I was stunned, as you probably will also be, to read this just a few minutes ago, so I wanted to note a man for doing a very good thing.
The superintendent of the Fresno County (California) Office of Education wanted to do something to help his impoverished district in these times of tight budgets.
He had his own salary reduced by $218,000 per year.
Larry Powell said that he came to realize that the school and students in his district needed the money more than he did.
He and his wife looked at their finances and figured out what they would need from the district as salary to live on, when combined with other income.
That income needed was $31,000, which is a far cry from the $250,000 he had been making.
ABC has the story.
Powell went before the board and resigned his position, with them hiring him back for the three years remaining on his contract.
"It's a unique arrangement that I'm in and it allows me to give something back to the community in a tangible way and I don't think of it as being a hero at all. It was a perfect opportunity to do something where the public benefits, the taxpayer benefits…the taxpayer saves between $150,000 and $160,000 in reduced costs, the county receives $830,000."
"Fresno…has been labeled the Appalachia of the West. We're like a bar bell, we have extreme wealth and extreme poverty…there's no shortage of need locally," he said.
This is a great example of public responsibility. I hope that this story is widely seen.
Powell's biography is here.
I cannot quickly find an email address, but the district phone number is (559) 265-3000, if anybody wants to call and leave a nice message.
I'm realistic enough that I don't expect a lot of other public officials, or business leaders, to emulate this.
But wouldn't it be nice if they did?