CPB sees no violation in top pay at PBS and NPR
Originally published in Current, Jan. 19, 1998
Six officers at PBS and two at NPR were paid more in fiscal 1996 than the $148,400 salary cap imposed by Congress, according to figures on the networks' tax returns.
Both networks say the compensation was legal, however, because the amounts above the cap were not regular annual salary.
CPB assured Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain last month that, "to our knowledge, PBS and NPR have been in compliance with legal requirements about salaries," said Jeannie Bunton, CPB spokesperson.
Communications Daily and its sister newsletter Public Broadcasting Report raised the issue in December, inquiring in McCain's office and prompting CPB's assurances.
[House leaders Rep. Tom Bliley (R-Va.) and Rep. Bill Paxon (R-N.Y.) wrote to CPB, PBS and NPR on Jan. 29 asking for information on the matter.]
"We're looking to see what the legalities are here," said Mark Buse, the Senate committee's policy director, in January. "If [the salary cap] is being violated intentionally, there is a problem. If it is being circumvented through gimmickry, that is ... a serious problem, a direct contradiction of what the will of Congress is."
The Public Broadcasting Act for years has prohibited CPB from giving funds to PBS or NPR if any of their officers or employees are "compensated at an annual rate of pay" above the current Level 1 of the Executive Schedule for federal employees. A similar provision covers CPB employees.
Congress froze that level at $148,400 for several years, until 1998, when it was allowed to rise to $151,800, according to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM).
PBS and NPR chairmen made forays on Capitol Hill last year to lobby for repeal of the salary cap, which the networks contend is so low that they can't always compete for executive talent. Hiring of PBS's chief programming executive was delayed for months in a fruitless search for a prominent manager outside the field who would accept a PBS salary. Managers of the largest public TV stations are paid much more than top PBS officials.
The six PBS officers paid more than $148,400 in fiscal 1996 had salaries below that sum but were given additional bonuses of $20,000 to $32,410 that pushed their compensation higher: President Ervin Duggan and Vice Presidents Peter Downey, John Hollar, Bob Ottenhoff, Eric Sass and Beth Wolfe.
CPB has given PBS a series of opinions over the years that approve bonuses if they are not part of regular compensation, said Ottenhoff, PBS's chief operating officer. Former CPB official David Brugger, who now heads America's Public Television Stations, agreed that CPB's interpretation in the 1980s was that bonuses are not salary and that Congress did not intend to prohibit rewards for special performance.
NPR's two top officials also had figures above $148,400 on the network's tax return in fiscal 1996, but for different reasons. President Del Lewis's figure was $1,316 above the cap, but the excess was a taxable insurance premium paid by NPR, according to a spokesperson. Chief Operating Officer Peter Jablow's compensation likewise was pushed over the cap by a "pre-vesting retirement benefit" that NPR says is not salary.
In the federal government, some salary caps are more absolute. If a federal employee at the top of the civil service pay scales receives a bonus that would push compensation over the cap, the money is "rolled over" until the employee retires, according to Mary Ann Maloney, OPM spokesperson. "They can receive the bonuses, they just can't collect on the bonuses until they separate."
The Senate itself pays no bonuses, but has strict pay caps on members and staffers, said Tim Wineman, assistant financial clerk. "There is no compensation to an employee of the Senate that would be outside of this pay cap restriction," he told Current..
PBS compensation has raised legislative ire before. In the 1980s, after Congress heard that PBS had subsidized a home mortgage for then-President Larry Grossman, Congress added a sentence discouraging interest-free loans by PBS or NPR to employees.
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