I screwed up my knee skiing which is for sure is a right of passage in Aspen. Only a partial ACL tear and some other strained ligaments and such. Not too bad, but my skis are gathering dust while the snow is pretty sweet. It sucks but it's just part of being an Aspenite.
And of course my wife had to one up my a couple days later breaking her wrist while ski instructing trying to save a never ever from falling on the magic carpet. Mrs Greenacres always grabs the attention.
Last week Derek Johnson was sentenced to 6 years in jail for stealing a lot of skis from his employer and selling them on ebay. If ya want some of the juicy details a quick google search should help or you can find some here article on derek johnson sentencing
A couple of things leapt out at me---one was the hand wringing over sending a family man to prison (and interestingly his wife will do no time in the clink so that the children aren't left without a felon (I mean parent) at home to help the Johnson kids grow into fine adults). Somehow you don't see the same concern with separating refugee children from their parents when they enter the US looking for asylum. But I am gonna drop that political hangrande and point out something different.
The article notes that Derek was one of the highest paid Aspen Ski Co employees making $116k a year. While I really wonder if $116k makes him a high paid ski co employee, I can tell you it is barely a living wage for someone living in Aspen with 3 children. Even with employee housing (and the Johnson's have an amazing employee home) that salary doesn't go far in the suburbs of St. Louis and really doesn't go far in Aspen. And Derek had a very senior role at Ski Co overseeing their entire retail business. That is pretty big business and includes a lot of employees. SVP at REI for merchandising is making $750k --yes for sure that is a much bigger job, but while Kent Washington isn't cheap you can buy a pretty sweet home for $400 a square foot there ---you are looking at double that for a spot in the trailer park in Aspen. And while Derek isn't likely to be a engineer at Google anytime soon starting salaries there are over $100k.
So the first thing that kinda surprised me was how little Ski Co was paying one of their senior executives. Another thing was the tone that I often hear from some locals that comp is pretty good--even the judge pointed out that 116k is in the top 10% of salaries in the country. That kinda talk both ignores the cost of living in Aspen, and what would be a competitive compensation for a retail store sales manager with his number of stores, revenue and headcount. Why do so many Aspenites get bent out of shape when they hear about a local making 6 figures? I see this regarding the superintendent of schools or the city manager as well. If you want to hire and retain good people, you got to pay and many Aspen locals seem stuck 80s in terms of what is a good salary. Which is weird when our home prices are up about 2000% over that period of time.
I am not at all saying that if Ski Co paid Derek better he wouldn't have stolen thousands of skis over more than a decade, but I am saying this town might want to think about how it pays people and why there sometimes seems to be a bitter edge (jealousy) regarding other locals' compensation.
