Settling it
Published February 21, 2014
by Carter Wrenn, Talking About Politics, February 20, 2014.
John Drescher down at the News and Observer hit the nail on the head last week when he wrote: ‘Steve Beam needs a boss.’
What’s happened to Mr. Beam (the Director of the Raleigh Housing Authority) isn’t unusual. He’s got a government job and a political board with political goals. No one spends his own money. No one pays for his mistakes. Instead the bills land on the taxpayers’ doorstep.
That’s one glitch. Here’s another: After over a decade in office, like Billy Ray Hall of the Rural Center, Mr. Beam runs his board – it doesn’t run him. He takes eleven weeks of vacation a year – which is more than Mr. Hall. State auditors reported to Hall’s board that his $221,000 salary was ‘unreasonable’ – Mr. Beam makes $280,000 and his board thinks that imminently reasonable.
John Drescher’s point is simple: Mr. Beam needs a boss – and he suggests Beam’s boss ought to be Raleigh’s City Manager.
That would be a step in the right direction. But it may come up a bit short. So why not get the question out of the hands of the bureaucrats and politicians entirely. And put it to a vote. Let’s hold a simple referendum on the ballot this fall and let voters decide: Should Raleigh’s Housing Authority Director earn $280,000 a year and receive eleven weeks vacation?
That should settle it.
