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Maricopa County health-care chief gets $125,000 raise

Betsey Bayless, Maricopa County health-care chief gets $125,000 raise

  Betsey Bayless was one of the Maricopa County Supervisors who voted to waste $1 billion+ of our tax dollars in corporate welfare to build Bank One Ballpark for Jerry Colangelo!!!

All the Maricopa Supervisors except Tom Rawles voted for the Phoenix Stadium. Tom Rawles likes to brag that he didn't vote for the Phoenix Stadium, but he conveniently forgets to say that he wanted the stadium build in Tempe, which was part of his district at the time.

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Maricopa County health-care chief gets $125,000 raise

By Michelle Ye Hee Lee The Republic | azcentral.com Fri Feb 8, 2013 11:46 PM

The leaders of Maricopa County’s public health-care system agreed to raise chief executive Betsey Bayless’ pay by 33 percent, bringing her salary to $500,000.

The system’s board of directors approved the $125,000 increase to Bayless’ base salary on a 3-2 vote Thursday.

Bayless was set to retire at the end of last year, after seven years in the position. The board voted Dec. 31 to extend her contract through the end of 2013 as it searches for her replacement.

The Maricopa Integrated Health System is a public hospital system that provides care for the Valley’s poor and uninsured. It is funded by federal and state health-care dollars and a special county levy paid by all county property-tax payers.

MIHS budgeted $3.5 million for market adjustments and merit raises for its employees in fiscal 2013. Bayless’ salary increase alone will consume one-quarter of the $500,000 the board had allocated this fiscal year to bring all employees’ pay in line with similar positions elsewhere.

The health-care system’s rank-and-file employees have received annual merit-based salary increases of no more than 2.9 percent since fiscal 2008.

Bayless said she did not request the raise and was not expecting it. She said she believes MIHS employees will understand that her salary has been comparatively low and that her replacement likely will be brought in at an even higher salary.

“Any salary information will show you that my salary is always the lowest of any (hospital) CEO currently in the entire state, even the little-bitty hospitals,” Bayless said. “On any measure, 375 (thousand dollars) is below market. So, do I feel undercompensated? I don’t know. But on any measure, it always comes in below market.”

Board Chairwoman Susan Gerard and board member Elbert Bicknell voted against the raise.

The board’s other three members — Mary Harden, Mark Dewane and Terence McMahon — approved the raise. The three in favor were newly elected in November.

The divided vote reflects a growing political rift on the board following a bitter campaign for its three open seats last fall. The new members voted as a bloc to extend Bayless’ term through 2013 against the wishes of the incumbents, who wanted just a six-month extension.

The new board members had the support of Michael Cowley, chairman of the Maricopa Health Foundation, a non-profit that raises money to support the health district.

Cowley said he solicited campaign support for those candidates to unseat incumbents whom he believed did not back Bayless. He has previously told The Arizona Republic that he believes “Betsey Bayless is the best thing that happened” to MIHS.

Harden and McMahon said they voted for the pay raise because a national search firm hired to find Bayless’ replacement set $500,000 as a minimum competitive salary for qualified candidates.

They also pointed to a 2009 report by the Arizona auditor general that found that Bayless was paid at least $232,500 less than median salaries that chief executives reported at other hospitals with similar net revenues. That comparison was based on “all types of hospitals and health systems,” not just public hospital systems.

The average salary of MIHS employees was projected to be about 8 percent below national averages for general and medical surgical hospitals, according to budget information presented in August 2012 as the board adopted its fiscal 2013 budget.

McMahon said he believed the pay raise was justified because “we’re trying to compensate her fairly.”

“If that’s the value of the position, I think that that’s what she should be paid,” he added. Harden and McMahon said Bayless deserves to be recognized for her seven years of contribution to MIHS, which was once a failing hospital hemorrhaging money.

“The lady works 70-plus hours a week. She’s on call 24/7. So, I think the job warrants it. She works very, very hard,” Dewane said.

He added that he hopes taxpayers will understand.

But the two board members who voted against Bayless’ salary increase said they opposed raising the pay of a CEO who is leaving in less than a year and working for a public hospital.

“It really rubs me the wrong way that we’re spending this type of money,” Bicknell said. “Don’t get me wrong. Betsey is a smart ... woman, and she’s done a hell of a job from 2005 to now. But a ($125,000) raise in a year when we give our janitors maybe a 1 percent raise or lay off people? It just doesn’t make sense.”

“I think having that kind of salary is totally inappropriate,” Gerard said.


Maricopa County health-care chief gets $125,000 raise

Source

Maricopa County health-care chief gets $125,000 raise

By Michelle Ye Hee Lee The Republic | azcentral.com Fri Feb 8, 2013 11:46 PM

The leaders of Maricopa County’s public health-care system agreed to raise chief executive Betsey Bayless’ pay by 33 percent, bringing her salary to $500,000.

The system’s board of directors approved the $125,000 increase to Bayless’ base salary on a 3-2 vote Thursday.

Bayless was set to retire at the end of last year, after seven years in the position. The board voted Dec. 31 to extend her contract through the end of 2013 as it searches for her replacement.

The Maricopa Integrated Health System is a public hospital system that provides care for the Valley’s poor and uninsured. It is funded by federal and state health-care dollars and a special county levy paid by all county property-tax payers.

MIHS budgeted $3.5 million for market adjustments and merit raises for its employees in fiscal 2013. Bayless’ salary increase alone will consume one-quarter of the $500,000 the board had allocated this fiscal year to bring all employees’ pay in line with similar positions elsewhere.

The health-care system’s rank-and-file employees have received annual merit-based salary increases of no more than 2.9 percent since fiscal 2008.

Bayless said she did not request the raise and was not expecting it. She said she believes MIHS employees will understand that her salary has been comparatively low and that her replacement likely will be brought in at an even higher salary.

“Any salary information will show you that my salary is always the lowest of any (hospital) CEO currently in the entire state, even the little-bitty hospitals,” Bayless said. “On any measure, 375 (thousand dollars) is below market. So, do I feel undercompensated? I don’t know. But on any measure, it always comes in below market.”

Board Chairwoman Susan Gerard and board member Elbert Bicknell voted against the raise.

The board’s other three members — Mary Harden, Mark Dewane and Terence McMahon — approved the raise. The three in favor were newly elected in November.

The divided vote reflects a growing political rift on the board following a bitter campaign for its three open seats last fall. The new members voted as a bloc to extend Bayless’ term through 2013 against the wishes of the incumbents, who wanted just a six-month extension.

The new board members had the support of Michael Cowley, chairman of the Maricopa Health Foundation, a non-profit that raises money to support the health district. Cowley said he solicited campaign support for those candidates to unseat incumbents whom he believed did not back Bayless. He has previously told The Arizona Republic that he believes “Betsey

Bayless is the best thing that happened” to MIHS.

Harden and McMahon said they voted for the pay raise because a national search firm hired to find Bayless’ replacement set $500,000 as a minimum competitive salary for qualified candidates.

They also pointed to a 2009 report by the Arizona auditor general that found that Bayless was paid at least $232,500 less than median salaries that chief executives reported at other hospitals with similar net revenues. That comparison was based on “all types of hospitals and health systems,” not just public hospital systems.

The average salary of MIHS employees was projected to be about 8 percent below national averages for general and medical surgical hospitals, according to budget information presented in August 2012 as the board adopted its fiscal 2013 budget.

McMahon said he believed the pay raise was justified because “we’re trying to compensate her fairly.” “If that’s the value of the position, I think that that’s what she should be paid,” he added.

Harden and McMahon said Bayless deserves to be recognized for her seven years of contribution to MIHS, which was once a failing hospital hemorrhaging money.

“The lady works 70-plus hours a week. She’s on call 24/7. So, I think the job warrants it. She works very, very hard,” Dewane said.

He added that he hopes taxpayers will understand.

But the two board members who voted against Bayless’ salary increase said they opposed raising the pay of a CEO who is leaving in less than a year and working for a public hospital.

“It really rubs me the wrong way that we’re spending this type of money,” Bicknell said. “Don’t get me wrong. Betsey is a smart ... woman, and she’s done a hell of a job from 2005 to now. But a ($125,000) raise in a year when we give our janitors maybe a 1 percent raise or lay off people? It just doesn’t make sense.”

“I think having that kind of salary is totally inappropriate,” Gerard said.


Betsey Bayless' $125,000 pay hike is unwise, unfair

Betsey Bayless was one of the Maricopa County Supervisors who voted to steal over $1 billion from us and use it to build Bank One BallPark for Jerry Congelego

Tom Rawles, was the only Maricopa County supervisor who voted against the stadium, but at the time he supported stealing our money and building the stadium in Tempe which was his district.

Source

Betsey Bayless' $125,000 pay hike is unwise, unfair

Charlie Leight | The Republic

By Editorial board The Republic | azcentral.com Tue Feb 12, 2013 7:57 AM

It’s true what they say about the job performance of Betsey Bayless at Maricopa Integrated Health System, the county’s once-forlorn public health-care system. We’ve said it ourselves. Many times.

Bayless in her seven years has done a splendid job. She has turned around an organization on the brink of collapse.

A true public servant, Bayless deserves the public’s undying gratitude for a job well done.

That sense of gratitude does not extend to a 33 percent raise on the cusp of retirement, increasing her pay to $500,000 from $375,000.

The $125,000 raise was approved by the five-member board of directors on a 3-2 vote. Bayless did not ask for the raise. And the board majority contends it will have to pay at least $500,000 to Bayless’ replacement. They told Republic reporter Michelle Ye Hee Lee that Bayless has been paid much less than the national average for chief executives of comparable hospital systems.

The board majority argued, further, that Bayless “works very, very hard.”

Very interesting, all of it. But no explanation alters the fact that a 33 percent raise awarded just before an executive retires is not a fair use of taxpayer dollars. Especially in an organization that continues to squeak by, paying nearly all its employees well below the national average. At least the move does not appear to affect Bayless’ pension, which will remain unchanged.

Bayless turned around the county’s public health system by making hard choices, most of them involving spending practices. This is one expense the eagle-eyed CEO would have red-lined. In a heartbeat.

 
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