9/11 Memorial and Museum CEO Alice Greenwald reportedly made greater than $500,000 in 2020.
Victor Boyko/Getty Pictures for Aurora Humanitarian Initiative
After closing for six months through the pandemic and shedding or furloughing 60 p.c of its employees, the cash-starved 9/11 Memorial and Museum gave $1,000 bonuses to every of its 12 highest paid execs, The Put up has discovered.
The bonus introduced the overall compensation in 2020 for CEO Alice Greenwald, who just lately introduced she is stepping down, to $564,500, in accordance with the group’s newest IRS submitting.
Constructed to recollect the September 11, 2001, terror assaults and to honor the two,958 individuals murdered, the memorial and museum took an enormous monetary hit through the pandemic and continues to be struggling to recuperate.
The bonuses have been funded by an nameless donor and restricted to that function, stated spokeswoman Lee Cochran.
“The donation was supposed to acknowledge the distinctive dedication of a really hard-working employees” who ran the group after COVID-19 compelled a shutdown in March 2020 and produced digital education schemes through the closure, Cochran stated.
Apart from Greenwald, 11 prime staffers who every collected $187,000 to $347,000 in 2020 additionally obtained the $1,000 bonus. One other 155 remaining workers obtained unspecified bonuses “based mostly on length of employment.” Cochran stated. She wouldn't disclose the quantities or complete spent on bonuses. “Everybody obtained one thing.”
The salaries anger an advocacy group, 9/11 Mother and father & Households of Firefighters and World Commerce Heart Victims, which needs the Nationwide Park Service to run the location.
“It is a money cow for the executives operating the museum. Their salaries are exorbitant,” stated retired FDNY Deputy Chief Jim Riches, the group’s chairman, whose firefighter son Jimmy Riches was killed on 9/11.
“It was constructed to honor the victims and inform the story of 9/11. They’re getting cash off the blood of my son. It’s a shame.”
In the course of the museum’s shutdown, the sale of tickets and excursions plunged from $74.7 million in 2019 to $11.2 million in 2020. After reopening, It rose to $18.9 million in 2021, Cochran stated. That lack of that income, which lined 91 p.c of working bills, was devastating.
Now the memorial and museum, which ended 2020 within the crimson – is pleading for taxpayer funds. It has been lobbying for a invoice sponsored by upstate Rep. John Katko to require the US Division of Homeland Safety to award a one-time grant of $5 million to $10 million for operations, upkeep and safety.
The memorial, which is patrolled by each the NYPD and Port Authority Police, spends about $700,000 a month on personal safety as nicely, Cochran stated.
Board member Debra Burlingame, whose brother Charles Burlingame was a pilot of the hijacked American Airways Flight 77 that crashed into the Pentagon, testified earlier than a Congressional subcommittee final month that the additional safety is essential to thwart terror assaults.
“Our web site is a spot of nice curiosity to individuals who would do us hurt,” she stated, recalliing the 2017 Halloween terror assault by a person who killed eight individuals when he drove a pickup truck down a motorcycle path alongside the Hudson River close to Floor Zero.
Riches’ 9/11 household group is urging Congress to reject the bid.
“Does the memorial and museum really need $10 million to fund the personal safety guards, or does it want the cash to offset its out-of-control salaries and bills?” the group stated in a press launch. “But once more, the 9/11 Memorial Museum is asking federal taxpayers to prop up their bloated and unsustainable price range.”
The memorial and museum’s bills for 2020 got here to $84.8 million, with $22.1 million going for worker salaries and advantages.
It ended the 12 months with a $47 million deficit, however $29.2 million of that was depreciation of the constructing and gear, officers stated. The money loss was $17.9 million.
The crimson ink would have been worse, however 139 people — principally board members — kicked in donations of $5,000 and up. The board’s “emergency fundraising marketing campaign” has collected about $45 million up to now, Burlingame stated.
A thriller donor who gave $10 million will not be ex-Mayor Mike Bloomberg, Cochran stated. Bloomberg, chairman of the board, beforehand loaned the group $15 million, which has not been repaid.
In April 2020, the memorial and museum additionally obtained a $4.6 million mortgage from the federal Paycheck Safety Program. The funds lasted by means of June, Cochran stated. The layoffs and furloughs have been executed on July 1. The mortgage was forgiven final 12 months.
Presently, 188 are on employees, down from 340 pre-pandemic.
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