Non-Profit Leaders Find Charities Profitable
By Roldo Bartimole
Lee Fisher, director of the Center for Families and Children, considered running for Governor of Ohio again this year, but instead has decided to stay at his Center job instead.
It was a profitable decision for Fisher.
The Governor of Ohio is paid $130,292. Fisher, working for the non-profit social agency, was paid $358,464 in 2003. That’s more than two-and-a-half times what Gov. Robert Taft made this year.
Not too bad for a non-profit, charitable organization that’s a bit smaller than the job of running the State of Ohio.
Though much is written, rightly so, about exorbitant corporate, sports and entertainment salaries, the hefty salaries of our non-profit executives are hardly meager but get little attention.
In a society trending toward serious inequality, the high salaries of professionals should bother us. Apparently, it does not, given the unwillingness of the society to reward ordinary workers with a living wage.
For example, the federal minimum wage has been frozen at $5.15 an hour since 1997. If the minimum wage simply had kept up with inflation, it would be at $8.88 an hour. A 40-hour workweek would bring in a shameful $206 a week, or $10,712 a year at the present $5.15 level.
However, even in Cleveland, a city desperate for jobs and lagging in income and jobs at the lower level, non-profit salaries have become sizeable.
The disparity of income and wealth results from the slime ball system we’ve created in our so-called “democracy.” It is now delusionary to believe that we live in a democracy simply because we can vote – vote, that is, for one of two candidates supported by the same corporate money machine.
Our civic and charitable leaders are doing very well as they move the community agenda in their favor.
Cleveland Tomorrow (CT) played a crucial role in directing corporate desires in Cleveland. CT – now a part of the centralized Greater Cleveland Partnership (which includes the old Growth (Tumor?) Association) – paid Joe Roman $311,390 and put aside $27,000 for retirement benefits in 2003. His second in command, Steve Strnisha, a former city finance director, received $196,900 with $15,752 put aside for his retirement.
Nice work if you can get it.
Here’s an example of how these agencies fool the public with their generosity:
CT gave the Bond Accountability Commission $236,608 to be unaccountable for monitoring school construction projects. The Plain Dealer recently editorialized about the Bond Commission, which went out of business. The PD editorial said, “The closing of the office for the city’s Bond Accountability Commission represents nothing less than a broken promise to Cleveland voters.”
If you give someone $236,000, don’t you expect that they will do what the contract calls for doing? Apparently, CT – despite its high salaries – isn’t very watchful itself.
Doesn’t it also represent a promise of oversight by the Plain Dealer itself? This is especially true since the PD was a strong voice for mayoral control of the schools. Don’t we expect monitoring by the news media of what goes on with construction money that soars over the $1 billion mark?
Cleveland Tomorrow’s gifts revealed how the private sector pushed the public agenda.
The corporate-led agency spent $374,380 to “launch conceptual plans for the possible redesign of the lakefront infrastructure in partnership with the City of Cleveland.” Why does the city have to depend upon people who have their own agenda to fund public policy?
Cleveland Tomorrow also granted $80,000 for what it calls the Carrousel Program to “revitalize Cleveland’s lakefront and improve the economy of the area.” Revitalize the lakefront with a carrousel? Well, CT has made an investment and the city now has to agree to its desires. CT has invested $889,950 in this carrousel and, by golly, the city HAS to want a carrousel for its lakefront.
While we’re in the lakefront vicinity, the financially rocky Rock and Roll Hall of Fame only paid Terry Stewart, its boss, $281,436 in 2004 – actually less than his $332,542 the previous year. The Rock Hall, however, about doubled his retirement benefit to $68,276.
We must look after these people in their golden ages.
The Downtown Cleveland Partnership in 2003 paid its director, Lee Hill, $214,250 and Joe Marinucci, former economic development director for the city, $185,208. Marinucci has been helping the city with its economic development as a loaned executive.
We have a non-profit for almost everything.
The Greater Cleveland Sports Commission in 2003 paid David Gilbert, its top executive, $150,000 annually and put aside $15,841 for his old age.
There’s not much worry within these ranks for the possible “crisis” in Social Security.
We make them very secure in their tax-free zone.
Democrat Forbes Surfaces with his GOP Friends
It’s nice to know that the Republican Workers Compensation scandal is integrated by a Cleveland “Democrat.”
Our old friend George Forbes had a hand, so to speak, in the mounting Republican Party’s pay-to-play politics in Columbus. He is a Democrat isn’t he?
Actually, George has always integrated well with Republicans when it’s to his advantage.
Forbes recently quit the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation after it was revealed that one of the big losers of Ohio dough had employed one of his daughters. The firm, MDL of Pittsburgh lost some $215-million in Ohio funds. The good part of that, however, is that MDL employed Mimi Forbes.
Forbes jumped ship when news dribbled out that the Workers’ Compensation board played fast and loose with state funds. Most embarrassing were investments in coins and collectables, which lost big time.
George is one who has never passed up a quid pro quo. He sometimes gives but he mostly takes.
The Plain Dealer article that revealed donations were made to the NAACP from those who did business with the Bureau reveals that Forbes, as NAACP leader, is just one charitable guy.
That claims were made that the donations to the NAACP by those doing business with the Workmen’s’ Bureau while Forbes was a board member had no connection are rather amusing.
The Plain Dealer quotes one such money manager saying, “’If (Forbes) happens to be with the (bureau), that’s just happenstance’”
The company likely had a special account marked “happenstance” for such occasional payments to special people and their charities.
by Cool Cleveland columnist Roldo Bartimole RoldoATAdelphia.net
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