More scandals surface inside Smithsonian
For the past 18 months, Jacqueline Trescott and James V. Grimaldi of the Washington Post have covered the never-ending scandals that have plagued the Smithsonian, reporting for which they deserve the Pulitzer Prize. They've broken the story of the resignation in disgrace of the previous Secretary, the subsequent resignation in disgrace of the previous Deputy Secretary, and then the resignation in disgrace of the "CEO" of Smithsonian Business Ventures. Enough for one year? Not on your life!LinkToday, they bring us the story of W. Richard West, Jr., who as head of the National Museum of the American Indian, felt that the taxpayers should foot the bill for $250,000 in "first-class transportation and plush lodging in hotels around the world, including more than a dozen trips to Paris." (Paris being noted as one of the centers of American Indian culture!)
What struck me particularly hard was a quote from West buried deep inside the story. When asked about his $292,000 salary and his outrageous expenses, all West could manage to say was:
"I am grateful for at least the past year to have been the highest-paid director of a museum in the Smithsonian. Even at that status I have yet to earn even two-thirds of what I earned as a private attorney in my last year in private practice."
Jeez. What is amazing is not that one greedy lawyer tried to bilk the taxpayers, what is amazing is that the Regents of the Smithsonian (which includes 6 members of Congress, the Vice President, and the Chief Justice) let him get away with it without objection. It shows how deeply institutional the problems are in our attic.
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What is amazing is not that one greedy lawyer tried to bilk the taxpayers, what is amazing is that the Regents of the Smithsonian (which includes 6 members of Congress, the Vice President, and the Chief Justice) let him get away with it without objection.
What's worse is that no one is going to take them to task for it in any meaningful way. And this is small change compared to the rest of the crap they sign off on.
I sometimes feel guilty that I convinced my office to spring for good coffee, and expense it when I buy it for them. How do these people sleep at night?
There's actually a perfectly good reason that "Paris [is] noted as one of the centers of American Indian culture" -- not to justify the trips, mind you -- but the French kept very good records about the Indian tribes of the Louisiana, better records in a lot of cases than those of the English/Dutch colonies along the Atlantic coast.
(But, yah, this is pretty much outrageous).
surprising that 6 members of congress and dick cheney allowed someone to commit fraud/crime? What planet?
Robbing the store is the new public service.
It's ok, he was visiting Le Crazy Horse Saloon.
"I am grateful for at least the past year to have been the highest-paid director of a museum in the Smithsonian. Even at that status I have yet to earn even two-thirds of what I earned as a private attorney in my last year in private practice."
Wow, glad to see public service is alive and well.
Since I'm an underpaid teacher who could be making more doing something else, I'm going to start stealing kids' lunch money, selling what ever office supplies I can steal out of the closet, and work on my novel during class. When I get busted, I'm going to hire this d-bag to defend me.
Jasper @1
Actually what would really have been amazing was if that brunch had thought anything out of the ordinary about his pay and perks. Only the commoners (everyone else) must be reasonable about their income, i.e. a 'living wage' is TOO much.
Remember that for this crowd, bilking the taxpayer is not a bug but a feature!.
This has nothing to do with the Smithsonian and everything to do with this massively corrupt administration.
These are the kinds of people that Bush has been stuffing onto every nook and crany he can. Remember what "heck of a job" Brownie was doing as people were dying during Katrina? Getting a manicure.
I can't even get my boss to okay an upgrade for a new(ish) computer for me. The one I have now is 8 years old. Just getting staples requires material requisition forms in triplicate.
I could really learn from this guy.
...You know, the entire Smithsonian upper hierarchy has been a clusterfrack since the Enola Gay incident of '95. If they're not setting up exhibits that present a false revisionist's warped view of history - i.e., the *US* caused the war with Japan and the Jap sneak attack was justified - they're wasting $$$$ on their own sorry asses rather than on preserving and restoring artifacts of history. If any one aerospace museum had 1/100th of the bucks these turds wasted on themselves, they could do far more with the funds by putting it where it belongs!
I have a lot of complaints about business/work culture here in Japan, but there is one thing that I think we absolutely must embrace in our businesses if we wish our middle-class-based society to survive: The money gets spread around. The salary for the guy at the top is high, but it's not "shows up on the corporate expenses pie chart"-high. And the guy below him makes almost as much, and the guy below him, and below him, and below him.
When people start at a job here, they get paid peanuts. Literally. Every month they are given a bag of peanuts, which they are to eat at their desks while they fill out forms in triplicate by hand for some reason...
...Oops, I was supposed to be praising the system. Let me back up...
Starting salary is awful, but it goes up with tenure and responsibility. Few people get rich; everyone makes money. It's nice to know that the kid working as a carpenter's apprentice is making a fair wage (especially since he lives with his parents, since he dropped out of school at 15), and that if he keeps working, he'll be middle-class by his 40s at the latest, and will probably be able to send his kids to college if they want to go. Japanese people often say "everyone in Japan is middle class," and it is, of course, nonsense, but it is a lot closer to the truth than it is in the US, where it seems to be getting worse every year.
The entire reason for the illegal immigrant labor problem is that the businesses that use them (agriculture, construction, etc.) just cannot get locals to work as well for what they can pay to remain competitive. Illegal immigrants are incredible employees, by all accounts I have ever heard, and are available at a price business owners can afford.
And what of the locals who used to do jobs like this? They're working at Wal-Mart, on food stamps, or they're just collecting welfare. That is a better proposition than working their butts off for virtually nothing (especially since they'll actually be paying taxes).
If we keep allowing all this money to just go into the super-rich black hole (where it spawns more money in the form of investments), we kill the middle class, and force many of our people into poverty. And poor people tend not to really care that much about society, because they have no stake in it, and resent it. They have no power and nothing to lose and so they cause problems. People with good food and comfy houses and the hope for a future that is even more comfy are more well-behaved. A society with smaller class differences is one where people see more people as their peers--their brethren. It makes for a more peaceful, productive society.
We act like ridiculous uses of funds such as these are just an affront to decency and to the shareholders, but it's worse than that: It directly contributes to the impoverishment of society and the devolution of our nation.
Money does not trickle down. The suggestion is insane. It trickles up.
Argle bargle blegh. All other races are inferior to the Turkmen. Cory Doctorow's unicorn fetish is an open secret among the patrons of the opium dens he frequents.
I am grateful to be among the most highly compensated non-employee commenters in Boing Boing history, and although my comments are nonsensical, offensive, and libelous, I am making literally infinitely less money for commenting here than I did last year as a teaching assistant.
Here you see the inherent problem with not only the Bush administration but all conservative business types who end up in government. They A) cut their teeth in the world where CEOs can take advantage of stockholders and co-opted boards; and B) they don't believe government service has value.
The next time you here someone complain that government is the problem, make sure to put that person's name down in the list of people who should never be elected to govern.
Here you see the inherent problem with not only the Bush administration but all conservative business types who end up in government. They A) cut their teeth in the world where CEOs can take advantage of stockholders and co-opted boards; and B) they don't believe government service has value.
The next time you hear someone complain that government is the problem, make sure to put that person's name down in the list of people who should never be elected to govern.
From time to time I work in Tanzania. Like all African countries (and the majority of countries around the world) it's deeply corrupt. Expensive foreign travel is one of the least offensive ways in which senior Tanzanian ministers and civil servants are corrupt. There are many other similarities between the USA and Tanzania with regards to corruption.
I asked a Tanzanian friend of mine what he's think of a president who travelled around in a taxi, only traveled overseas when he needed to and then via scheduled flights (the actual pres. bought himself a nice $15m personal jet - this in the 4th poorest country in the world), didn't steal public money from the national bank, didn't collude with his cronies to set up phantom companies to suck yet more money from the desperately poor of Tanzania etc.
My friend said 'I think he'd be a fool'. Perhaps most Americans feel like my friend. In the same way that they feel that they could, just possibly, be Bill Gates they think that power is there as a kind of prize. They'd do the same if they got there.
Maybe that's why their isn't more of an outcry about this sort of thing. I know that that if it happened here in the UK the press would be all over it and there would be instant demands for the resignation of those who let this happen. Not that we're perfect, obviously, but we haven't got around to tolerating this kind of obscene behaviour.
"I am grateful for at least the past year to have been the highest-paid director of a museum in the Smithsonian. Even at that status I have yet to earn even two-thirds of what I earned as a private attorney in my last year in private practice."
Worst. Human. Ever.
Well, not exactly, but you see what I'm shooting for there.
Seven comments, all identical, within a couple of hours from "Fark" here. Nice. Please delete them, and him, ASAP.
Do I smell BushCo here?
The real question is: Are there _any_ Team Bush members who are not corrupt? It seems like you have to prove you are corrupt before they let you join. It's an interesting strategy for, ahem, governing but I guess it affords them a measure of protection.
Why wouldn't this guy be fair game not only for immediate dismissal but for criminal prosecution, and for censure by the bar association ethics committee? If we do not have laws on the books related to misuse of public funds that would support stripping this guy of every penny he has and throwing him in the slammer, then we certainly should. The same would apply to his supervisor(s), whoever they are these days. (I wonder if they know who they are these days.)
I am curious. How many people do you know who make $300k/year fly coach? Is it none?
Government jobs will NEVER pay the same as comperable private industry jobs. Do you think people take federal jobs just out of patriotism? They do it because it will pay the bills. For the government to compete with private industry to attract competant people, they SHOULD be allowed to provide perks, like first-class flights, to their top executives. Now if the Smithsonian's night security manager was flying first class, that's a different issue.
This guy is a tool. In fairness to the Smithsonian, they totally reformed their compensation, hiring and governance practices a few months ago -- so this particular scandal reflects a problem that should have been fixed.
I have no respect for people who work for charities and then argue they should get paid like investment bankers. It ain't the same, especially when it's mostly taxpayer money.
@20
Well, since you ask try this entry, Cheap Billionaires
As for the other, 'Boo - f'ing - Hoo! Poor little rich man!' If he wanted the big bucks he could have stayed in private industry. Or he could have petitioned Congress to raise his salary. (I rather doubt he is on any GS schedule.)
When I read the initial headlines, I was ready to hang this guy out to dry, but as I read the article, it paints a more nuanced portrait. Certainly the West and the Smithsonian have no concept of frugality; but according to the article, much of the travel was related to promotion of museums, indigenous cultural arts, etc. "Edward Able Jr., former president of AAM, said West was "in great demand by the international museums" on how to preserve and present the cultures of indigenous peoples." Clearly the guy had some experience to share and others wanted to hear. I agree his expenses were outrageous, but I'd hate to knee-jerk in the opposite direction, and see the Smithsonian do no outreach whatsoever. Somehow there needs to be more oversight to allow legitimate networking without the big record-industry excesses.
What tribe is he from??
@21
So you would rather the best people stay in private industry so that buffoons can continue to run government agencies(like the DMV, passport office, immigration services, etc)?
Not having the same salary is understood but being treated like an actual executive shouldn't be out of the question.
Sleze,
I think the issue is not so much the perks as the fact that he never went to the office or did any work. The idea that you need to pay big bucks to get top personnel only works when you actually get value for your money. Please refer to Michael Ovitz as an example. He ran Disney into the ground in 16 months and got paid one hundred thirty eight million dollars for it. When execs are hugely productive, people don't really complain that much about them being overpaid.
Hmmm, I'm sure I'll be attacked mercilessly for this, but didn't he raise 130 million for the museum? Wasn't the $250,000 for travel over four years? Didn't he visit something like 30 countries? I was at the museum this weekend and it was pretty nice (yes, my great grandfather was Kaddohadacha - not sure what his ancestry is). Incidentally I heard at least three families speaking french (most likely Quebecois), along with Chinese, another I coudn't identify but which sounded slavic. Very diverse crowd on Xmas eve. I truely believe museums are necessary to educate, but I fear articles like this just inflame the right wing conservatives who want to write off the whole system (like completely de-funding public arts funding because someone put jesus in a bottle of piss). I mean, who dedicates their life to muckraking the SMITHSONIAN? At a time like this when companies like KBR, BlackWater and Haliburton are raping the country for billions in no-bid contracts? Is this just a pernicious, self-serving distraction? Just a thought.
#28,
Not much billygoat traffic on the bridge today?
#29
want some pie?
I'm not buying the excuses. Why did West take a cut in pay to work for the Smithsonian? Because being an attorney is a lot more boring and aggravating than traveling first-class to prime destinations to talk about museum presentations of aboriginal culture.
I'd bet the rent that most of the lower-level employees of that museum are making substantially less than their talent, education, and experience could command in the job market. I'd further bet that the reason they're taking lower wages is so that they can work for a top-notch museum in a field they love.
The answer to Richard West is obvious: if it's more important to him to have the lifestyle of a high-priced lawyer, let him go back to doing the work of one.
Wassabicracka, it doesn't sound like people who know the institution think it's been getting its money's worth.
#30,
I like pie!!!!
I know nothing about this particular situation, the guy could be a total loser, but I love the irony of people complaining about "over paid" government employees. These people frequently manage budgets (or P&Ls) that, in the private sector, would command salaries 2-4x what the government pays. Then, when these people turn out to be poor managers (you tend to get what you pay for), everyone complains about terrible government services. You can't have it both ways, i.e. you get what you pay for.
Double irony is that most of the people complaining have absolutely no clue how hard it is to actually run, in this case, a 345 person organization with a $36mm budget and no appreciation for the $$$ at risk.
whenever i hear about somebody getting paid well for a cool job i dont usually think oh that b*****d how dare he i think d**n i wish i got paid that much to have a cool job but then again they were probably sour anyway
I can appreciate your perspective Mrs. Hayden, and if I understand your statements correctly then I can agree with all of them. Perhaps the only caveat I have might be that, for those who 'know the institution' and don't think it's getting it's money's worth, the Washington Post is a very nice place to have laundry aired. When its picked up ad hominem by CNN it inflates the relevance beyond the original (perhaps legitimate) intent. Now Bush Limbaugh, Bill O'Really?, and G. Gordon Lippy can help out these insiders by railing on what a waste museums are for the next week (witness comments in the WaPo forums). Bottom line is that you're right, there is probably a better person for the job.
-You're site is pretty cool, btw, putting it on my radar.
Y'know...a cynical person would look at this mess and think that these people were put in place with the expressed intent to destroy the good name of the Smithsonian and to legitimize it's privatization.