Couple of late-arriving news items:
* MAYOR STODOLA DESERVES MORE MONEY TOO: The Little Rock City Board has begun discussing, at the mayor's suggestion, a pay raise for directors, who've made $12,000 since 1994. Something in the range of $18,000 would reflect inflation, the story goes. Now comes a memorandum on the pay of the mayor himself from City Attorney Tom Carpenter, prepared at the request of City Director Brad Cazort. The mayor makes $160,000, a rate in effect since 2007. The state statute governing mayoral pay says the mayor "shall be compensated with salary and benefits comparable to the salary and benefits to an official or employee of the
municipality with similar executive duties and powers," Carpenter's memo notes that Stodola's pay "ranges from approximately 12% beneath that of the City Manager, and is 23.9% beneath that of the executive director of Central Arkansas Water." Carpenter concluded:
The key is that the Mayor’s salary is currently double digit percentages less than any of the major municipal executive positions in the City. While the word “comparable,” is not exact, this significant of a difference is clearly something the Board should consider, and determine an appropriate adjustment to make.
* WINTHROP ROCKEFELLER INSTITUTE DIRECTOR DEPARTING: Roby Brock at Talk Business reports that Christy Carpenter is retiring May 31 after two years as CEO of the Winthrop Rockefeller Institute on Petit Jean. It's a University of Arkansas facility using the former governor's ranch and supported by his charitable trust as a conference center and site for educational programs. From her statement:
The remoteness of WRI’s location and its distance from my husband, Robert Walden’s, work in Los Angeles are major factors in my decision, as is my desire to dedicate my energies fully to working on national and global issues.Robert and I plan to split the remainder of this year between Los Angeles and Austin, Texas, where I will also devote time to reviewing the papers of my late mother, former White House aide Liz Carpenter, for permanent archiving at the LBJ Library.
Add me to the admirers of Walden's lead role in "Death of the Salesman"at the Rep. Nearly a full house for the show last night.