If the spot’s still open, here’s my candidate for the Time Magazine “Man of the Year”: Fresno County School Supervisor, Larry Powell.
In case you missed it, this person decided to let go of $800000 in salary over the next three and a half years. The reason for his decision? He didn’t need it and he wanted to protect his pet projects from budget cuts and help restore faith in government officials.
In an era of political corruption scandals and massive unemployment in his region, Mr. Powell was looking to make a difference. While others look to take more out of the system, he decided to put some back. Among the projects he wanted to protect, is one geared to getting B and C students into college by teaching them note-taking and strategy skills.
“How much do we need to keep accumulating?” That’s the question that drives the Powell’s decision. To achieve his plan, he worked out a deal to retire and then get hired back at a much lower wage. In fact, he will be earning just $31000 a year. That’s about $10000 less than the starting salary for a teacher in the district.
There are two things that set him apart in my book. One is the realization that just because you can command a massive salary it doesn’t mean you should. In a cash strapped region, he and his wife decided they had all they needed and had no reason to take more. It’s hard to imagine a more radical idea in today’s world.
Oh wait, there is ONE idea that’s more radical, and it’s the other big reason he should receive “Man of the Year”. Mr. Powell didn’t feel the need to tell anyone what he was doing. It wasn’t until four days after the board meeting, that word got out. When it seems everyone is fighting for the spotlight, he didn’t feel the need. There were no press conferences to tell everyone what a great thing he was doing. Instead of a publicity stunt that could have landed him on half the talk-shows in the country, the privacy of his action is the hallmark of it’s authenticity.
Larry Powell: Time Magazine’s Man of the Year! Probably not, but he should be. He would make a great role model for us all.
Cheers, Winston
Brain Bits To Go 
Fresno is in really bad shape. Forget the general economy issues, when the feds shut the water off to the valley irrigation projects because of the smelt, the farms took a beating. Unemployment in that area reached as high as 39% in 2009, and has only “improved” to just under 20% now.
The fact that this guy took the cut is admirable…Man of the Year though? He stated he doesn’t “need” the money. I’d be more inclined to give the Man of the Year award to someone who NEEDED the money, yet gave it away. There are still people like that around.
Oh, and I’ll add, my pastor stopped taking a salary years ago, and on top of that, from his book royalties, has payed back the 24 years of salary that he had taken prior to the book taking off. When Larry does that, then he has my FULL respect.
I’m impressed that your pastor was willing and able to do that. I have a couple of thoughts to add myself. If he was able to pay back his salary out of book royalties, I don’t think he NEEDED the money either. While I realize that your pastor’s salary is paid by the congregation, his decision doesn’t really have an impact on anyone outside of the Church and it’s ministry. Because Larry Powell is an elected official, his decision directly affects the amount of money available to the school board to maintain programs across the district.
All of that is beside the point anyway. It was all to say that people like him were more deserving of the title than many I have seen grace the “Man of the Year” cover over the years.
Cheers, Winston
Actually, Win, he also gives 90% of the royalties he currently makes to various charities. He replaced the librarys of 400 churches that lost everything in Katrina…
…so to say he hasn’t impacted anyone outside the church is waaaaaaaaaaaaaay off base. He’s helped plant more churches world wide, his wife has started more aids clinics in africa, they are involved in helping with the reconcilliation process in Rwanda…
I would say his impact is far greater than Larry’s ever will be.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not minimizing what Larry has done…but there are people who have given and achieved far more
I take your point Greg, but you also help to make mine. I’m willing to bet that most of the various charities he supports are Christian based. He replaced 400 Church libraries. He’s helped plant more Churches worldwide. That’s why I can say it isn’t impacting beyond the Church. He is impacting beyond Saddleback, but not beyond the Church. If he had replaced school libraries after Katrina, or planted schools worldwide, I’d be editing my post as we speak.
The aids clinics are a wonderful thing to do. I am just curious whether they are just treating aids, or are they promoting Christian values at the same time? If it’s the former, I would really like more information as I would love to do a post on it. If it’s the latter, I’ve never been a fan of Missionaries. Some have done great things for people, but overall, not so much. Which brings me to the reconciliation process in Rwanda. I would again need to know how they are helping before I become a fan of it. I’m not being sarcastic, I would genuinely like to know more about their involvement.
All of which is to say, I wasn’t literally saying that I wanted Larry’s face on time magazine. The point was that an elected, public official giving up his salary for the good of those who elected him was rare. He and those like him are more deserving of Man of the Year than most of those normally seen on the cover.
It wasn’t about who gives more. For that, I’d have to write about Bill Gates, Richard Branson and people like that. It wasn’t about giving the most, it was about putting your money where your mouth is. Instead of whining for higher taxes to pay for the programs he wanted to protect, Larry gave up his salary to achieve it. As a Tea Party supporter, I figured you of all people would see the awesome in that. If that type of pragmatism spread, it would do more to fight the deficit than any amount of wrangling on either of our Capital Hills.
Actually, Regarding Aids,
The issue is with education, but in many remotely related areas. The spread of aids in Africa is largely due to the victimization of women through rapes, landgrabs (forcing them into prostitution) and birth. Kay steps out of typical church doctrine by doing several things.
Their group advocates the use of condoms: through the PEACE program, they send doctors and lawyers to advocate for the victims of rape and landgrabs. Its not about someone going overseas and standing up in front of an audience and talking about aids and leaving, They educate the local churches to followup and create clinics to prevent diseases.
Using Rwanda as an example, 90% of the population is more than 1 days walk from a hospital or clinic. Conversely every community has a church. It is the churches JOB to serve the community in ways that are necessary, and whether it is educating about Aids, fighting trafficking, educating members of the community to become first responder’s and provide the ongoing type treatment (vaccinations, etc) that is needed.
And no one is asked if they are Christian, so they don’t just serve the church. If he gives his money to christian charities, no one has to show an ID card to collect.
I just gave you examples of what they have done, I didn’t give you a complete litany of their life’s work. But then, that’s whey Rick was up for Time’s Man of the Year in 2008.
That’s the information I asked for, and I’m glad to have it. If the education and assistance are given freely to any who ask with no strings attached, that is worth celebrating. I will do some additional research and there is an excellent chance of a post about their work as soon as I’ve got the facts and figures for it.
Thank you for the clarification.
And regarding your last sentence… I said in my initial post “The fact that this guy took the cut is admirable…”
Don’t get me wrong, I was not being unsupportive, But one of your posts to follow rags on CEO’s for their million dollar paychecks…this is a public servant who was making a million working for the government.
The CEO who runs a successful business can raise his (and everyone’s) paychecks when profits increase…how does a government increase profits to afford paychecks of 800,000? By raising revenue through taxes.
So, yeah, I’d LOVE to buy this guy a prime rib dinner, but in the grand scheme of things, he’s really done nothing. Fresno county has a population of 917,515. So he saved every resident slightly over .81 cents. Monetarily, what he did really wasn’t significant at all. And if I remember correctly, each school in the county gained a couple thousand dollars, not nearly enough to save any of the programs that were cut.
BUT…he did show integrity, and for that, he deserves to be SOMEONES man of the year, but not so sure he’d make Time magazines list.