Bevin has a new highest-paid employee thanks to a $215,000 raise

Tom Loftus | Courier Journal

Show Caption Hide Caption From governors to state workers, CJ Data breaks down Kentuckiana public salaries The Courier Journal is launching a new section of public information called CJ Data. This salary comparison is a preview of what's to come.

The director of Kentucky's Office of Technology was awarded a $215,000 annual raise this month.

Charles Grindle now earns $375,000 a year, making him the highest-paid employee within Bevin's administration.

The raise is included in a budget that provides no raises for teachers or state government workers.

Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that Charles Grindle is a member of Gov. Matt Bevin's cabinet. Rather, he reports to Finance and Administration Cabinet Secretary William Landrum, who is a member of the cabinet.

FRANKFORT, Ky. — Gov. Matt Bevin gave his chief of information technology a $215,000 increase in salary this month — a raise of 134 percent.

Charles Grindle is now being paid $375,000 a year in his job as executive director of the Commonwealth Office of Technology, according to the state government's online database of employee salaries.

That salary makes Grindle the highest-paid employee within the Bevin administration, making far more than double what Bevin makes ($145,992).

Prior to the raise Grindle was making $160,000 a year — a salary that itself was among the very highest in state government.

The raise was awarded at the time of a two-year state budget that provides no raises for state government workers or teachers, and the median wage growth in the United States for the past year was 3.3 percent before accounting for inflation, according to the website of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.

Search through the Courier Journal's salary database here

Grindle is a retired U.S. Army colonel who holds two master's degrees and a doctoral degree and before joining state government in late 2017 had headed a company called Lone Star Graphics. Records of Bevin's 2015 election campaign committee show it purchased some information technology services from Lone Star Graphics, which is in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

Grindle did not return a phone call seeking comment. Bevin's communications office did not respond to an email seeking comment.

The Kentucky Finance and Administration Cabinet, where the Commonwealth Office of Technology is located, released a statement saying the raise "was necessary to recruit and retain the best talent for this position, as CIOs are in high demand in the private sector."

The statement said cost savings realized by the technology office under Grindle's leadership already have paid for his raise many times over.

"Under his leadership the Commonwealth saw $2.9 million in immediate cost reductions created by managing consulting contracts and video conferencing. His plan for a new converged server and storage infrastructure will create an estimated $3 million in annual savings beginning in Fiscal Year 2019," the statement said.

But state Rep. Jim Wayne, D-Louisville, said he didn't think the raise is appropriate. "Surely we can find someone who is dedicated and highly qualified at a much more reasonable salary," he said.

Wayne said he may be more upset with legislation he voted against at the end of the 2018 legislative session that allowed the raise for Grindle.

That legislation was a last-minute bill to make changes to the 2018-20 state budget bill that had already passed. One of its provisions — included at the Bevin administration's request — exempted the job of executive director of the Commonwealth Office of Technology from a state law that caps salaries for state government jobs at about $163,992.

"I voted against that because of the way it was done," Wayne said of last-minute legislation that was never heard by a legislative committee. "It was an abuse of power."

Last December, Finance and Administration Cabinet Secretary William Landrum announced Grindle's appointment as state government's chief information officer.

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A news release at the time said Grindle is a graduate of Washington and Jefferson College in Pennsylvania who earned both master's and doctoral degrees from the University of Pittsburgh's School of Information Science. He has a second master's degree from the U.S. Army War College.

During his 29 years in the military, he was an Army information technology and field artillery officer and won numerous decorations, including the Legion of Merit and the Bronze Star.

"I am extremely pleased to have Chuck join our team as CIO," Landrum said in the news release. "His breadth of experience and depth of knowledge will be instrumental as we continue transitioning to enterprise-wide technology platforms."

Grindle said in the news release, "I feel confident we can build upon the work already being done while also challenging our IT team to embrace new thinking, deploy new technologies, and improve the Commonwealth's technology platforms to make state government more accessible to citizens."

The personal financial disclosure form Grindle filed with the Executive Branch Ethics Commission in April shows he had been president of Lone Star Graphics.

Last month the Courier Journal reported on salaries of highly paid state government officials and at that time the online state government database listed Grindle's salary at $160,000.

His new salary of $375,000 now puts him at the top of the list over Robert King, president of the Council on Postsecondary Education, whose salary is listed at $360,000.

Grindle's salary far exceeds those of even other specialists brought into state government by Bevin for particular jobs whose high salaries drew criticism. They include Vivek Sarin, Economic Development Cabinet chief of staff, who makes $250,000, and former state "adoption czar" Dan Dumas, who was hired under a $240,000 annual contract but left the job without explanation.

Tom Loftus: tloftus@courierjournal.com; Twitter: @TomLoftus_CJ. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: courier-journal.com/toml.