That’s one of the questions Will Arbery asks in this month’s issue. He made $758,918 in 2008. Does that not sound high? Consider this:
McKoy is the highest paid manager of a state fair in the country. His peers don’t even come close. The president of Virginia’s state fair, which brings in about the same revenue, makes $219,037. McKoy’s compensation is not just an outlier among his fellow state fair managers. In 2008, the State Fair brought in total revenues of $36,319,776. The average compensation for the highest paid people working for Texas nonprofits with revenues around $40 million is $209,265.
And this:
McKoy also paid each of the six supervisors under him—Lee Winton (finance), Robert Hilbun (maintenance operations), Ron Black (food and beverage), Mitchell Glieber (marketing/public relations), Jaime Navarro (VP controller), and Eunice Sloan (VP exhibits)—more than $170,000 in 2008. Four earned more than $200,000. These seven employees made a combined $2,256,486—in a year in which the State Fair reported a net loss of $2,787,911.
So maybe more people should be asking questions.
15 comments
Everything’s bigger in Texas?
Obligatory.
While we are asking questions:
http://www.texaswatchdog.org/2010/08/swimming-at-a-dallas-pool-more-costly-than-ticket-to-six/1282572360.column
I see Mitchell Glieber does marketing/public relations for the State Fair. He’s the son of the late CBS sportscaster Frank Glieber, and brother of Craig Glieber, who works for the Dallas Cowboys.
Sounds to me like a complete abdication of responsibilities by the board of directors. The question left unanswered by the article is to whom is the board responsible?
Leave it to Glieber!
All in all, this should be investigated but I don’t know if anyone would cooperate. If D Mag is brave enough to turn over the rocks, this avid reader will be anxious to see what crawls out from underneath!
That’s all well and good, Collin, but I think we all know that any intrepid reporter sends over to the state fair is likely to be bought off with 2 fried snickers, a funnel cake, and 24 beer tickets.
That should read “D Magazine sends over to…”
If you can’t find a list and tenure of the board of directors on any City of Dallas website then there is a reason that this list is secretive. I would be curious to see what the city would do if D asked for the list. One perk that I do know they have is that get to park very close to the stadium during the OU/TX game. That is reason enough to want to be on the board.
Well, towski, D Mag could partner up with Texas Monthly to investigate – they just did an article on the fried foods.
So basically, since the City funds Fair Park’s losses, and McKoy’s outrageous salary is one of the expenses contributing to the loss, the City is effectively funding McKoy’s salary (along with those salaries of his cronies).
Nice. How are those pool closings going?
I looked up where McKoy lives over on DallasDirt! Hint: not near Fair Park.
The State Fair of Texas is a private concern — not a municipal entity. That’s why the board isn’t listed on city sites.
You have to ask the question “Who’s on your board?” somewhere else — like at the State Fair of Texas Inc. offices….It is a “private, non-profit” corporation so, maybe, the answer of whose on the board is on paperwork filed with the IRS or Sec of State..like other private non-profits…
@publicnewssense — The problem in this case is that the City of Dallas, and entity that is nearly broke, is apparently subsidizing the operations of this non-profit entity to the tune of several million dollars per year.
It appears that the City either:
1) Has no idea that one of the major contributors to the loss it is subsidizing/the State Fair’s inability to pay more rent to the City is these outrageous salaries; or
2) Is willfully turning a blind eye to such behavior.
In either case, this is a real problem.
And instead of fixing this they will raise our already too high property taxes?????
Well it couldn’t be for the fact of his long running experience in running theme parks that dates back to the 70’s.