D54 salary ‘unconscionable’

It is simply unconscionable and outrageous that District 54’s assistant superintendent, Mohsin Dada, made a $341,747 salary for 2010 and had raises of 22 percent in each of the last three years. In addition, Jake Griffin reported that Dada will receive an huge pension of $250,000 a year, for which we taxpayers of Illinois are on the hook.

The justifications given by board members would be laughable if not so ridiculous. Balancing the budget for 15 years is meaningless when he was one of the major players in setting the budget in the first place. Also, Superintendent Rafferty’s statement that District 54’s tax rate has dropped by more than a dollar between 1996 and 2009 is meaningless because increases in the equalized assessed valuations have caused that to happen.

Finally, District 54 had $191 million of cash and investments on hand at June 30, 2010 which is 171 percent of their annual revenues of $163 million. This is arguably $159 million (yes you read right) more than the 20 percent of reserves that can be justified. District 54 owes its taxpayers $159 million in tax refunds.

After 35 years auditing businesses much more complex and demanding than District 54, I can assure everyone that few, if any, had chief financial officers with compensation as high as Mr. Dada’s.

Roland G. Ley

Arlington Heights