Overpaid and well-connected, Betsy gets her contract renewed
With a $375,000 yearly salary, Betsey Bayless, as CEO of Maricopa County’s public health care system, earns nearly four times more than Gov. Napolitano at $95,000.
The $217,400 salary of the chief justice of the United States Supreme Court pales in comparison.
Only the President of the United States, whose base salary tops out at $400,000 a year, earns more.
No wonder she’s smiling.
May 29, 2008 at 7:22 pm
But the President doesn’t have the ever-reliable Warren Whitney, Bayless’s long-time second-in-command, who has traveled with her from one government assignment to another, doing a great deal of the work.
May 29, 2008 at 8:04 pm
I wish this was a joke, but I can see from following the links that it isn’t. Isn’t the county hospital steeped in financial difficulties? Wasn’t Bayless accused of being in over her head? The national-accreditation organization reviewing her performance found significant flaws with Maricopa Integrated Health System last year. What does it take to budge a deeply entrenched, out of office politician ?
The article the Republic ran on her last month had a statement from her in which she admitted lacking credentials for the job.
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2008/04/06/20080406bayless0406.html
So why is receiving nearly as much pay as the president of the United States and more than the US Supreme Court Chief Justice? Does this make sense to anyone? It sure doesn’t to me.
May 29, 2008 at 10:57 pm
Who the hell is responsible for this travesty? The Board Of Supervisors? What the hell is going on here? This is an abomination of injustice. This has got to be the old buddy network pay system. Are not some of these Board of Supervisor turkeys up to be reelected this year. Seems to me they should be looking for a new job.
May 29, 2008 at 11:19 pm
At long last Betsey, have you no shame. Do you really think that what you do is worth that much money? There is something fishy going on here. It sure stinks to high heaven. Who would investigate such a mess? Unqualified, buddy of the Board of Supervisors getting paid an outrageous sum of money while her performance has been called into question.
May 30, 2008 at 9:00 am
A salary of this amount being paid to a woman who is clearly out of her league is obscene. By her own admission, she is ill-equipped for the job. This is not a task for someone requiring training wheels.
When her ineptness was being investigated recently, these were her own word (from the Arizona Republic article http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2008/04/06/200804060406.html ):
“I told the board, I am a government manager, I am not a health-care manager. I am who I am. ‘ I said, ‘I will have to have a health-care backup, people with health-care experience.’”
Question: If she needs experienced people doing her work, why does she command the out-of-bounds salary?
And more from the newspaper article:
Health-care experts and recruiters who specialize in executive searches for hospitals across the U.S. say it is highly unusual to put at the helm someone who lacks extensive health-care experience.
“The vast majority have worked in a hospital,” said Thomas Dolan, president and CEO of American College of Healthcare Executives, a professional society of more than 30,000 executives who lead hospitals, health-care systems and other health-care organizations.
“Not many people walk right into a hospital CEO job having never worked in a hospital. They need health-care skills, they need to understand the patient relationship, the professional relationships, they have to have a certain understanding of medical processes.”
Normally, there is no candidate who understands all of the nuances of a health-care organization, the experts said, but organizations the size of MIHS typically search for high-level administrators who have had prior experience operating hospitals, and have master’s degree in health administration or public health.
May 30, 2008 at 11:30 am
This is what happens when the VIP contacts in your little black book outweigh your credentials. But nothing explains how this salary, that exceeds that of the US Supreme Court Chief Justice, could ever be justified. This is a prime example of government bureaucracy at its worst. As I recall, she was initially appointed to most–if not all– of the government posts she has held. When she ran for governor, she lost in the primary.
May 30, 2008 at 7:05 pm
Outrageous.