JMH Willing To Pay Big Bucks For New CEO

MIAMI (CBS4) -- A committee involved in the search for a new president for Jackson Memorial Hospital said Thursday it was willing to pay "up to $975-thousand" for a new hospital chief.

The actual salary will be determined once a new president is selected. With benefits and other bonuses the package could well exceed $1 million.

Earlier this month, a company hired by Jackson Memorial Hospital to help with the selection of a president recommended a salary ranging from $705,000 to slightly more than $1 million. The suggested median salary came in at $888,000, which could rise to $1.4 million with benefits and other incentives, according to the report prepared by Integrated Health Strategies. The figures were based on an extensive survey the company conducted of both public and private hospitals across the country.

Those figures were met with a degree of shock and disbelief by several members of the hospital's executive compensation committee who said they could not possibly support a salary that high.

The current President and CEO of Jackson, Dr. Eneida Roldan, is paid $665,000 per year to oversee the third largest public hospital system in the country. Roldan announced last fall that she would not seek an extension of her contract and plans to step down in April.

Jackson's annual budget is $1.5 billion and is still struggling to survive a financial crisis brought on by mismanagement and a struggling economy. It's the financial crisis that has some on Jackson's governing board, the Public Health Trust, to recommend such a high salary. Jorge Arrizurieta said in early February that Jackson needed to offer the best salary possible in order to attract the type of talented individual it will take to turn the hospital around financially.

Not everyone agreed. "These are taxpayer dollars and we're hurting," said committee member and County Commission Chairman Joe Martinez. "The President makes $400,000 a year. Our county manager makes $300,000 and that's to manage a $7 billion budget."

Martinez suggested the salary should be more in the $550,000 to $600,000 range.

"People are taking less money for top jobs," he said.

"To me, this process here, is about sending a message that we are serious about finding the very best," Arrizurieta said.