We're Sorry for Costing David Petraeus $199,999
Two weeks ago, Gawker contributor JK Trotter published evidence that the City University of New York was offering General David Petraeus a $200,000 salary for conducting a seminar on "developments that could position the United States...to lead the world out of the current global economic slowdown." Faced with only three hours a week of real work, the disgraced former CIA chief was set to be paid about eight times the salary of a first-time adjunct professor at CUNY, and all without having to teach a full course load. Today, it looks as if that deal has been scrapped.
According to a new article from the New York Times, Petraeus and CUNY have now decided that a $1 salary is probably more appropriate for the general's cushy gig.
On Monday, it was announced that Mr. Petraeus would, on second thought, teach for just $1.
“The general never was taking on this teaching assignment for the money,” said Robert Barnett, Mr. Petraeus’s lawyer, who, along with CUNY, confirmed the salary change.
“Once controversy arose about the amount he was being paid, he decided it was much more important to keep the focus on the students, on the school and on the teaching, and not have it be about the money,” Mr. Barnett added, so Mr. Petraeus proposed waiving his salary “to remove money as a point of controversy.”
Mr. Petraeus declined to comment.
The minor controversy within this controversy has been that General Petraeus' CUNY salary was actually going to be $150,000, a paltrier amount he supposedly agreed to after being offered up to $200,000 by the school's administration. But as the Times notes, evidence of the $150,000 salary agreement is bolstered only by shaky proof.
Either way, the general is now getting about enough to cover a cup of terrible coffee at a deli. Don't spend it all in one place.
[Image via AP]