John Hill
John Hill
How much compensation is enough for a city of Detroit employee? How much is too much?
Certainly for Detroit standards, it's fair to say this is pretty generous.
Joe Guillen of the Detroit Free Press writes that the city of Detroit's Chief Financial Officer John Hill and his chief of staff, John Hageman, each rent high-end apartments in downtown Detroit, take weekly flights to Washington, D.C., and Chicago and use Uber to ride around town, and are reimbursed by the city.
Hill earns a salary of $225,000 and Hageman gets $130,044, the Freep reports, addings:
Hill's expense reports for costs incurred between March and August show he was reimbursed for:
- Rent payments at the Fort Shelby Tower Apartments between $4,060 and $4,231 a month, totaling $24,941.
- Weekly flights to and from Washington for a total of $10,621. An address for Hill in Washington is listed on the reports.
- Uber rides and other methods of ground transportation to airports and work events that cost $1,987.
- Per diem allowances totaling $5,886.
Hageman's expense reports for costs between February and July show:
- Monthly rent payments of $2,312 at Fort Shelby totaling $13,872.
- Furniture rental of $735 per month.
- Bills for cable TV, Internet and DTE Energy totaling $648.
- Thirty flights, mostly to and from Chicago, for $7,762. Hageman's reports list an address in Evanston, Ill.
- Ground transportation to airports and work events costing $3,048.
- Per diem allowances totaling $6,153.
The Freep adds:
Although the expense reports show that city funds were used for the reimbursements, Hill said a grant to former emergency manager Kevyn Orr from a private foundation covered a majority of his and Hageman's expenses. When asked on Saturday to identify the grant funds used to offset his and Hageman's expenses, Hill wrote in a text that those details would be available today.
In an e-mail to the Free Press on Friday evening, Hill explained that his expenses are in line with the contract he signed with Orr when he was hired in November 2013. Hageman also was originally a contractor with the city before Hill appointed him his chief of staff in May 2015. Both Hill and Hageman are now city employees under a new job status known as "administrative special services."
