Nice golden parachute

[yendi]

Mike Brown's sixty days of being on the FEMA payroll post-resignation have come to an end.

Of course, at his salary, that's $24.6K for doing nothing for two months (which, technically, could be said about the two months prior to that, as well, but at least he theoretically had responsibilities to shirk back then).

$24.6K for two months of non-work.

The median household income in New Orleans was $31,718.

That works out to a bit over $5k for that same period, assuming they still have jobs (and I know that the latest issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education reported that Dillard and Xavier both cut over half their staff, with LSU still planning some cuts).

Comments

[dwivian]

Did you try comparing his income to the median for Bethesda? Much more fair, seeing as how he doesn't live in NewOrleans, or did he work there, nor does NewOrleans support those kinds of positions (regardless of how much he shouldn't have been in the job in the first place).

(Bethesda, MD: $107,631; Springfield VA, $88,403)

If we aren't going to get after all this middle-managers in Manhattan, or production-supervisors in Fairfax, for having similar salaries, isn't this a bit disingenuous?

I also can't say Brown wasn't working -- transition of what he wasn't doing to make it look like people actually cared might have put him in the office for 60 hours a week....

[yendi]

And the median in Bethesda would matter how, exactly? I don't doubt that the director of FEMA should get paid nicely. I just think he's an ethical monster, and the people in the city that suffered partially as the result of his laissez-faire attitude are the ones I'm comparing his salary to.

[dwivian]

I picked cities around DC, where he works. If he's going to live and work in a region, and you want to snark about what he's paid, consider where lives and what it costs to be there.

If you are attempting to make a comparison locally, you could just as equally picked the income of people that DID help, but are also making lots more than the Median for Nola. Or, pick the people like the LA Governor that had just as hideous an attitude and failed to use their OWN plan to get things going (salary: $95,000, plus residence, transportation, and security detail).

His hideousness has NOTHING to do with his income. The pay goes to the holder of the job. Giving him the job was the error, not paying him some amount relative to poverty in the rest of the country.

[ckd]

Continuing to pay him for almost two months after his incompetence was made clear and manifest? That's beyond error.

[dwivian]

Depends on his contract, if he had one, or on existing rules for the department. DC is rife with union rules that have spread out into whole divisions, making it horribly difficult to remove incompetence.

Which explains a whole lot more than I care to think about....