Brewer's replacement as executive director, Robert Hopper, said that during the last several years of Brewer's employment with the Scouts, he was ineligible for substantial pay raises because of salary guidelines imposed by the national Scouting organization. As a result, he said, the Mid-Iowa Council's board of directors created deferred compensation for him.
"When you have been in a place in a long time, the raises become very small," Hopper said. "The idea is that you should move on. Well, the council board wanted to keep Ely. He was a valued employee with lot of experience. They couldn't actually pay him more, so they deferred some of his compensation.
"And I don't think that's unique to the Mid-Iowa Council. I think other Boy Scout councils have done that, as well. So they took a portion of what his raise would have been, and that was put into a separate account that then was made available to Ely, with interest, upon his retirement."
In addition to the deferred compensation payout, Brewer receives retirement benefits of $48,000 to $60,000 per year, Hopper said. Those payments are similar to traditional retirement benefits provided by for-profit employers in that they include a mix of contributions from both employer and employee.
Deron Smith, spokesman for the national Boy Scouts of America, said the organization provides salary guidelines to local councils and their executive boards.
He said the guidelines are based on a variety of factors, including the local market, size of the council and employees' tenure. He declined to elaborate, because the guidelines "deal with personnel matters, we do not share them outside the organization."
The Mid-Iowa Council spends about $2.6 million per year. Its primary purpose, for which the council has been granted tax-exempt status, is character building through camping and other activities offered to 20,000 youths yearly.
Nationally, the salaries paid to top Scouting executives have become an issue in recent years, partly because of the organization's heavy reliance on unpaid volunteers. Also, many local councils owe their financial stability to the sales efforts of young Scouts who peddle popcorn, candy and cookies to raise money for the organization.
The Mid-Iowa Council, for example, generated $2.9 million in income in 2007; $1.1 million of that came from popcorn sales.
At the national level, the former head of the Boy Scouts of America, Roy Williams, was paid $1.5 million in salary for eight months of work in 2007 and received $2.4 million in other compensation. He retired in September 2007.
Tax records for 2007 indicate Brewer's salary was comparable to those of executives at other, larger Scouting councils around the nation, but higher than those of executives at smaller councils in Iowa.
Among the Iowa salaries:
- Sharon Powell, CEO of Des Moines' Girl Scouts of Moingona Council, which serves 29 central Iowa counties, was paid $119,422 in salary and benefits. The Scouts who belong to this council sold $1.5 million worth of cookies in 2007. That was 67 percent of the organization's income.
- Todd Wordel, the top executive at Waterloo's Winnebago Council of Boy Scouts, was paid $111,267 in salary and benefits and had an expense account worth $6,768. The Winnebago Council raised $1.2 million in 2007, and $656,000 of that was tied to the sale of candy bars and popcorn.
- Tom McDermott, CEO of Davenport's Illowa Council of Boy Scouts, was paid $119,875 in 2007. That same year, the council collected $1.5 million in revenue, $675,000 of which was related to popcorn sales.
- T. Edmund Brandon, the top executive at Cedar Rapids' Hawkeye Council of Boy Scouts, was paid $114,379 in 2007. That same year, the council collected $1.6 million in total revenue.
Source: DesMoinsRegister.com