ABC-7 obtains complete list of UMC bonuses
ABC-7 was the first to tell viewers about University Medical Center CEO Jim Valenti’s $120,000 bonus last month and now it’s first to reveal the complete list of employees at UMC to receive bonuses this year.
Valenti’s big bonus upset a lot of people, including Commissioners Court, in a year where more than 50 employees of the County hospital were laid off.
Now ABC-7 has learned at least another 168 employees also received bonuses this year.
“We understand everybody works very hard, we understand while folks may be deserving of one, this is a very difficult financial year for the hospital,” Commissioner Vince Perez said.
In all, 169 employees, received bonuses this year, despite the layoffs. According to UMC officials, however, the list does not include doctors and certain allied health professionals who may receive quarterly incentive pay based on their incentive criteria.
Bonuses ranged from $123 all the way up to Valenti’s $120,000. Only seven employees received bonuses of $5,000 or more.
The biggest bonuses were given to high-ranking members of Valenti’s staff. Chief Financial Officer Michael Nunez received the second highest bonus at more than $45,000, Chief Operating Officer Maria Zampini got nearly $40,000, Chief Compliance Officer Catherine Gibson received almost $30,000 and Valenti’s Chief of Staff, Lorena Navedo, got a bonus in excess of $22,000, totaling among them more than half of the nearly half a million in bonuses awarded.
“We had two budget meetings where commissioners were under the impression that there were no merit increases and we interpreted that to mean there were no bonuses,” Perez said. “I think that mis-communication, or lack of communication, is where the greatest frustration lies.”
UMC Board Chairman William Hanson told ABC-7 in an email: “I am not familiar with most of the names on this list, but this is mainly a list of recipients of incentive payments related to cash collections goals and nursing performance targets.”
Using that list of employees who got bonuses, ABC-7 checked to see if any of them defended Valenti in recent public meetings. Two of them did. Senior Director Sarah Allen and Pharmacy Director Myron Lewis got a $2,500 bonus each.
ABC-7 does not know if there’s a correlation, but Commissioner Perez said it would have been nice for them to disclose it.
Hanson said: “Receiving a performance incentive doesn’t preclude any employee from exercising their right to speak in a public forum.”
ABC-7 also learned another fact through research: The last time UMC froze merit increases for all employees was 2011. Valenti accepted his bonus that year, too.
