$363,000 in Compensation
Friends have alerted me to a story in today's New York Post about a greedy AIDS executive director back east, and I have to say the tone of the article has strong echoes of my longstanding complaints against other directors at HIV groups and their excessive salaries.
A few points need to be made to flesh out the NY Post piece. The Long Island Association for AIDS Care's web site does not contain any of their IRS 990 filings. Their page for publications says to "see their full financial statements" you need to click the link that goes to the opening page of the GuideStar site.
LIAAC gets a small credit for that link, but they really need to come into the modern age and post their latest three IRS 990 filings on their site and make it very easy to find the 990s. However, I can understand why they're not keen to do that, what with the outrageous compensation package for their chief.
Click here to view LIAAC's most current IRS 990. No registration required.
With many AIDS Inc groups entering their spring fundraising season with annual walks and bike rides launching soon, I recommend all donors and participants in these activities first check out their favorite HIV organization's IRS 990 filing. Granted, lots of the groups are curbing executive salaries and cutting overhead before scaling back services to people with AIDS, and they should be lauded for these moves.
But too many such agencies obscure their public tax filings, or pay their executives way-more-than-decent salaries and we need to shed sunshine into all of the AIDS Inc groups and how they handle their public and private dollars.
Kudos to Kieran Crowley of the NY Post for breaking this story:
Dr. Gail Barouh, who heads the Long Island Association for AIDS Care, has been whining that Nassau County is cutting the group's public funding -- while she's pulling in what a top county official calls an "outrageous" six-figure salary.
Barouh lives in a $1.4 million mansion in exclusive Cold Spring Harbor and drives a 2010 Mercedes-Benz to her charity's Hauppauge headquarters.
In 2009, the latest year for which tax records are available, she received $244,132 in salary and $119,073 in other compensation from LIAAC for a grand total of $363,205 -- for a 35-hour work week. ...
But LIAAC board co-Chairman John Haigney said it's common for charities to spend the lion's share of their money on salaries. ...
(Photo of Gail Barouh appeared in the NY Post. Credit: Victor Alcorn.)
This is just the tip of the iceberg. Gail Barouh is CEO of three "non-profits" : LIAAC , BIASHELP, and LINKS. Her combined salary is 526,405 annually. I have worked in HIV care for many years on LI, and I can tell you LIAAC has a reputation of providing very little actual services. They also have a reputation of abusing their employees to an unheard of degree. Dr. Barouh forces her outreach workers to "sell tickets" to LIAAC fundraisers under threat of dismissal. So, when you see "funds raised" on their website, think "staff robbery." Someone really ought to shut them down. I promise you, no HIV positive people will be harmed as a result- they won't even notice!
ReplyDeletethanks very much for that anonymous tip. i've got a post up about the info you brought to my attention. read it here:
ReplyDeletehttp://mpetrelis.blogspot.com/2011/04/long-island-aids-exec-earns-526k-as-ceo.html
I agree completely with anonymous...she is a complete tyrant and needs to be dethroned. The HIV infected clients are aware of the mistreatment of the staff and the extreme disparities between upper management and other staff's salaries. Its a sad day when people are still allowed to misuse tax dollars...people cant afford to feed their families or put gas in their vehicles & this is allowed.What a same.
ReplyDeleteI'm in total agreeement with all the comments made on this site - especially since I have first hand experience of LIAAC's abuse with fund-raising. If you don't come up with the money for journals, tickets etc. you are out the door. I worked for Gail and saw first hand what goes on behind those closed doors. Little service to clients but big money into the CEO and her associates pockets. What is the town of Suffolk, the State of NY waiting for to audit them? Highway ROBBERY! Time to wake up and see where our tax dollars are going!
ReplyDelete