United way? (Charlotte, Henderson, Graham: appointed, limo, attorney)

[mkforu]

For all you newcomers to the Charlotte area, here is your front-row seat to the typical ack-bassward politics that go on in Mecklenburg County. This is almost as bad as the Mackey scandal last year. So grab some popcorn and hold onto your seats Whoohoo. Here is a recap as to my understanding:

* The Carolinas CEO salary and retirements benefits are made public. Her salary is almost 1/2 million per year, with a retirement contribution of $108K per year, but then they decided to up it to 800K. She is I believe 62 years old. I have nothing personal against this CEO but it is after all a non-profit charity.
* The public voiced their strong disapproval at this high compensation package (good for the public to voice their opinion).
* She hires a lawyer but does not disclose why.
* The Board, who approved this compensation package in the first place, now says they made a mistake so they are going to fire her and, look, here is the guy who will take her place right away. Oh, by the way, we are still going to pay her $299K a year for the next two years even though we fired her.
Talk about a hefty severance package!!!! I noticed that there are a few bankers and lawyers on the Board of the Carolinas UW.
Stay tuned........

[littlelou]

I have had personal issues with the United Way for years. My niece was born with sever hearing loss in both ears. My sister as a single parent, struggled to keep food on the table and a roof over their heads, trying not to take public assistance. She contacted the United Way to see if they could put her in touch with someone who could assist with hearing aids and was told, that's why you work, to have insurance to cover that. Well, this chapped a lot of people at my sisters work. they pooled their resources and contacted a private agency in Atlanta that was able to help her out and continued to assist them with the aids until she was 18.

Strike one.

Move forward a few years, and I'm at my first 'real' job....one where we were handed 'pledge' sheets, with our "donation" pre-filled by the HR department. I asked for 'specified" donation forms, to donate to a specific charity and was told, "we don't do that" , 15 minutes later in the "informational" presentation, what do I hear "specified" donations are encouraged, speak with your "leader" or UW rep. They didn't know anything about it, so I contacted the head office and got my forms.

strike two

Donated regularly, 4 years. Start reading the "where your donations go" brochure and notice Boy Scouts of Georgia got 2.5 times the 'donations" that Girl Scouts got. Wondered why, asked the UW rep, she didn't know but suggested I call the office. So I did. And the entire office heard me scream. I was told by the MORON on the other end of the phone, that Girl Scouts didnt' need the $$$ as much as Boy Scouts. (A) most Boy Scouts are single parent families, as the mothers need a male influence in their sons lives and Boy Scouts is that. (B) Girl Scouts sells all those cookies and that funds all their needs. I exploded knowing many single moms who helped out their daughters troops so they could have the GS experience. Boy Scouts sell popcorn, christmas wreaths, etc etc. I couldn't believe the stupidity. My donations stopped right there and over 1/2 my department decided to take a stand and not donate. We went to the meeting, listened to the BS and told HR they wouldn't be getting the 100% participation this year. THen we went to the President of the company and told him of our stand. That was the last year United Way was allowed in that office for donations.

strike three

Several years later I was working for a local Bank who offered a paid day off with a donation of XXX per year. I spoke my piece and declined the day off. during the 4 years I worked there, more and more people dropped their donations.


I am appalled and disgusted with the crap that is going on here in Charlotte. The first story I heard mentioned a fact that will stick with me. The Charlotte United Way collected $ 41,000,000, last year and over $ 1 million of that went for the salary and retirement of the President. Sorry, that's not non-profit in my book.

[anifani821]

Actually, what was paid to the CEO this last year is equal to the entire amount collected/donated from the largest employer involved in the UW fund drive. Pretty amazing, huh?

[XcapefromNJ]

Why on earth is she being fired? For being paid too much? The initial response to the outcry regarding her lavish pay package (which was mainly catch up payments to her retirement plan) was that she deserved the money because she did such a great job. Why is SHE getting fired? At huge additional expense to United Way. Seems to me it is the board that authorized her pay package that should be replaced.

[anifani821]

Originally Posted by XcapefromNJ

Why on earth is she being fired? For being paid too much? The initial response to the outcry regarding her lavish pay package (which was mainly catch up payments to her retirement plan) was that she deserved the money because she did such a great job. Why is SHE getting fired? At huge additional expense to United Way. Seems to me it is the board that authorized her pay package that should be replaced.

You are entirely correct. The CEO has not engaged in anything that appears to be negligent. The Board, however, are evidently clueless. To fire her is totally irresponsible! They created this debacle!!! The Board should be replaced. Everyone should resign.

Like I said earlier - all the CEO did was accept the salary and bennies she was offered. Who wouldn't have accepted it? LOL!!! The Board members are out of touch w/ the public, wh/ is not surprising, seeing as how a large chunk of them are in the financial sector. And we all know the mess going on in this country's financial sector.

THE BOARD SHOULD RESIGN.

[Whytewulf]

First, I think there is more to this story than is being told, which is why she is being asked to resign with her contracted salary. We may never know, but I bet there is some silence being purchased here.

Second, I think the board should have said this. "Oops, you're right, after reviewing our records and public opinion, we need to reevaluate how we pay our CEO's across United Way. We have contract with Ms. King and will complete that contract as required and she will continue to perform her duties in such a matter as comenserate with the job/contract/salary. When her contract is up, we will look at the position and all available candidates. We forsee this position in 2011 having a much lower salary than in 2008. Please forgive our ignorance in this situation, as a Public organization, we may have have had our corporate blinders on, in this case we erred and will work to correct it the msot feasible manner."

Done, I would have been yep, you screwed up, lets move on.

[anifani821]

Originally Posted by Whytewulf

First, I think there is more to this story than is being told, which is why she is being asked to resign with her contracted salary. We may never know, but I bet there is some silence being purchased here.

Second, I think the board should have said this. "Oops, you're right, after reviewing our records and public opinion, we need to reevaluate how we pay our CEO's across United Way. We have contract with Ms. King and will complete that contract as required and she will continue to perform her duties in such a matter as comenserate with the job/contract/salary. When her contract is up, we will look at the position and all available candidates. We forsee this position in 2011 having a much lower salary than in 2008. Please forgive our ignorance in this situation, as a Public organization, we may have have had our corporate blinders on, in this case we erred and will work to correct it the msot feasible manner."

Done, I would have been yep, you screwed up, lets move on.

Brilliant solution. I totally agree. Your PR statement read a lot better than the Board's official spin!!! And yes, I believe the public would have been - okay - let's move on . . .

As for buying some silence, well . . . I wonder. I mean - Ms. Pace has engaged an attorney (and one w/ a reputation for being a bulldog). Seems to me she is gonna fight her termination, despite their honoring her contract by continuing to send her a big check every month.

[Carolina Blue]

It’s hard to feel sorry for anyone who gets paid that amount of money. But the fact is, this lady did nothing wrong. In fact, she did everything right. She was successful at her job, and politely took the money her superiors said they thought she deserved. The United Way has royally screwed this up. They were so concerned about public outcry regarding her salary, now they’re going to have to deal with the public outcry I guarantee you will come from those who feel she’s being wrongly let go. The way to go would have been to fire some board members, if not all of them. And I hate the thought of this turning into another “Mackey” situation, but the stupid board opened up that possibility when they decided to fire her.

[SteveHof]

I disagree Whytewulf; this is not pardonable when we are talking about donor dollars to charitable non-profits, especially under the coercive methods described in some of the posts here. It's as severe as embezzling from your church.

This debate about her compensation has been going of for years, and the board responded by throwing another $1.2 million at her, and for no particular reason. She's retiring in a few years, so she probably made no threat to quit.

UW never learns. They have 20 years of abusive incidents like this nationally. They should not be forgiven, no matter what they say. Case in point: news reports today indicate that there will be no changes in the executive committee.

The defect in UW lies with the ivory tower of corporate executive board members who have little sense of how critical every donor dollar is to a recipient. Although this is the mode at every UW agency, it's particularly pervasive in Charlotte because we trust our corporate community more than most other cities.

There are many alternatives to community and workplace giving available now, and Charlotte has a time-sensitive opportunity to foster real change as a response to this fiasco. There are entities that do most of what UW does for no charge. Other cities nationwide are demanding more by rejecting UW as the steward for community and workplace giving. Learn more...

http://www.theuntiedway.org/index.asp

http://www.independentcharities.org/

Originally Posted by Whytewulf

First, I think there is more to this story than is being told, which is why she is being asked to resign with her contracted salary. We may never know, but I bet there is some silence being purchased here.

Second, I think the board should have said this. "Oops, you're right, after reviewing our records and public opinion, we need to reevaluate how we pay our CEO's across United Way. We have contract with Ms. King and will complete that contract as required and she will continue to perform her duties in such a matter as comenserate with the job/contract/salary. When her contract is up, we will look at the position and all available candidates. We forsee this position in 2011 having a much lower salary than in 2008. Please forgive our ignorance in this situation, as a Public organization, we may have have had our corporate blinders on, in this case we erred and will work to correct it the msot feasible manner."

Done, I would have been yep, you screwed up, lets move on.

[anifani821]

Hi, Steve!

You make some really good points. I especially like your description of the "Ivory tower" mentality of the Board members. Well put and I agree with you.