KHS boss's pay raise well-deserved
After reading The Californian's Nov. 13 article on Kern Health Systems CEO's pay raise ("What recession? Agency CEO gets fat raise), I thought good for her.
While we should all be cognizant of public pay and the relative appropriateness of such pay, it should also be judged in light of the organization's success. In most cases, any organization's success is due in part to its most important resource, its personnel.
In this case, it appears the organization, through its board and management, has developed a stable and successful business operating model, for the benefit of Kern County. Rather than acknowledging and rewarding their performance and success, the management and board of KHS are criticized for doing their job.
If they aren't doing their job and are not providing benefit, then say so. It appears to me KHS has a policy and mechanism in place to evaluate the performance and compensation of its management and attempts to follow that process.
Unfortunately, it appears to me there are numerous people, decision makers and competitors who are most likely jealous of KHS's success and want to discredit this organization using the pay issue.
I would think that there are many objective and subjective factors to evaluate whether KHS is meeting its mission. Let the management and the organization be judged on a performance basis, rather than the CEO's pay. If not, then I suspect in the long run KHS will be bled and drained of its personnel and financial resources and become just another bankrupt government agency.
GEOFFREY B. KING
Wasco
