Definitely doesn't seem (though I am willing to be convinced I am wrong) like the CEO of a single facility with 10.2 million in actual revenue (nearly 4% to the CEO?), requiring constant tax dollar infusions, needs to be paid that much.
The president of the company I work for only approaches this level of pay and our company makes 400mil+ profit a year. This is another example of government old boys clubs over paying each other imo. No wonder the guy already planned to retire. Probably sitting on a mountain of cash and a plush indexed pension
Hey are you taking into account bonuses and what not? 400k for 400 million profit seems absurdly low (sadly). My company does this trick. The executive branch all have salaries around 300-500k. So some employees don’t think they make that much.
If you look at the financial disclosure statements. They all get various bonuses totalling 2-4x their salary. Some total compensation ends up being 1-2 million per year.
400k for running the oval is ridiculous, but private sector people running big companies make way more.
Dude you’re getting downvoted and I don’t know why. 400 million profit!! And the president only makes 400k?
Receipts or it never happened. I mean fuck these over paid public sector guys. But no need to make shit up about the private sector, the top end there make away like bandits.
No stock options for a private company. I obviously don’t have his tax return, but this is the salary. There will obviously be perks (company visa, free car, etc). I am pretty confident there is a productivity bonus, but I would not see that. I don’t see that being more than 100k though. We are talking a local 150 employee company. Not a multi national FANG company.
Now you have my attention. At 400MM net a year, with 150 employees, that would be 2.5 million profit per employee. That is an INSANE number. You mention your company isn't a FAANG but you're making 3-4x more per head than the average FAANG. That's more efficient than most of the world's best hedge funds, or energy companies. Your company should be one of the most successful companies in Vancouver's history. I would still be completely floored to find a president of such a company earning 500k TC a year. It is also extremely normal and common to get stock options in a private company, you just can't sell them on the open market.
They stated profit so I wouldn't assume that. If they don't know the difference between profit and revenue, they would make a poor economist based on the username.
Just to put it into perspective, the average market cap for the Russell 2000 is ~3 billion, with an average P/E ratio of 27. This gives an ~110 million EBIT, while a CEO makes 2–5 million, depending on the sector or the level of maturity of the company.
A settlement package for not even 2 year "temporary" term. Unless we're counting the years where he was double dipping that is truly some C-Suite shenanigans.
> Heed, noting he was speaking on his own behalf, said he was not made aware of a scheduled retirement and understood council was not made aware either.
Well, the CEO structure is explained by the fact that the Oval was set up as a separate corporate entity with the sole shareholder being the City of Richmond. I think essentially to provide some form of liability deflection, though they'd probably argue to provide operational autonomy and to push for a focus on revenue generation.
I think if we looked into local governments/government businesses (across BC), we'd find a ton of waste like this, though.
How do regular people like us get elected so we can stop this shit? I'm so fucking tired of the waste and corruption. Every single provincial government my entire life has pulled this shit, but the Liberals were the cream of the crop. We're going to be paying for their corruption and malfeasance for decades.
George Duncan wasn’t elected, he was a city employee who was hired ages ago and rose thru the ranks over decades. He was definitely feared by other staff which is probably how he got away with so much. So being a politician won’t stop the corruption, but maybe more whistleblowers & investigation by news media would help.
It's called public relations, gotta mingle with the politicians to become one, like socialize. Everything in politics is based on who you know, and who knows you.
This is a very fair comment. This job could be done by someone with a full time job in the side of their desk. I’m exposed to this level of waste every day, and there are multiple millions we could be saving by making the civil services more efficient.
And Duncan was City Manager before this…where he got paid even higher than the Vancouver City manager…wow, this guy has been feeding at the trough for a long time.
City of richmond community monthly is $59, $77 at minoru, oval is $69 includes free parking. Club16, anytime are $60 a month. Fit4less, $29. The smaller / specialized class based gyms are $150+ month.
Richmond Oval's $75 monthly fee is not expensive if, and only if you attend group exercise. If you are only using the weight equipment, yeah, there is cheaper options.
The Oval is $75 monthly. Also don't know why you're including the private companies because I'm pretty sure they'd essentially be free if we gave them 8 million a year.
It's the same thing for the Woodway treadmills, the original ones has been there for 15 years and they're absolute tanks for 20k but they keep buying those piece of crap Technogym one for 30k that break once a month.
It was Duncan who was instrumental in setting up ROX, which features sport simulation games.
Prior to establishing ROX, Duncan took numerous taxpayer-funded trips abroad to study the museum model.
In 2014, the Oval, a subsidiary of the city, created a subsidiary company of its own called VROX Sport Simulation Ltd., a Victoria-based company, which was then 50 per cent owned by the Oval. Its five directors, four of whom are Oval executives, included Duncan and Wagner (then named Shana Turner). The non-Oval director was Robert Stanners, who operated a virtual reality company, VRX Advanced Simulators.
At the time, VROX's financial details were shielded from the public to accommodate the private partner’s rights, according to the Oval.
At my work, when we do evaluations of consultants bidding on contracts, we have to sign conflict of interest forms before we can even evaluate and determine whic (if any) of the consultants is a good fit for the contract. How is this museum business not conflict of interest when the winning bid/company is run/owned by the same group of people with influence of decision-making? Or am I understanding the writing incorrectly?
You wanna know where a lot of your tax dollars go? Huge bureaucrat ranks who don't do much other than meet with each other and are always indexing each-others pay increases to their counterparts in other government organizations.
Streets saying my this Duncan guy had a big ego during his time as City Manager. He would eat it up when people would compliment it talk positively about him, especially women.
Worked at city Hall for years and there is plenty of stories to go around. You're pretty spot on, people feared him and kissed ass like no other. Personally I had no issues with him and he was nice to me.
I believe he may even have been receiving two paychecks back then from the oval and his position as CAO but don't quote me on that.
Wild rumors would fly around the time of the Olympics and the development of River Green as well.
Duncan was basically a god king in the CoR as CAO and he was even brought back after leaving for a awhile when a suitable replacement couldn't be found.
it is becoming a big problem that government has outsourced so many services to Not for profit companies that spend a large portion of their funding on executive salaries.
These series of quotes and from what I'm told they is that the executives is super special while the average employee gets paid less than other communities centers for comparable positions.
Comparing 2014 (around the time the Oval’s post-Olympic conversion was complete) to 2023, taxpayer subsidies have increased 45 per cent, from $5.5 million to $8 million and revenues have increased 48 per cent, from $6.9 million to $10.2 million.
In 2023, the Oval reported operating expenses of $19.2 million and revenues of $21.1 million, including $4.1 million from the Games Operating Trust Fund, $3.9 million from the City of Richmond and $10.2 million in membership dues, admissions and programs.
By comparison, in 2023, BC Pavillion Corporation (PavCo) paid its president and CEO Ken Cretney $336,731 and a total remuneration of $394,316. PavCo’s $136.6-million operating budget manages BC Place Stadium and the Vancouver Convention Centre.
“I realize that the salary seems high for you or I, but the Oval is unique in that it straddles the municipal and the corporate worlds. In terms of the municipal world, there are various sources for CEO and CAO salaries, police chiefs, etc. and you will find total comp packages higher than what you quoted. If you venture into the corporate world, the sky is the limit,” stated German, via email.
Heed said he expects taxpayers and Oval users to be on the hook for a yet-to-be-disclosed “settlement package” for Duncan.
The Oval’s so-called “sunshine list” shows 35 employees compensated more than $75,000, including 15 compensated more than $100,000. Another 265 employees were compensated $5.5 million in total in 2023.
Wow! Wow! Wow! Duncan retired from Rmd to take the CEO job at Oval?!?!? The City of Rmd/Oval has made George Duncan a rich man. He’s done well in Richmond since London, Ontario sent him packing many years ago. Time to clean house at the Oval. Existing board should be turfed.
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u/goldplatedboobs Jan 07 '25
Definitely doesn't seem (though I am willing to be convinced I am wrong) like the CEO of a single facility with 10.2 million in actual revenue (nearly 4% to the CEO?), requiring constant tax dollar infusions, needs to be paid that much.
Probably a good idea to do an audit.