Big bucks for MCCA staff

Raises, overtime and bonuses including a brand-new incentive compensation program padded the salaries of Massachusetts Convention Center Authority staffers last year by hundreds of thousands of dollars in all, with Executive Director James Rooney taking home the biggest bonus, despite recent multimillion-dollar losses.

Rooney, topping the payroll at $283,277, was awarded his largest contractually allowable incentive-based bonus 10 percent of his base salary, or $25,752. His total earnings are up $8,117 over last year.

Overall, the MCCA handed out $232,252 in incentive-based bonuses to non-union workers as much as 5 percent of most employees salaries, on top of a 1.5 percent across-the-board raise.

Its the first year the MCCA rolled out incentive compensation, which paid out bonuses as high as $3,500 for achieving certain goals, such as exceeding sales targets, surpassing event booking goals and implementing projects on time and under budget, according to spokesman Mac Daniel.

The incentive program allows us to award and retain those employees that do extraordinary work, Daniel said. These were onetime bonuses, not salary increases, and it complies with the general framework used by the state. A smart, performance-based program like this helps reward and retain our most important asset our employees.

Some 134 staffers on the MCCA payroll received the bonuses.

But David Tuerck of the Beacon Hill Institute, citing a $71 million operating loss in fiscal 2013, said, Im not sure why anyones being rewarded in light of that kind of performance. For an entity thats running at substantial losses ... its inappropriate to be paying management such hefty salaries.

Daniel disputed the $71 million figure, saying after depreciation and other factors are backed out, $20 million is a more accurate loss figure. He argued the MCCA delivers an economic impact of $600 million to $700 million a year.

Staffers earnings were also boosted by huge overtime payments. Topping the OT list was electrician John P. Carroll, with $38,152 on top of his $71,293 wages, while workers got more than $20,000 in overtime each, mostly electricians, plumbers and public safety officers. Other top MCCA earners include: Chief Strategy Officer Johanna M. Storella, at $183,802; Chief Information Officer Steven G. Snyder, $166,499; general counsel William J. Smith, $159,892; general manager Maureen L. Baker, $159,392; Chief Facilities Officer John T. Haley Jr., $159,142; and deputy director Kenneth A. Sinkiewicz, $159,142.

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Big bucks for MCCA staff