SIX-FIGURE BUREAUCRATS GET SIX-FIGURE BONUSES …
By FITSNEWS || Poor South Carolina retirees … they keep getting lumps of coal in their stockings while the bureaucrats administering their underperforming pension fund keep “rewarding” themselves with massive bonuses (in addition to their already inflated salaries).
That trend continued again this year …
According to documents filed with the S.C. Budget and Control Board, pension fund bureaucrats have received another round of exorbitant one-time bonus payments on top of their existing compensation packages.
And the amounts are enough to make those who have to earn an honest living blow a gasket …
Hershel Harper, the fund’s chief investment officer, got a $200,000 bonus on top of his $306,000 salary. Think that’s insane? Last year Harper got a $300,000 bonus on top of his $300,000 salary. David Phillips? He got a $130,000 bonus on top of his $239,700 salary. Geoffrey Berg? He got $140,000 in addition to his $168,300 salary.
All told, more than $1 million in bonus payments were doled out …
Who got what?
Take a look …
NAME – Salary (BONUS) TOTAL
HERSHEL HARPER – $300,000 – $200,000.00 – $506,000.00
DAVID PHILLIPS – $239,700.00 – $130,000.00 – $369,700.00
MICHAEL HITCHCOCK – $230,000.00 – $0.00 – $230,000.00
ROBERT FEINSTEIN – $223,524.00 – $0.00 – $223,524.00
ANDREW CHERNICK – $171,000.00 – $0.00 – $171,000.00
GEOFFREY BERG – $168,300.00 – $140,000.00 – $308,300.00
BETTY BURN – $149,000.00 – $0.00 – $149,000.00
ADAM JORDAN – $147,900.00 – $35,000.00 – $182,900.00
MONICA HOUSTON – $145,860.00 – $0.00 – $145,860.00
SCOTT FORREST – $132,600.00 – $0.00 -$132,600.00
JON RYCHENER – $132,600.00 – $0.00 – $132,600.00
WEIYI NING – $128,000.00 – $82,000.00 – $210,000.00
ERIC ROVELLI – $127,500.00 – $55,000.00 – $182,500.00
LOUIS DARMSTADTER – $122,400.00 – $50,000.00 – $172,400.00
JAMES MANNING – $117,300.00 – $0.00 – $117,300.00
MICHAEL ADDY – $114,240.00 – $32,500.00 – $146,740.00
DANIEL VARAT – $112,200.00 – $0.00 – $112,200.00
BRYAN MOORE – $112,200.00 – $75,000.00 – $187,200.00
JOHN FARMER – $112,000.00 – $0.00 – $112,000.00
DOUGLAS LYBRAND – $110,959.00 – $6,000.00 – $116,959.00
DELORES DITTY – $107,100.00 $ 0.00 – $107,100.00
MARION GOLDSMITH – $99,000.00 $ 0.00 – $99,000.00
STEPHEN MARINO – $81,600.00 – $53,000.00 – $134,600.00
LORELEI GRAYE – $81,600.00 – $0.00 – $81,600.00
DAVID KING – $80,000.00 – $0.00 – $80,000.00
BRENDA GADSON – $80,000.00 – $0.00 – $80,000.00
ASHLI ASLIN – $79,560.00 – $10,000.00 – $89,560.00
JAMES WINGO – $78,000.00 – $32,000.00 – $110,000.00
BRIAN WHEELER – $76,500.00 $0.00 – $76,500.00
JONATHAN BOYD – $73,440.00 – $45,000.00 – $118,440.00
LORRIE SMITH – $71,345.00 – $0.00 – $71,345.00
SHARI WAITES – $69,360.00 – $20,000.00 – $89,360.00
JOSHUA GREENE – $68,000.00 – $0.00 – $68,000.00
JUSTIN YOUNG – $66,300.00 – $28,500.00 – $94,800.00
JORDAN DORCHUCK – $62,000.00 – $0.00 – $62,000.00
WILBURN CAMPBELL II – $61,200.00 – $11,000.00 – $72,200.00
KATHLEEN SHEALY – $59,825.00 – $0.00 – $59,825.00
BRITTANY STOREY – $52,000.00 – $0.00 – $52,000.00
Wow …
A couple things to bear in mind: First, as FITS readers are well aware income levels in South Carolina have plummeted in recent years. Our state ranked No. 44 nationally last year – with the average household bringing in $44,163. In other words every single person on this list makes more than that individually (not counting their benefits). In fact, twenty-six of the thirty-eight people on this list make more than twice that amount individually (again, not counting benefits).
Also bear in mind that these “bonus” payments are in addition to raises already doled out to these employees.
And for what? Running one of the nation’s most expensive, worst-performing pension funds?
Yup.
S.C. Treasurer Curtis Loftis has consistently opposed these bonuses – as well as the shameless self-serving behavior of the fund’s corrupt commissioners, led by Hugh Leatherman appointee Reynolds Williams.
Has governor Nikki Haley had his back? Hell no …
In fact her appointee to the S.C. Retirement System Investment Commission (SCRSIC) led an effort to censure Loftis, and she’s been working behind the scenes to block an audit of this corrupt bureaucracy.
Unreal … maybe she really is the grinch who stole Christmas?
Anyway … as much as we’d like to say our efforts to expose this nonsense were working, clearly they aren’t. In fact the worst could be yet to come. Sources tell FITS that commission salaries are poised to double in 2015 once the recommendations from the SCRSIC salary committee are complete. A staffer at RSIC told us this is how the “higher ups” control the “lower downs” – especially when it comes to covering up bad behavior.
“We could easily have million dollar employees by this time next year,” the staffer told FITS.
***
87 comments
Wow. This is insane. The salaries at North Carolina, Georgia and Florida, all of whom outperform SC, are less outrageous.
It’s what you get from a tame and timid press, ignorant voters, and an entrenched system of government cronyism. Remember the old saw: People get the government they deserve?
“People get the government they deserve?”
I don’t know about that. It seems like a “blame the victim” mentality to me.
I know it’s popular for Dems to blame Republicans, but if anyone really looks at the system as a whole they quickly see the corruption transcends party lines.
Corruption does transcend parties, but which party dominates public office in SC? Which party holds every state-wide elective position? Which party professes “fiscal responsibility” as a primary theme yet milks the taxpayer at every turn? To add to it, I have lived all over the U.S. and never seen a more timid “do nothing” press as in SC.
” As far as the People being “victims,” who just re-elected the same malefactors?”
Statistically speaking those who voted, and voted for Republicans, number less than 15% of the population.
All your other points are valid, but the mistake you make is the assumption that if things were reversed and Dems controlled the state, that thing would be different.
There is always a power elite that forms around any large bureaucracy, any bureaucracy.
And it matters not what the labels might be.
Only an informed electorate can survive …
“Only an informed electorate can survive … and that is really what our US Constitution is all about”
If our hope is an “informed electorate”, then we are screwed in perpetuity. Don’t forget that a staple of the Constitution originally was centered around white land owners(aka taxpayers), toss out the white and re-institute voting for net taxpayers only and we might have a chance…odds of that? Zero.
I disagree: The individual of the class “informed electorate” can be so without paying any taxes (or being white)(or being a land owner). … And That is what the US Constitution is all about.
The uninformed electorate and/or the uninformed or brainwashed g’ment employee is where some of the difficulties are. Consider the g’ment employee whose paycheck is based on previous tax increases … how should he/she vote on another tax increase? … Is that a conflict of interest?
Exactly, we have the corrupt state government in the union and the press is this state is afraid to report anything.
Uh, that would be the “main stream press” in this state …
I don’t believe that all of them are afraid of anything, except their paychecks, of course.
One would be surprised how cynical a liberal snooze room really is. That grumpy old, seen-it-all, chief editor is not just a stereotype, he lives in many dark, dank corners of the media. … but your implications are correct. The grumpy editor is afraid of his paycheck too.
When the advertisers begin to ask for better “balance” snooze and realize that their potential customers are not quite as stupid as is commonly held … between the Gruberized g’ment handouts and the actual facts of a “corrupt state government” … Well, then we may see more action from prosecutors …
I blame get-along/go-along, push-me/pull-you, republicains-in-name-only rinos mostly.
I would rather see a fiscally conservative democrat in office than any two faced, mugwump rino.
Greed is good! Give me more, and more, and more!
Pension funds with over $1 billion in assets averaged investment returns of 17.44% for FYE June 30, 2014. South Carolina made 15.20%. The difference of 2.24% on $29 billion pension dollars is a hell of a loss off the average, especially when looking at SC salaries.
I am not sure how to do that math. But are you saying they underperformed by $640 million dollars? (by being 2,24% of the average?)
The most disturbing part of it all is that former Sen. Danny Varat is making more than $50K a year, which is about what an untenured history teacher is worth.
He makes $112,000, as an unemployed teacher turned spin-boy. He must be on his knees a lot.
Danny was never a Senator. He was flunky to an ass of a Senator. Now he is flunky to the biggest swindle in South Carolina.
Ms. Priss must really be good and must take it like a real man. Does he swallow?
SC “steals” from one generation to pay the debts of the present one. We should amortizes our pension plan over 15 to 20 years not 30 years. AN INDEPENDENT PANEL COMMISSIONED BY THE SOCIETY OF ACTUARIES SAID:
“Ensure all funding meets the precepts of
intergenerational equity. Each generation
of taxpayers should pay what they owe when
they owe it, and not push costs to future
taxpayers.”
This 30 year horizon also helps maintain the fiction that the Investment Commission can predict the financial future for 30 years, and pay for the benefits, which it can’t.
In the latest revisions to its accounting rules for public pensions, the Governmental Accounting Standards Board notes clearly that “the open method, when coupled with an amortization period of 30 to 40 years, produces no perceptible amortization of the unfunded actuarial liability.” In other words, with this approach you never get to paying down the loan principal and have to keep paying interest on it forever.I
The people of SC voted for this in November.
Enjoy it.
Exactly. It’s crap like this that makes you want to just throw their hands up and say “f$*k it!” This just makes me ill. To see that (as just one example) a state employee that makes over $350k getting a $200k bonus check while the average South Carolinian brings in 173% less per year literally makes me want to throw up. I’m all for capitalism and living in a meritocracy, but these are state employees operating one of the worst performing state employee pension funds in the nation. People in this state can barely afford their SCE&G bill and this is the last thing people want to see during the Christmas season when money is especially tight. But you know who I really feel bad for? The people on the list who got no bonus. To see the people you work with listed next to you and to see what they make and know that they are the “favored ones” and you’re not, has got to feel terrible.
The totals appear to astronomical and the list is way too long.
Isn’t the S.C. Retirement System Investment Commission a state agency? Doesn’t the governor have a say in whether that agency is “stacked” with too many positions?
(This kind of push-me, pull-you poli-wog patronage is rampant in Taxifornia, too.)
We wouldn’t want any nanny government regulating such things, would we.
I could care less about Nanny Government, I just want a salary like that!!!!!
FITS needs to stop being an enabler for Loftis. His inaccurate criticism of the pension fund has been reviewed repeatedly by objective and professional third parties. Nobody backed him up. Yet, in spite of this, he keeps repeating the same old BS… that doesn’t make it true. Whatever Loftis is paying you cannot be enough for running another junk story like this.
His inaccurate criticism of the pension fund
Pretty sure Willie is posting hard facts and from multiple sources. Are you saying the people ranking our state’s investments as one of the worst in the nation are wrong?
You’re likely paid yourself.
Yes, I would say that. Professional organizations do not usually use words like “worst in the nation”. That is a subjective term that only has relevance when comparing like or similar plans. The Investment Commission is required by law to diversify investments so they did so and chose to make investments that would withstand a future stock market crash, a correction. The Annual Investment Plan practically insures SC will never rank in the top 10% during a strong stock market. But, South Carolina can not afford to gamble and possibly incur massive losses as they did in 2008 when a greater proportion of the funds were invested in stocks. Interestingly, the NC State Treasurer asked for and got legislation passed to allow her to invest a greater proportion of their public pension funds in alternative investments. Her reasoning, diversification would protect from having all their eggs in one basket and provide greater long term growth.
BTW, I am a retiree and no one paid me to post this message.
Stop drinking and pay attention. No one has said you are close to being in the top 10%. You are in the bottom 20 percent! Yes, bottom 20 percent.
That suxs. If you work there, you sux.
Bottom 20 percent is like being the star in Dumb and Dumber. Like being the front seat rider on the short bus to middle school. Bottom 20 percent is dumb ass-ville.
So stop talking about top 10 percent.
I see you never did well on your reading and readiness tests. Take your finger and read my post very slowly and maybe you will understand my basic message and that is you should not compare apples to oranges and expect to have an intelligent conversation.
Bottom 20% and you endorse it. Loser!
Minor flaw in your logic – almost every state has the same requirement to diversify and yet realized a higher return than SC.
No they do not. Your opinion is not factual.
Most all of the info in this article is from public sources. The salaries are on the Budget and Contol Board site!
These salaries are incredible. Are these people investing their money into the deals like they do on Wall Street? Or are they state employees?
They don’t need to be in the retirement system OR health insurance benfits.
They make enough to fund their own 401ks and buy insurance on the marketplace.
I read recently in NYT Dealbook that The Netherlands has capped the bonuses that bankers can receive at 20% of their salary.
That would be a step in the right direction for these maggots.
And, the by god SC legislature needs to do just that!
Meanwhile, in America, people argue over whether the minimum wage should be raised, or if we should even have a minimum wage at all.
Just what we need, the government telling you how much you can earn.
Listen, troll, when you work for the government, numb skull, the taxpayers and their representatives should INDEED tell you how the hell much you can earn.
If you don’t like that, get off the government teat, and earn what you deserve in the private sector. Want fries with that?
I would like to get in on this gravy train, but I’m not a friend of Nikki’s.
Me too!
Wow, a veritable naughty and nice list. Wonder what those with less than 100% bonus did, or didn’t do?
100% bonus, sheesh, like others, I’d like to work there.
The average salary with bonus is about $145,000 per state employee. Add 30% in fringe benefits and you are just over $200,000 per state employee.
The average retiree makes $21,750 per year.
And your point is????
First of all, I agree that given the salaries the returns are low and the compensation too high. I also respect Curt for learning so much about the investment business given his lack of background in same. He has worked hard and at the retail level is an exceptional politician. I also have no issue with his personal life. All well documented and out there for anyone interested.
I do however have a strong point of view about his personal attacks on the likes of Travis Pritchett. Said this fine man who has an endowed scholarship at USC has no moral center or value. Can you even imagine! I know Travis and know Curt much more well than some of the bloggers on this site.
Bottom line is that Curt, while a fine politician is a sociopath and while he will try to run for future office, in my humble opinion, will never hold another elected position.
Curtis is lucky that his political enemies are nasty, mean spirited creeps. It is obvious to everyone that the investment commission will do anything to keep their outrageous salaries and opportunities for “extra on the side.”
If I were over paid like some of the staff, I would write nasty things. If I were a crook like Reynolds Williams, accepting all sorts of value for wasting other people’s money, I would write nasty things.
It all makes sense, really.
Mac,
Don’t feed the trolls. Reynolds Williams is still angry because Curtis turned him in for making a ton of money off the retirees. The Ethics Commission told him not to do it anymore, but hell, this is SC, so I am sure Reynolds is still raking in the retiree cash.
Reynolds Williams should have lost his law license, but again- this is SC!
Unless I am mistaken this years bonuses for IC staff were unanimously approved by the Commission at its October meeting. Perhaps FITS could ask our Treasurer why he voted for them especially since Mr. Loftis has been very vocal about performance bonuses in the past. What changed?
To be paid so much and to be so far below average. No wonder people distrust government!
I say connect salaries to percentages that are ABOVE the average and stop paying for failure.
No one would think twice at firing a coach that was in the bottom 30% of the league.
The investment commission is always in the bottom 30%!
Wow, never though of it like that. I could excel in a place like that. I have been below average for a long time!
I say fire them all, index the funds, and let us all sleep better at night!
Fits, I love the photo of all the cash. It excites me, in that special way.
Curtis Loftis voted FOR these bonuses and he was right to do so. Such salaries and bonuses for these employees are not out of line. They produce millions of dollars for retirees. It seems a hard fact for South Carolinians to accept but the truth is You Get What You Pay For! As a state retiree, I applaud the efforts of these folks and am pleased to pay for their service. They serve us very well and do a great job of balancing risk and returns. Thank you, staff of the RSIC!
Big salaries, bad returns. This investment Commission is like a turd that want flush. It has outlived its usefulness long ago. We can make more money in our IRA’s than these overpriced goobers can!
This govt employe of 18 years wishes I could convert to an IRA and lets hope the Legislature thinks so too!
Then surely you are participating in the Deferred Compensation plan. How do your returns for FY 2014 compare to the Investment Commission returns for the same period.
“It seems a hard fact for South Carolinians to accept but the truth is You Get What You Pay For! ”
Bottom 30% in returns compared to like?
The average citizen in this state doesn’t even know how to protest this kind of theft, let alone to whom to protest. Until they do, we are all just pockets, ready for picking.
You are 100% correct. The rich and powerful are close to this fund and they are doing very very well. Please do your homework and then tell your community about the low returns, high fees and unethical activity of the fund and those close to it.
We must arm ourselves with information and then spread the word, and hopefully people will go to jail for their thievery!
Public pension funds with assets over $1 billion in assets averaged investment returns of 17.44% for FYE ending June 30, 2014. South Carolina made 15.20%. That is a difference of 2.24% , and on a $29 billion pension dollars is a hell of a loss off the average, especially when looking at SC salaries. Almost $620 million dollars in non performance. We can’t afford that!!!
It seems as if you and Banker are reading from the same script but that repetition doesn’t mean you are accurate in your assessment. Taking a conservative approach to investing and not putting all of our Trust Funds in the stock market has yielded a return of 15.2%. Since when is making money a loss, it isn’t, no matter how many times you repeat it.
Yes, I cut, pasted and added a few words to Bankers script. I thought it was well done but could be better. I have been studying this problem for 6 months and can’t believe the propaganda the Retirement System has disseminated.
Your theory is flawed in that investment assumptions assume prudent investors take advantage of current market opportunities, not, as you imply, sit back and wait for the market to come to them.
There is an old saying, “make hay while the sun shines.” SC Retirement System misses the bull markets, and participates in the bear markets. That is a prescription for a dwindling funded ratio, which is exactly what SC has, which means the government employee is going to have to pay more money into the system!
For your information active employees and taxpayers will not have their contributions increased next year because of the positive earnings. As for your investment theory, I am very glad you are not investing my money. Successful pension plans invest for the long term and playing the bull market won’t get you there.
It is called opportunistic investing. You can look it up in many places, including the Commission SIOP that I have downloaded and studied.
The state employees will not have to pay more next year as the system is on a lag, which of course you know but neglected to mention in a rather dishonest fashion.
I have watched several of the Commission meetings and I think I know which commissioner you are. Honesty is not your strong suit.
State retirees only get a measley 1%….something very wrong here.
State retirees only get a measly 1% because in 2011 the Budget and Control Board voted unanimously to reduce the assumed rate of return upon which the previous COLA formula was based. The 1% is guaranteed and is not tied to return on investments. Investment earnings are used to pay our benefits but to also pay down the unfunded liability. As a retiree I would like to have more money, who wouldn’t, but as a responsible citizen I want the problem of funding a public defined benefit pension plan solved even if I have to give up something.
Hey Hershel why don’t you push that wagon of bullshit over to Tango’s blog
Fucking Cockroach
Hahaha.
Specifically what part of my post is not factual ?
The SC Retirement Commission is like a condom with a hole in it: What is the point of it?
I used to work at the Investment Commission and when thinking of it this old saying always comes to mind:
FIGURES DON’T LIE BUT, LIARS CAN FIGURE
Wow, two “news” articles in one week where Fits kisses Loftis butt. Must be a slow week for Fits so filling it with paid advertisements that are supposed to appear to be articles.
Or perhaps Loftis is on the conservative side of these issues, and therefore highlighted by Fits, and man with very conservative views.
Loftis is a tea party dope like Haley and has had plenty of mishaps that show he is hypocritical conservative……………..yet Fits seems to ignore all those. Though I am not surprised, thats what paid advertisements typically do.
The Investment Commission is in the bottom 20% of the performers and you are blaming the Governor and the Treasurer?
You need to do some soul searching and apologize to the people of this sate for wasting their money. Any fool knows the bottom 20% of earners is the wrong place to be.
Curtis, it was nice to see you today. Keep up the good work. We appreciate it all!
Time to bring federal criminal charges and federal suits. Make them pay back those bonuses. Plus, they can’t be paid bonuses in prison .. *smiles*
I recently read an article that stated the CEO of Deere and Co. asked his board of directors to cut his annual bonus by 25% due to the down turn in agricultural income. This guy actually earns his bonus and asks for a reduction. WOW. These govt. leaches could learn a thing or two. Ya think ???
What makes you think the Investment Commission staff didn’t earn their bonuses based on the performance criteria developed and agreed to by the Commissioners. The decision to award the bonuses was unanimous which means Loftis voted for the bonuses.
It is a well known fact that the investment commission is a laggard amongst large pension plans.
Bonuses should not be used to reward the mediocre. Bonuses should be paid for exceptional performance.
Please cite your sources of this “well know fact.” What credible group has determined that public pension plans with similar investment strategies have out performed the RSIC by a credible margin. You should know that repeating lies over and over will not make them true.
“…similar investment strategies…”
That is the problem. The investment commission has a crappy strategy. Its like playing cards with a blindfold, playing hockey without a stick, running the Tour de France.
When one place caveats on one’s bold statements, it almost always renders the statement useless. Your comment proves that brilliantly.
I take it that you can not cite one credible professional organization or publication to support your opinion.
One needs only to cite the returns that have been publicly displayed. The loss of billions of dollars through poor performance is hardly something to be debated. It is a simple math problem which unfortunately demonstrates the rather plain truth that we pay more and more of our salaries to support an underperforming investment commission.
I did some math, and the average salary with bonus is about $145,000 per state employee at the Investment Commission. Add 30% in fringe benefits and you are just over $200,000 per state employee.
The average retiree makes a little less than $20,000 per year, so the staff makes almost 10 times what the retirees do!
What exactly is this supposed to mean? Are you seriously suggesting that salaries paid to professional investment staff should be linked to the average annual pension of retirees. That is ludicrous.
Especially if you are a member of the investment staff. Retirees might have a different view of payment for poor performance.
Retirees are taxpayers too. They have paid into the system, and they have the right to expect a better than average pension plan. They surely have the right NOT to expect one of the worst performing investment commissions in the country.