Jennifer Chambers reports in The Detroit News compensation for the two top officers at the Detroit Institute of Arts climbed by double-digit percentages, including $50,000 bonuses for each, according to 2013 tax documents filed by the nonprofit.
DIA director Graham Beal's total compensation increased by 13 percent to $513,868. Annmarie Erickson, DIA executive vice president and chief operating officer, saw her compensation increase by 36 percent in one year to $369,366.
The increases came in 2012, the same year voters in Macomb, Oakland and Wayne counties approved a $23 million millage to fund DIA operations for 10 years, and just months before the museum became embroiled in Detroit's historic bankruptcy case, Chambers writes.
Gene Gargaro, chairman of the DIA board and chairman of its compensation committee, said the increases were justified, based on several factors including personnel evaluations and the overall financial performance of the DIA.
L. Brooks Patterson, executive of Oakland County — which sends $11 million a year in regional taxes to the DIA for operations — said the bonuses are larger than what most Detroiters earn in a year.
"It's an insult to the Detroit taxpayers and it ranks up with there with Marie Antoinette's 'Let them eat cake,' " Patterson said. "The optics of it stink."