On Friday, the board of Pittsburgh Regional Transit unanimously approved a $55,000 bonus for CEO Katharine Kelleman.

The issue is not that the transportation authority came off a financially difficult year. It is not that $55,000 is a lot of money when the organization had to use $100 million in state funds to dig out of a deficit hole big enough to lose a bus.

It is that we do not know why.

“The CEO has a contract, and the contract is in place, so we honor the contract like any other contract in the agency,” board chair Jennifer Liptak said.

That is true, and that is why Kelleman’s bonus shouldn’t be the focus, although it might be hard to swallow for many in the region who work hard but don’t receive bonuses.

Kelleman’s potential bonus is written into her contract just like her $312,000 base pay and her benefits, part of a complete compensation package. The total bonus could be as high as 20%, but this year she received 17.6%.

That seems like an acknowledgement she met some metrics but could have scored higher in places. But we do not know that because we do not know what the rubric for receiving the bonus is.

We do not know because the details were not given. The money they told us about. The rubric they did not.

The board claims this is a personnel issue — and it is. But not all personnel issues fall in the same protective cloak, like debates over hiring or discipline in an executive session sanctioned under the Sunshine Law.

Melissa Melewsky, media law counsel for the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association, notes not all personnel information is shielded. We know that because Kelleman is paid for her work as an employee, but her salary is not obscured as personnel information.

Other personnel information is clearly available. The authority’s website lists job openings. A new bus driver could make up to $48,000 a year based on the $23.50 hourly wage for a 40-hour week. We know the requirements of that position, things like being at least 21, with a high school diploma or GED, a CDL and no more than three points on a driver’s license.

That is exactly the kind of clarity needed on the CEO’s bonus. The agency does not need to release her entire personnel record. It’s just a question of the requirements for the money — something openly available for new drivers.

Transparency should not apply more to new employees than to those with the most authority.

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