The pushback was inevitable.
It's just a little difficult to understand how tone deaf the museum could be.
Jennifer Chambers of the Detroit News reports that Rep. Eileen Kowall, R-White Lake, and Oakland County Commissioner Dave Woodward, D-Royal Oak, want the officials at the Detroit Institute of Arts to immediately reconsider the double-digit compensation increases given to both the DIA director and its executive vice president and chief operating officer in 2012.
The News writes:
The News reported last week that DIA director Graham Beal's total compensation increased by 13 percent to $513,868, according to 2013 tax documents filed by the museum. Annmarie Erickson, DIA executive vice president and chief operating officer, saw her compensation increase by 36 percent in one year to $369,366. Each received $50,000 bonuses as part of the compensation.
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.
-- Allan Lengel
