Imagine the outrage here if Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools decided to more than double Superintendent Peter Gorman's $300,000-a-year compensation. Or if school board members traded in their $12,240-a-year pay for a blank-check plan that let them grab more than $90,000 a year.
If you didn't see the story in Saturday's Observer about exorbitant public salaries in Bell, Calif., it's well worth a read. The chief administrative officer of the town of 40,000 -- that's less than one-third of CMS's enrollment -- was making $787,637 a year. Part-time council members were getting between $90,000 and $100,000 a year for what is almost certainly a lot less work than the CMS board puts in. Bear in mind this is not some millionaire enclave, but what the story describes as a blue-collar Los Angeles suburb with significant poverty.
"The city of mostly small homes is like many American cities and towns: No newspaper covers them regularly, and the citizens spend what little free time they have with family and recreation," the Associated Press story says. "A few who kept tabs on City Hall said they were suspicious because the officials were secretive, brusque and quick to act without explaining themselves."
If you've ever wondered why newspapers request and report on public pay, there you have it. Now that the Bell salaries have been exposed, apologies and resignations are rolling in.
Here at home, I understand why rank-and-file folks making much smaller paychecks often bristle at the public exposure. But if we only ask for information on a certain list of jobs, fishy deals can go unnoticed. If everything's on the table, not only journalists but citizens can check to see how public dollars are being dished out.
And we won't have to find out just how far greed can go when no one's looking.
Monday, July 26, 2010
Greed gone wild
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33 comments:
hear, hear
Ann, this is another example of why we need you and your Observer colleagues so badly. Even if we don't agree with everything you do, you're the ones who are out there every day, keeping tabs on what our government officials are doing. To all those folks out there who only read the Observer on the Internet: Subscribe! A short-term investment in your local newspaper is a long-term investment in your future.
I agree with Pam.
Sounds similar to giving a UNCC job to an almost retired county employee who had a stroke so he could play out his days under the radar, instead of going on disability, like the rest of us non-Govco employees would be forced to do.
Pam is right, look how well the Charlotte Observer and Raleigh News & Observer did with keeping tabs on the illegal dealings of Jim Black, Meg Scott-Phipps, Sleasy Easley and his no real job wife, and now the most corrupt Bevy. Yep, give your hard earned money to an organization who espouses reward the lazy and punishing the hard working, in fact we should enslave the rich, confiscate their wealth and belongings so her son can feel good about leartning with the diverse gun toting thug masses.
And it wasn't even corporate greed, lol. I guess cost of living in CA is high
I hope you will keep an eye on MAyor Fixx who has openly lobbied for the Mayor's position to be full time.
The last thing we need is a King in the Queen City.
@anon 12:56 Where did you first learn of the shady dealings of the folks you mention? Guessing it might have been the newspaper.
That's all well and good, but is it necessary to provide a database of the salaries of every single employee of the system from the janitor on up including their names?
In response to Anon 1:42, that would be the Carolina Journal, or similar venues that are less invested in keeping the status quo. Not the monopolistic newspapers of record that you must get all your info from.
Where the Observer's outrage over UNC coaches' salaries? They are paid millions.
Back to anon, and where do you think the Carolina Journal et al get their information, before they put their spin on it? My point is that newspapers report the news. Then once the news comes out, various other outlets and individuals run with it. And eventually the Jim Blacks etc. of the world resign or are fired. But if a newspaper (or, every once in a while, a TV station or, rarer still, a blog) never breaks the story, corrupt public officials get to keep on keeping on. Clearly, you even get some of your news from the newspaper, as you are commenting on the newspaper's website.
Anon. 12:56 (aka ghoul): For someone who dislikes the Observer so much you sure do spend a lot of time posting to its Forums.
anon 2:01, you have a very misguided view of how the modern day newspaper gets put together. there are more "press releases" in your average daily than any investigative journalism. don't hold your breath waiting on the observer's next big expose.
Should I be angry that my hard-earned subscription dollars are going to support this kind of "freeloading"?
I think the problem regarding Black, Easley, et al. is that the Observer's editorial board routinely and enthusiastically endorsed them for years, despite rumblings of problems that were coming from various sources. Also, we did not see any Easley stories while he was running for office--only at the end of his term--and the Black stories were a long time coming. The same thing happened with Parks Helms and his spend happy democratically controlled county commission. We are currently reaping what was sown by their out of control spending, with no one digging into budget issues (like DSS and Jake Jacobson's sweetheart deal) until there was no longer any hiding our deep financial woes.
So it's not surprising that many aren't so sure that the Observer has really been keeping tabs on officials, especially the Democrats, who have controlled the statehouse, legislature and county commission for years (with the encouragement of the Observer).
Ann is doing a good job of CMS reporting but before her watch reporting and editorializing was heavily skewed against the suburbs, especially as busing ended. This led to a lot of the misinformation and mistrust that exists in this community today.
Bell is not blue collar. It's one of the poorest, most dangerous cities in America. Less than 5 percent of its population is American. It used to be blue collar. Then it was poor African Americans. Now it's the poorest illegals in LA. Where these crooks came up with the tax base to pay their salaries is the real question.
I too support the 4th Estate and am glad it has a place in the U.S. Constitution. It is the antithesis of the "Don't ask, Don't tell" policy.
But suppose newspapers and Freedom of Speech didn't exist. Would there be the moral courage to question the status quo?
To an extent, relying on the press is accepting the "way it is" as the way it is. Most political figures come to fear the media and not the public. That is a bad thing.
So while Ann's lesson is that the press' high road sometimes looks like the gutter, her other point is more note worthy: quite a few politicians have little respect for the powerless.
Bolyn McClung
Pineville
Ann does an excellent job for the most part... still waiting on the story about hiring 250 Teach for America recruits while laying off 500 or so REAL teachers... sigh... I suppose since TFA is such a political darling at the moment no one would dare...
Bolyn, I think what brings change is a combination of media and public. A newspaper has a unique ability to reach lots of people with in-depth reporting, but it's only when other media and the public pile on that officials realize "business as usual" isn't an option. And I've seen regular Joes turn up great leads (wasn't the Jim Black case kind of like that?), but the story only tends to get traction when a newspaper or other big news outlet picks it up.
Last anon, I've been chipping away at TFA info. Now just waiting for time to write it up and a news peg -- hoping to hear pretty soon how many teacher jobs (if any?) will be restored now that state and county budgets don't seem to be worst-case.
It's always easy to point fingers at salaries that are publicly known. In private enterprise, a CEO leading a company the size of CMS (with possibly far fewer obstacles) would take nothing less than tens of millions. Keep in mind that many reputable college professors, not to mention smaller private school leaders, make $300,000 or more. Good people are expensive.
The idea that one should subscribe to the paper even if you don't "agree with everything they do" perplexes me. I realize that the editorial side of the paper is separate from reporting, but when the editorial board has routinely supported what turned out to be the bad guys and then continuously bashes those in the community they don't care for, i.e. in this instance the suburbanites, is it incumbent upon us to continue to support them? Are they not doing a disservice to the community by having an editorial policy that seems to deliberately pit one part of the community against another? How does one argue against this except by canceling a subscription?
I think $70,000 to $80,000. for any physical education teacher, while at the same time firing 500 other teachers is outrageous.
Pam has several posts in here.
I agree with all of them.
Meanwhile, I am what used to be called a conservative before the label was captured by mindless spewers of invective.
To Pam G et. al. --
If the Observer is doing such a great job weeding out crooks, then why is Marc Basnight still on the prowl?
Why is Jake Jacobsen receiving a huge pension?
Why is Tony Rand not being tried for insider trading and numerous offenses against the state of NC?
Why are Mike & Mary Easley still running around like they own the state?
Sorry, Pamela G, I don't buy it. On the contrary, CO protects louts that it likes and does a crummy job of weeding them out & exposing them.
Wendell Phillips:
"Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty."....Wendell Phillips 1811-1884
Aldus Huxley was fond of this quote, in many variations. Twenty-five years after the publication of Brave New World, he said if he were to have written it then he would have made it 200 years into the future instead of 600.
What would the time-line be today?
cool thread of messages...
The Observer covers CMS extensively. Most of what is covered is political in nature rather than in regards to the abilities of the teachers, etc. Too much focus is on all the wrong things, probably because it's those things that sell newspapers.
If other companies (The Observer, Bank of America, Wachovia, Duke Energy, Time Warner, etc. etc. etc. experienced the same level of scrutiny, people would think of them the same way they do CMS.
Pam et al: Ever think the Observer's coverage of CMS s detrimental to our kids being educated?
Freedom of the press is a great thing... But what makes a good story is the unusual (good or bad). That doesn't always lend itself to painting the most accurate picture.
There's lots of things in our community and our world that need fixing. Sometimes, the media exposes the bad guys and saves the day. More often than not, the media twists truths and opinions and makes things worse.
The CO picks the easy stories, the easy targets (CMS, etc.) and tells half-truths (haven't seen any of those in the media latey, have we?) and then wonders why its circulation goes down.
If its that important to you Pam, donate papers to everyone. Gimme a break! Subscribe? The CO has become basically irrelevant. They need to report news, not try to generate it.
Ann Doss Helms is the only person in North Carolina whose full-time job, 40+ hours a week, is to pay attention to what goes on in CMS. I don't agree will all the subjects she picks, or with everything she writes, but I am glad she has that job. If Observer circulation drops to the point where they can't afford a full-time education writer, we will all be poorer for it. Sharon, I can't go along with your argument that disagreeing with the editorial writers is a justification for not subscribing to the paper. The editors can say what they want -- and I've been pretty steamed about some editorials. But it's the information we need. Big-newspaper reporters do tend to support the status quo (after all, they're part of it). But if we lose Ann, or her counterparts in other departments, no blog, online journal or armchair critic is going to fill that gap.
I think what has happened to papers is sad--I miss a good thick daily paper, one that I can both agree and disagree with, one that makes me think about the world perhaps in a different way. I understand the the internet has contributed greatly to newspapers' decline. But maybe the blogs, on-line journals, and arm chair critics have all come into existence because our papers, with little or no competition for years, became comfortable toeing the same old line. In North Carolina that line was elect Democrats and never question the wisdom of school assignment based on race. Perhaps the public has grown tired of hearing that same old refrain and would prefer to spend their money elsewhere.
Question for Pamela Grundy: Do you think that you would still be urging everyone to support The Observer if it was a Republican leaning paper, if it routinely criticized the Central Avenue area for a variety of reasons, and if it was a strong supporter of neighborhood schools?
Pam G -
The Observer is a for profit organization (at least, that's what they are trying to do), not a charity. I don't view subscribing to the Observer as a good use of my hard earned $, thus I don't.
It's not incumbent on me to subsidize the CO. Rather, it's incumbent on the CO to appeal to me enough to buy it. Or, if I only use the online version, formulate their business model so they can make money.
You have the view of a liberal who believes incompetence should be subsidized; my view is of a conservative who believes competence should be rewarded. Big difference.
Anon 1:20-it isn't just suburbanites who are in favor of neighborhood schools.
Mixing in doesn't help minorities receive better educations. Whenever poor schools finally get decent administrators and teachers, they're stripped away. I wonder why?
Therefore some think the answer is to go where THEY are because THEY have better resources.
Subscriptions--are great for the kids; science Monday, national news, the sports section, and of course the funnies!oh yeah, yeah, and my husband loves "The Buzz."
Anon 1:20 -- this would be so much simpler if people would attach their names to their comments -- the Observer routinely prints less-than-flattering stories about the Central Avenue area and it endorses plenty of local Republicans and other status-quo folks with whom I don't agree. Sometimes I agree with the editorial writers on schools and sometimes I don't. But no other institution puts as much time and energy into informing the public about what is going on in our schools than the Observer (unless you count the CMS publicity department, which I don't). I think that's worth paying for. I don't do it as a "charity" (Samuel) but because I value informed writing, which is harder and harder to come across these days.
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