The head of the coalition that directs funding for domestic violence programs is making more than $350,000 a year in salary and benefits, a compensation package that irked at least one influential state Senator and may have led to a Gov. Rick Scott’s request that future budgets aren’t steered solely to the group, the Times/Herald reported Thursday.
The compensation package for Florida Coalition of Domestic Violence President Tiffany Carr in 2009 included a salary of $316,000 and another $36,000 in benefits.
Mike Bennett, a Bradenton Republican and former Navy medic, sent copies of the coalition’s tax forms to Scott chief of state Steve McNamara with a not so-subtle message that he thought the salary extreme.
“I was so p—– off when I saw the salary Tiffany Carr was making,” Bennett told the Times/Herald. “It’s absolutely stone-a– insane.”
Carr, who has run the agency for nearly 20 years, said she’s not doing it for the money and her salary, which is set by an 11-member board, is comparable to others.
The coalition, which has won high praise from many state officials, directs nearly $31 million in funds to 42 domestic violence programs states. In 2003, Gov. Jeb Bush designated the private, non-profit as the gatekeeper of state funds for domestic violence efforts.
Next on Bennett’s radar may be Disc Village, a counseling program based in Tallahassee. It’s executive director, Thomas Olk, was paid nearly $600,000 in 2009, according to tax records.
@FLGovScott FL DV Coalition not alone in the DV madness. The entire nation’s DV agency execs at the national, state and local level are raking in inflated salaries and funding supported by tax dollars, yet provide NO direct support to victims. DVReform.org SurvivorsInAction.org or DVJP.org for more info.
The problem is real and lives are being needlessly lost to DV and stalking related homicide while Congress and the American tax payers are asleep at the wheel.
Lax oversight, no accountability and failing victim resources yet funding continues?
-Alexis Moore, founder
Survivors In Action
DVReform.org
SurvivorsInAction.org
“no victim left behind”