Reasonable Compensation? – Yet Another Example of Comp that Appears Too High

Continuing complaints about the salary of the director of the National Association of Town Watch threaten both funding and support for National Night Out, the event the association helps to organize.  National Night Out seeks to encourage community to host local events that bring the community and local law enforcement together.  The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that this year a number of communities in Minnesota have decided to host their own events, and will not be linked to National Night Out.  Rep. Arlen Spector has refused to support further federal subsidies for the Association.

Matt Peskin, the director of NATW, receives a salary, with benefits, of over $300,000.  In addition, $442,000 has been paid into a retirement plan over the past 10 years, most of that for his benefit (he is one of two employees of NATW and his salary constituted 79% of the payroll).  Peskin insists that his compensation is reasonable, even though it constitutes one-third of the operating budget of the organzation and may be as much as that received by directors of organizations with revenues 50 times as big.  Also of concern, until recently the Board of Directors of NATW consisted of Peskin, his brother, his father-in-law, and three family friends.  Peskin says the board is being restructured so that it will no longer include relatives.

Last year, when Peskin’s salary was reported publicly, Rep. Spector noted that “”it makes no sense that I make so much less than he.”   Law professors make a lot less than Peskin does, too!

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