Perdue pining for UGA president position after office?
August 27, 2009 at 1:46 pm by Thomas Wheatley in NewsPresident Sonny Perdue. It’s got a nice and rather frightening ring to it, dontcha think?
An Insider Advantage piece that says the governor’s rumored to be lining up a post-office position as University of Georgia president recently caught the eyes of those rapscallions at the Marietta Daily Journal. Here’s some of what the MDJ cribbed from the IA article, which is now available only for subscribers:
As the storyline goes, Perdue — who is joined at the hip with UGA President Michael Adams — would consider being named by the Board of Regents as president of the University of Georgia at the end of his term. In exchange for the creation of an open seat via the resignation of Adams, Adams would then be in strong consideration to become the system’s new chancellor. Sound crazy? Well … so did borrowing $21 million in the middle of a world financial meltdown. But Perdue pulled that one off didn’t he?
A commenter at the AJC’s Political Insider column speculates that Perdue’s recent appointment of former House Majority Leader and Georgia Department of Transportation board member Larry Walker to the Board of Regents could help the governor transition from one mansion to another. The two are old buddies.
Perdue’s a UGA alum and would probably be delighted to be one of the few university graduates lucky enough to find a job in the Classic City after throwing his cap in the air. Even if it’s 40 years after the fact.
August 27th, 2009 at 1:50 pm
Ridiculous. Isn’t that an actual job requiring actual skills beyond praying for rain? I don’t know why – i didn’t even go to UGA – but this makes me furious.
August 27th, 2009 at 2:26 pm
Makes sense to me, university presidents are primarily fund-raising politicians.
War Eagle :-)
August 27th, 2009 at 5:04 pm
Unfortunately, there is a lot of truth in this report. It has been known for quite some time that the price of admission to the Board of Regents was a promise to name 3B (the Baldheaded Bastard from Bonaire) as the next President of the University of Georgia. You see, the job pays over $600k and 3B needs the money. Something about an unpaid $21M loan.
And probably, most folks didn’t catch the significance of the small procedural change that was made by the Board of Regents at their last meeting. The Search Committee will now be named by the Regents and NOT by the Chancellor as in the past. Anybody care to bet who the Chairman of the Search Committee will be??? You got it … Good Ole Boy Larrrry Walllker; Childhood friend and fellow real estate investor with 3B. (More skeletons buried there).
If any UGA graduate ever needed a more important reason to vote for Roy Barnes, this is it. Roy will shut down the entire university system before he lets 3B become the next president of the UGA!
August 28th, 2009 at 12:06 pm
If this comes to pass, they should rename UGA, ‘Perdue U.’
August 29th, 2009 at 5:02 pm
Governor Perdue would make an excellent President!
October 23rd, 2009 at 7:49 am
Governor Perdue and the General Assembly have chosen to disregard countless emails to the Governor’s Office regarding the fact that the Board of Regents has NO accountability to anyone. At the very least, they should introduce legislation to bring back the BOR accountability to someone other than themselves. Seth Harp, Chairman of the Senate Higher Education Committee, will not address major unethical practices by the BOR because of the “good ‘ole boy” network.
It is very clear why Perdue looks the other way – he does not want to bite the hand that will be feeding him millions in his “Sonny” retirement – the Board of Regents!
View full story at:
http://www.atlantaunfiltered.com/2009/10/05/university-execs-deferred-pay-often-hidden-tops-7-million/
Recently confirmed compensations via Open Records request to BOR by Jim Walls, Atlanta Unfiltered:
$1,820,697 — Wayne Clough, former Georgia Tech president (includes $500,000 cash, a $38,000 car and a split-dollar life insurance policy valued at $750,000 from the foundation)
$1,666,639 — Carl Patton, retired Georgia State University president
$1,573,606 — Michael Adams, UGA president (includes $786,106 due from the UGA Foundation as of June 2008)
$600,000 — David Bell, Macon State University president (includes $400,000 due from the Macon State foundation)
$495,990 — Thomas Meredith, former University System chancellor (includes $180,990 from the University System of Georgia Foundation)
$480,000 — Daniel Rahn, Medical College of Georgia president
$262,500 — Erroll B. Davis Jr., University System chancellor
$127,000 — Beheruz Sethna, University of West Georgia president
$90,000 — Dan Papp, Kennesaw State University foundation
$75,000 — Bud Peterson, Georgia Tech president since April 1
$7,191,432 – Total
Additional comment made on Political Insider by Zeb:
October 22nd, 2009
5:49 pm
Hello FBI. Hello U.S. Attorney. Hello GBI. Hello Attorney General. Pay for play is standard operating procedure here among the good ol’ boys of Georgia. But you don’t seem to have noticed!
Maybe that is why our state is near the top of every list of shortcomings. Our pols are too busy lining their pockets to notice or care that GA is sinking in the muck.