Pushing the Bid – A Great Gig for the Insiders

As reported in the Chicago Sun-Times:

Mayor Daley’s chief of staff got a whopping 41 percent pay raise — to $250,000 a year — when she jumped off the City Hall merry-go-round to become president of Chicago’s 2016 Olympic bid.

Even with that $72,784-a-year pay raise, former chief of staff Lori Healey is not the bid team’s highest-paid executive, according to Chicago 2016’s “Stewardship Report” of $48.3 million in Olympic spending.

That distinction goes to chief operating officer David Bolger, with an annual salary of $300,000.

Six-figure salaries also are paid to Chief Bid Officer John Murray ($250,000); Doug Arnot, venue and operations ($250,000); Chief Financial Officer Rick Ludwig ($200,000); and Chief Governance Officer Kevann Cooke ($200,000). Others are Valerie Waller, marketing and communications ($190,000); Cassandra Francis, Olympic Village planning ($175,000); international relations specialist Deb Fiddelke ($150,000) and Patricia Rios, administration ($135,000).

OLYMPIC SPENDING BY THE NUMBERSChicago 2016 has received $72.8 million so far in cash contributions and pledges from 1,500 donors, 29 of whom gave $1 million or more. The $48.3 million spent so far includes:
$9.4 million on salaried employees and contractors

$1.1 million for employee benefits

$1.1 million for air fare covering 9.3 million miles of travel

$1.7 million for hotels and housing

$101,198 for entertainment

$375,608 for ground transportation

$405,709 for meals, incidentals and per-diems

$327,151 for meetings and conferences

$3.6 million for event services

$3.5 million for advertising and messaging

$1.7 million for film production

$1.5 million for merchandise

$1.4 million for technology and new media

$2 million for other cash expenditures

$134,439 for city services, mostly tied to International Olympic Committee’s final site visit in April

$1.8 million for fund-raising events

TOP FIVE CONTRACTORS

* Hill & Knowlton, public relations: $3.1 million
* Skidmore Owings & Merrill, architecture and planning: $1.2 million
* HOK Sports Facilities Group, venue planning: $1 million
* Patricia J. Hurley & Associates, fund-raising-$635,000
* Ogilvy, technology and new media: $530,770

Read coverage from NBC News Chicago: “Olympics Committee flush with cash“