Seattle’s homeless czar is not overpaid

George Scarola started his job as the homeless czar of Seattle Wednesday.

Scarola is going to direct the city’s homeless efforts, with the goal — in a perfect world — to end homelessness. In reality, what it’s meant to do is to get as close to ending the crisis as possible.

Scarola was executive director of the Sand Point Community Housing Project and, in general, I like his background. Not all of it – he is very much a liberal. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, I just hope it doesn’t mean he’s going to use the same failed policies that other well-intentioned, ideologically liberal city leaders have used to address homelessness in the past.

I’m hoping he’s going to push aside politics and look at things that might actually make a dent in the homeless situation in the city. As we know, over the last 10 years that King County and the City of Seattle has put this goal for homelessness out there, the situation has gotten worse. And I would argue it’s gotten worse because we are too stubbornly ideological. We keep pushing liberal agendas that don’t work because they’re liberal. It’s the same way when a Conservative only push conservative policy that is fueled and informed by a Republican belief. We’ve got to stop that.

Related: Bill Bryant challenges Gov. Inslee to debate on homelessness

So I hope that George Scarola is able to succeed. You should also want him to succeed. We complain about nothing being done about homelessness all the time, about the disgust we feel over seeing people living in squalor – in places we wouldn’t want our worst enemies to live.

That leads me to the one particular issue that people are jumping on: His salary. Scarola will be paid $137,500 per year by the city. I’ve heard the swipes, including from my fellow KIRO host Dori Monson.

“That’s what government’s about here,” Dori said, “It’s not about solving the problem — I’ve told you this a million times. It’s about rewarding the buddies, the cronies, the insiders, the party officials. $135,000 a year, at least we know this one guy won’t be homeless. We’re solving homelessness one Democratic politician at a time.”

His first point is somewhat valid. We do seem to recycle the same well-connected people over and over again. The second point, with all due respect to Dori, is wrong. It’s unfair and ridiculous to go after this guy for making $137,000. My rationale: If all goes according to plan and, for the sake of argument, homelessness ends, isn’t it worth that salary? Isn’t $137,500 to solve a problem that wastes hundreds of millions of dollars over lifetimes? That’s called a good return on investment — a really good return on investment. How many millions are we putting into homelessness without results? KTTH’s Michael Medved is also reasonably skeptical but on the right track.

“All that you can say is it can’t get worse,” Medved said. “Maybe this can bring some attention and coordination. I think that’s the idea, isn’t it? Clearly, Mayor Murray is incapable of being a homeless czar.”

Here’s the thing, $137,500 is not an exorbitant amount of money. It’s nowhere near as much as CEO’s earn and Conservatives generally don’t complain about that. We see CEO as a big, important job to do for many people. It also brings in millions in profits. Just because this guy is working for a government agency doesn’t mean the same rules don’t apply.

The only thing that’s different is that someone like this who is making a lot of money – that you and I are paying for – better get results and he better actually listen to what we want. His policies need to be aligned with the voters. Because we’re his boss.

So before you get upset about how much he’s making, just remember the end goal.

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