Pee Wee: "You all remember what to do whenever anybody says the secret word right?"
Scream!
"That's right. For the rest of the day, whenever anybody says the secret word, scream real loud. Ready? Let's try it."
From yesterday's Inquirer, George Burrell, recently retired from his post as John Street's Secretary for External Affairs got a little boost in pay to be CEO of Innovation Philadelphia. You may remember Burrell from his chat with Dave Davies on Radio Times.
While the article includes what Burrell's new salary will be ($225,000) and the salary of departing CEO Richard Bendis ($410,721) it doesn't mention how many jobs "Street's first major jobs-creation program" has actually created... well... aside from Burrell's and Bendis's.
I'm only curious because of the amount of funding the organization has received from the city and because Burrell made an early pitch to keep that money coming:
Innovation Philadelphia draws about 70 percent of its budget from city taxpayers. Specifically, since its founding, the nonprofit has received $11 million from the city, including $2.5 million approved by City Council last month.
Both McCord and Burrell said they wanted to "refine the focus" of the organization, encouraging the building of a "creative economy" and finding ways to involve more minorities in what is known as the knowledge industry, which includes technology and life sciences studies.
Innovation Philadelphia is, Burrell said, "an important part of the mayor's legacy that I would like to see the next mayor pursue when he gets here."
Did he say next mayor?
AAAAAAAHHHHHH!