Chronicle lies about SF AIDS Foundation exec's $207K salary

When it comes to AIDS accountability, the SF Chronicle is the worst paper for such accountability. For many years, AIDS activists have complained about the high salaries of executives at the SF AIDS Foundation, especially the head, Pat Christen. But the criticism rarely made it into the paper.

According to the foundation's IRS 990 tax return, available at http://www.sfaf.org, Christen's excessive salary last year was $207,000-plus. But don't tell such a fact to the Chronicle's AIDS reporter Chris Heredia.

In today's surprising Chronicle story about layoffs and salary cuts at the foundation, Heredia alleges Christen makes $185,000. So the IRS tax returns shows Christen earned $207,000, but the Chronicle says her pay is $185,000. There is a $22,000 difference here. The Chronicle, if it is interested in reporting the truth about AIDS Inc, will print a correction regarding Christen's pay level. If there is no correction in the Chronicle tomorrow, it means, in my opinion, the paper is dedicated to keeping the truth about high AIDS Inc salaries from readers.

On the other hand, the Examiner, which ran an impressive front page story on June 6 about Christen's $207,000 annual pay, today reports the truth about Christen's salary.

I suggest if the Chronicle's lazy Heredia can't be bothered to the read the SFAF tax return on the agency's web site, Heredia and his editor might try reading the Examiner for the truth about how much Christen earns.

Now that both dailies have covered the layoffs and salary cuts at the SFAF, it will be interesting to see if lethargic Cynthia Liar, editor of the BAR, bothers to write about the developments. Of course, Liar will first check with the BAR ad manager since the SFAF is such a big advertiser in the BAR, and Liar will do nothing to jeopardize income from ads.

Michael Petrelis
San Francisco, CA

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http://www.sfexaminer.com/news/d...aids.0619w

June 19, 2002

AIDS group chops staff

BY MICHAEL STOLL
Of The Examiner Staff

The San Francisco AIDS Foundation is laying off about a quarter of its employees in the wake of falling federal aid and poorly performing fund-raising events.

Pat Christen, executive director, is taking a 12 percent pay cut. She has attracted attention for years in the nonprofit community for the size of her salary, which rose to $207,032 last year.

[snip]

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sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...119236.DTL

June 19, 200


Layoffs, pay cuts announced at S.F. AIDS Foundation
Nonprofit blames post-Sept. 11 slump, costs of charity ride

Christopher Heredia, Chronicle Staff Writer




The San Francisco AIDS Foundation said Tuesday that it was laying off 28
employees and that managers were taking a 10 percent pay cut in the face of a
$2.5 million budget shortfall.

Managers broke the news to employees Tuesday after weeks of discussions with
staff about the need for belt-tightening and layoffs. The cutbacks are
effective June 30.

Pat Christen, executive director of the foundation, whose $185,000 salary
will be cut by 12 percent, blamed the cutbacks on the post-Sept. 11 economy
and the costly launch of a new AIDS charity ride.


[snip]