Tampa General Hospital

For many years, the generally very affluent directors of  the not-for-profit Tampa General Hospital,  which mostly serves low- and moderate-income people,  served for free  for the honor of performing a public service and to make and maintain connections with other influential people. Those connections come in handy for business and social life.

But these are greedier times. So the directors voted themselves salaries.

The Tampa Bay Times reported: “Recently, the board made up of prominent business figures, philanthropists and doctors voted to pay themselves for their services. Yearly compensation would range from $15,000 to $30,000, depending on a board member’s committees and assignments.”

The paper reported that “After voting no, David A. Straz Jr., for whom Tampa’s performing arts center is named, promptly quit the hospital board on which he had proudly served for nearly 20 years. He was the only board member present to vote against it, he said this week.”

“I think it’s a horrible idea,” Mr. Straz told the paper. “Tampa General is a very important community asset. Those of us in the community need to donate our services to make those kinds of things better for all of our people in the community.”

“I decided that was not a place for me to continue donating my time.”