PALOMAR POMERADO: New CEO’s Pay Raises Eyebrows
The new CEO of Palomar Pomerado Health System will receive a base annual salary of $266,000, plus a bonus that could drive his total compensation to $350,000, making him "among the highest- paid heads of any public agency in the county," the San Diego Union-Tribune reports. In addition, Norman Gruber "will receive an $834 monthly car allowance and living expenses of $1,500 a month for his first six months," as well as up to $50,000 in moving costs. Ted Kleiter, the CEO of Palomar Pomerado board of directors, which hired Gruber on Monday, defended Gruber's salary, noting that it "is the median for the chief executives of all hospitals earning gross revenues of $250 million." The Union-Tribune reports that Gruber's salary "seems to fall in line with those of local health care executives," but that salaries in the rest of the public sector pale in comparison. Gruber, most recently the CEO of St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Youngstown, OH, said that "hospital executives command high salaries because the job is more challenging that it was 20 years ago" (Peterson, 5/19).
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