-Marina del Rey, Ca.
-In an era where corruption among the Scouting Department has been sparse, its return may be blamed on lower incomes for Feast Fest scouters, a study revealed Tuesday.
Scouters are making $4-9,000 less than they did in 2009, and then they were making $2-5,000 less than in 2007.
"It is a result of the economic downturn," said a remorseful William Vanderbilt. "We try to keep the salaries consistent in order to avoid corruption."
Corruption occurs because scouters receive pay bonuses when they sign chefs, and the bigger-name chef they sign and the more money they get them to sign for, the bigger the bonus. This cycle explains the 2010 elevation of the maximum contract over from $1 million to $2 million and of the $1,500,000 offer given to Brianna Galen-Ames last week. And though this in and of itself is not corruption, scouters often resort to corrupt means to sign those big name chefs: a perfect example being the Brianna Galen-Ames/David Leineken scouting scandal that has dominated Feast Fest headlines over the past few days.
"We are not releasing actual salary figures for personal protection," explained Vanderbilt, "but it is a fact that, cumulatively, there have been salary decreases of $6-14,000 since 2007."
Some suggest that instead of raising the salaries to avoid corruption, a reformatory approach should be taken, perhaps one that eliminates bonuses for scouters altogether, but Vanderbilt said that such a move "could be a couple years away," stating that, "as would seem obvious, getting the scouters to agree to such a setup would be very difficult."
When asked if he supported eliminating bonuses as an anticorruption measure, Head Scouter Jim Dall was quick to say "I do not and will never support bonus elimination because bonuses make up so much of the general income and welfare of our scouters," saying, "scouters live on those bonuses the way a waiter lives on tips."
No comments:
Post a Comment