Another Example of Gender Bias

To the editor:

I am not particularly surprised about the UMC financial debacle and the subsequent ouster of CEO Lacy Thomas. Whatever his involvement, a shortfall of $30-plus million is more than ample cause for termination.

And neither am I surprised about the county installing an appropriate and capable clean-up crew. Both Kathy Silver, who will act as the interim CEO, and George Stevens, posted to acting chief administrative officer, are lauded by the county manager as “outstanding public servants who will work to restore confidence (and) ensure transparency in everything the hospital does.”

What I am surprised about, however, is the difference in pay. While Mr. Thomas, a male, received a handsome annual salary of $255,000 for highly suspect performance, Ms. Silver, a female, will receive only $144,997 to clean up his mess, restore confidence and ensure compliance. This reminds me of the decades-old adage: Women must work twice as hard to be paid half as much as their male counterparts.

The very next move, if history is any indication, will be that Ms. Silver will indeed do all that she is being paid to do. And for that, she will be replaced by a full-fledged, non-acting CEO who is male. His salary? It will be negotiated to a sum at least 25 percent higher than Mr. Thomas’ pay. After all, the replacement will have to work a little harder in the ethics arena. And for that, he should be justly compensated.

Ms. Silver will be congratulated for holding down the fort in the interim – a job she will accomplish by rolling up her shirt-sleeves and pouring her entire spirit into patching and mending the fabric of a seriously torn organization. My guess is she will have made a significant amount of progress before the position is listed and the call goes out for qualified candidates. Her qualifications, sadly, will not measure up. Although her work experience will be impressive, she will not have the clout of a previous salary to verify her worth, nor the ability – as a current employee – to demand equity.

Surprising? I don’t think so. It’s part of the reason, after more than 40 years of workplace experience, that women earn only 77 cents to every $1 earned by their male counterparts. What is surprising is that, for the most part, we accept it.

Lynda French

Kingman, Ariz.

Lake reform

To the editor:

Relative to its design capacity, Lake Mead is now 15 percent silt, 37 percent water and 48 percent empty. Some folks are negligent in addressing solutions for this vital water resource used by 25 million people.

Four years ago, the federal government should have reduced water deliveries by 5 percent for all seven Colorado River states. This would have sent a conservation message to each state, preserved power, improved recreation, assisted wildlife, enhanced water quality and made unnecessary an expensive “third straw” from Lake Mead to Las Vegas.

Ten years ago, Uncle Sam should have recognized the reality of global warming. Now there is an almost perfect correlation between the hottest years in more than a century and the recent low-flow years on the Colorado River.

Fifteen years ago, Uncle Sam should have tripled research and development funds for desalination. If they had done this, there is a good chance current desalting costs would be 50 percent less.

Twenty years ago, Uncle Sam should have had Colorado River shortage regulations in place.The Census Bureau told everybody 20 years ago that the fastest growing states were in the Southwest. Now when shortage regulations are revealed in 2007, it is a virtually certainty litigation will delay solutions.

But this neglect and deception does not lie just with Uncle Sam. The Southern Nevada Water Authority and every major state politician should have been advocating these changes at the same time. If the water authority and state politicians had done so, Lake Mead would not now be at such a precariously low level. And there would be no need or far less urgency to build more than 400 miles of pipelines to rural Nevada.

Such neglect is clear ineptitude on the part of the water authority and former state politicians. But perhaps newly elected Gov. Jim Gibbons can pursue some of these solutions.

MARK BIRD

LAS VEGAS

Legal citizens

To the editor:

All Nevadans should get behind U.S. Sen. John Ensign’s pending immigration reform bill. Allowing illegal Mexican immigrants – or any other illegals – to obtain U.S. Social Security benefits, no matter how small, would be a travesty of justice to all hard- working U.S. citizens.

Where does our other U.S. senator, Harry Reid, stand on this pending reform bill?

My wife and I just moved to the Las Vegas area a few months ago from the East Coast, and are very proud to have a U.S. senator such as John Ensign who is working hard to protect all legal U.S. citizens.

Robert B. Sulliman Jr.

Henderson

(c) 2007 Las Vegas Review – Journal. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.