferences and other agency business.
“Travel related to conferences and agency business was conducted with a focus on efficiency, including reducing travel time and cost where possible,” he said in the email. “Personal travel was handled separately, and only business-related expenses were charged to the agency.”
• Drozt had at least 10 flights paid for with the BFT card starting or ending in Phoenix between December 2024 and October 2025. That does not include one canceled return trip to Phoenix or connections through Phoenix.
• On another occasion, when hiring an IT director from the Phoenix area, Drozt paid to fly both the candidate and the candidate’s spouse to the Tri-Cities and back.
• That candidate is one of many hired from Phoenix-area transit agencies that Drozt had a history with. That resulted in BFT employees coming forward at public meetings complaining of unfair hiring practices.
• A flight for another member of management left from Phoenix, went to Austin, Texas, and returned to Pasco. That manager also flew to Miami with Drozt and back to Phoenix on another trip. The manager returned to Pasco four days later but Drozt did not book a flight back with BFT funds. His wife’s flight was the next day.
• Alex Smith, the former CFO who brought his concerns about Drozt’s spending to the transit board, had a flight to Phoenix with Drozt coming back from a trip to Washington, D.C. Smith told the Herald that he was also recruited due to his previous work history with Drozt.
• No itineraries for flights paid for on the CEO’s credit card before January 2025 were included in records received by the Tri-City Herald. Drozt was hired in August 2024. Credit card receipts show other flights to Phoenix during this time, but some names were withheld.
• The only credits showing on the account are for canceled flights. Upgrades and changes to flights were included in the credit card statements and documents. BFT did not release any documents related to reimbursed trips.
“Throughout my time as CEO, decisions were made within established agency processes, including procurement, hiring, and operational planning,” Drozt said. “All positions were publicly posted and filled through Human Resources-led processes, and contracts referenced were handled in coordination with the Procurement Department and aligned with applicable thresholds and procedures.”
Ben Franklin Transit’s interim CEO Brian Lubanski did not respond to a request for clarification on the transit agency’s policies around these types of flights.
Large severance payouts
The records also show the agency has paid out more than $85,000 for three executive staff member severance payments between July 2025 and February 2026.
Employees have said at public meetings that in addition to unfair hiring of friends and former colleagues, Drozt also pushed out longtime employees.
The transit agency provided only the payout amounts and the department the employee worked in.
A July 2025 payment for nearly $29,000 matches a request for records by the Herald for a severance payment made to an employee acting as a clerk to the board.
Unlike the other two severance payments, that one did not specify it was a payout for weeks or months worth of salary. It’s unclear how the agency determined nearly $29,000 was the appropriate amount of severance.
An October 2025 severance payout for nearly $39,000 was listed as equivalent to three months of salary.
A February 2026 severance for almost $18,000 was listed as six weeks worth of salary.
This story was originally published March 30, 2026 at 4:30 AM.
