Senator Alan Hayes,
R- Umatilla, soon to be out of a legislative job it appears (thank goodness) is vying to become president of Lake-Sumter State College.
“I have the
legislative experience and contacts through the legislature and the entire
business community, and I really think I could guide the college to a bright
future,” he said. “I feel confident I can win the trust and the appreciation of
the faculty.”
This is a load of
you-know-what.
He or she who feels inclined to
believe this load is a fool. Hayes just wants to do what every
ex-elected official of T-Town hopes to do one day as they’re termed out, land a job as president of a community college because they find it
"rewarding."
Yes, very rewarding, as in hundreds
of thousands of dollars rewarding!
The Tampa
Bay Business Journal: "A recent report from the Florida Office of the Chief
Inspector General found that the president of St. Petersburg College had the
largest total compensation package, $449,031, out of the five colleges in the
Tampa Bay area. In fact, the base
salary, $330,000, is about the same as average total compensation at
$350,403."
What? How can that
be? How about other community colleges?
Look at this:
Reported by the
Florida college presidents' base
salary vs. total compensation
Total
compensation
|
2012-2013
Base Salary
|
|
St. Petersburg College
|
$449,031
|
$330,000
|
State College of Florida,
Manatee-Sarasota (former president)
|
$363,168
|
$284,166
|
Hillsborough Community College
|
$315,133
|
$234,600
|
Pasco-Hernando Community College
|
$309,726
|
$214,469
|
Alan Hayes is no different from probably dozens of
other legislator hacks who have jumped into one of these positions as a reward
from acollege board for having “helped” them while in the legislature.
What will be interesting is how the board treats his
application. The position requires at least
a modicum of academic experience. If
they waive it and choose him over other much more qualified candidates, we’ll
know the story.
It’s a pathetic story and if it happens, both he and
the institution should be ashamed.
-Sandspur
Sonny: this should not be too surprising. It seems to be the way the state University/College system works. Look at Florida State University; they just hired John Thrasher right out of the Florida Senate for their President this past year. The University of South Florida hired former legislator and Commissioner of Education Betty Castor as their President some years ago, and St. Johns River State College hired former State Representative Joe Pickens as their President. There may be others out there that I am not familiar with. The schools seem to think that they need these guys with heavy-duty connections to get them funding and protect them from legislative interference. During my time as a student at USF (South Florida), I witnessed two attempts by the state legislature to (1) eliminate lower level (Freshman and Sophomore) classes at USF, and later (2) eliminate graduate programs at USF, under the guise of "saving taxpayer funds." At that time, the vast majority of the members of the legislature (House and Senate) were alumni of the University of Florida and FSU. I think we have seen at least a couple of bungled attempts by our idiot Governor/CEO to meddle with the University system to try to exert more control from Tallahassee, similar to what has been done with the Water Management Districts. So far it doesn't look like those have succeeded, but we'll have to see what happens over the next two years of misery. It's obvious that the only school that can't get away with this idea of hiring a political "gun" is the state's "flagship" University; Florida. They have to hire a guy with at least some academic credentials to maintain some semblance of credibility.
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