One Samuel Downing, "President and CEO" of a public hospital in Salinas, California, in which state thousands of Vietnam vets and others scratch a living collecting aluminum beer cans and live under bridges, was reported by the LAT today to have received a "supplemental payment" two years ago of $3 million to help him cope with the humiliation of dealing with his $668k a year salary. Well, he is now retiring and will get another $900k on top of his $150k a year pension. Dowming's response? "I believe I deserve it."
Now Ned would like to reiterate that this is a public hospital in California, a state dealing with massive unemployment, a housing crisis, a crisis in Medicaid funding (Ned rejects the idea that the crisis in Medicaid is in any way related to exorbitant salaries of those in the medical profession, by the way, naturally), and a breakdown in basic services such that some areas will soon begin to look like a poor area in Mumbai India. But the "Board of Directors" of the hospital say they "have to" pay such outlandish compensation or they won't be able to "attract the best administrators."
Ned suggests they could find someone suitable by randomly selecting a name from the Salinas phone book.
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