LA Times Editors: Big pension in little Salinas
By the Los Angeles Times editorial board:
Yet another local government agency in California is under fire for the seemingly outsized compensation paid to one of its employees. This time the spotlight is on the Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare System and its recently retired chief executive, Samuel Downing. The controversy isn’t Downing’s $150,000 annual pension as much as the $3.9 million in supplemental retirement benefits awarded by the healthcare system’s board.
Downing’s employers defended the supplemental payments, saying that consultants found them to be in line with what “comparable organizations” pay. But as The Times’ Sam Allenreported Wednesday, Downing’s package was far more generous than those promised to administrators of several larger public hospitals.
Tales like this one illustrate the challenge that public agencies face as they try to run big, costly programs effectively, whether hospitals or universities or prisons. They have to compete with the private sector to attract and keep talented administrators, and applicants may not be willing to take a much lower salary to work for government. But many taxpayers recoil from the idea of paying top dollar for top talent, arguing instead that work in public service requires a sacrifice….