OPINION

Dear friends,

Last week I shared with you that Andre Bouchard, Delaware Chancery Court Chancellor, unsubscribed from my distribution list. While he’ll be missing out on my Coastal Network news, one thing I have heard, he won’t be missing out on is money. He seems to be swimming in it and drives a fancy Bentley.

Perhaps all his money was legitimately earned in the private sector or inherited? We will never know because of Delaware’s archaic laws which allow judges to hide assets from public scrutiny.

Further bothering me, he’s among the highest-paid “public” servants living on your tax dollars making a little less than $200,000 per year! I find this irritating, since this man from some of his court ordered actions, in my opinion lives on serving himself and his cronies, who he has seemingly made quite wealthy from the TransPerfect case, rather than serving justice. See the Delaware News Journal story below on our highest-paid state government workers.

Do you think he takes that responsibility by showing unbiased leadership? I think not. He is a scoundrel in my opinion. The amount of money, I have learned from my reliable sources, that he took from TransPerfect and its employees is staggering. To add insult to injury, he apparently continues to authorize and enforce an outrageous “pay-off” to his old firm Skadden Arps in an amount over $100,000 per month on average, for two years after the case. Bouchard then seals the details of their disputed “work” so the public nor TransPerfect officials cannot see or challenge it. I wish this was fiction, but from my research, although amazing, it appears to me to be an unbelievable reality — and Delaware just seems to let the looting continue.

While he makes top money financed by OUR tax dollars, in my view, he’s no leader. No one in Delaware should ever have to wonder about verdicts being bought and sold in the hard-to- catch world of “favor banks” — but in my opinion, it happens regularly in Bouchard’s Chancery Court. There are many appearances of impropriety that are apparent to the objective observer.

This Court should lead by example — with full transparency — especially in the wake of all these allegations of judicial misconduct. But no! The Good Old Boys Network won’t investigate — they just pathetically circle the wagons to protect their own — and themselves.

I call for Andre Bouchard to step down — but if you’re going to stay — against what’s best for Delaware — and continue to serve your rich, powerful cronies — then open the Skadden Arps billing records!?!

Folks, I would love to hear your thoughts on what I see as the opposite of public service and leadership at the very top of our Chancery Court. Please let me know what you think.

Yours truly,

JUDSON Bennett, Coastal Network

https://www.delawareonline.com/search/top-paid%20workers

Majority of Delaware’s top-paid state workers are men, four women make more than $200,000

Here’s the top paid public employees in Delaware

These ten public employees made over $200,000 each in 2018.

Jenna Miller, The News Journal

Twenty-two of Delaware’s 30 highest-paid state workers are men.

That’s according to salary figures from the Office and Management and Budget as of August.

Of the top 10 paid men in 2019, nine earn a regular salary that tops $200,000 per year. That doesn’t include any extra pay such as stipends, benefits or overtime.

Four of the top 10 paid women make that much, and the highest-paid female state worker makes less than the top three male workers.

The names include several of the 21 state employees who earned more than $200,000 in 2018.

Twenty-two of Delaware’s 30 highest-paid state workers are men.

That’s according to salary figures from the Office and Management and Budget as of August.

Of the top 10 paid men in 2019, nine earn a regular salary that tops $200,000 per year. That doesn’t include any extra pay such as stipends, benefits or overtime.

Four of the top 10 paid women make that much, and the highest-paid female state worker makes less than the top three male workers.

The names include several of the 21 state employees who earned more than $200,000 in 2018.

Nine of the top 10 paid men make more than $200,000 per year

  1. Mark Brainard, president of Delaware Technical Community College
    SALARY: $249,900
  2. Dr. Gary Collins, chief medical examiner at the Division of Forensic Science
    SALARY: $245,092
  3. Dr. Richard Margolis, medical director of the Department of Services for Children, Youth, and their Families
    SALARY: $237,751
  4. Dr. Francis Krolikowski, Division of Forensic Science assistant medical examiner
    SALARY: $227,000
  5. Dr. Clarence Watson, former medical director of the Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health
    SALARY: $216,673

    Watson left his position for a job out of state in August, according to a health department spokesperson.

  6. 6. Mark Holodick, Brandywine School District superintendent
    SALARY: $206,626
  7. 7. Leo Strine, retiring Supreme Court chief justice
    SALARY: $206,148
  8. 8. Dr. Rick Hong, medical director at the Division of Public Health
    SALARY: $204,000
  9. 9. Dr. Gerard Gallucci, Delaware Psychiatric Center Residency Program director
    SALARY: $200,214
  10. 10. Supreme Court Justices Collins Seitz, Gary Traynor and James T. Vaughn are tied for 10th place
    SALARIES: $197,245

Four of the top 10 paid women make more than $200,000 per year

1. & 2. Tied for highest paid female state employee are Dr. Jennie Vershvovsky and Dr. Jennifer Swartz, both Division of Forensic Science assistant medical examiners
SALARIES: $227,000

3. Dr. Awele Nwamalubia Maduka-Ezeh, medical director for the Delaware Department of Correction
SALARY: $222,230

4. Dr. Sherry Ann Nykiel, chief psychiatrist at the Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health
SALARY: $215,657

5. Karen Valihura, Supreme Court justice
SALARY: $197,245

Valihura makes the same as her male colleagues — Supreme Court Justices Vaughn, Traynor and Seitz — who are tied for the 10th highest paid male government worker.

6. Jan Reed Jurden, Superior Court president judge
SALARY: $196,738

Jurden makes the same as Court of Chancery Chancellor Andre Bouchard and Family Court Chief Judge Michael Newell, neither of whom made the list of top 10 highest male earners.

7 & 8. Dolly Mishra and Ramita Shrestha, psychiatrists at the Delaware Psychiatric Center, are tied.
SALARIES: $195,139

Mishra and Shrestha make the same as their male counterpart, Daniel Michael Grimes, who didn’t make the top 10 for men.

9 & 10. Tied are Delaware’s three female vice chancellors in the Court of Chancery; six female Superior Court judges and 10 female Family Court judges.
SALARIES: $185,444
Those female judges make the same as their male counterparts.
Despite being among the top 10 highest compensated women, none of them are in the top 30 paid state workers. They’re still behind several men on the list:

  • Delaware State Police Colonel Nathaniel McQueen, who makes $195,090
  • Court of Common Pleas Chief Judge Alex Smalls, who makes $194,541
  • Christina School District superintendent Richard Gregg, who makes $188,181
  • Colonial School District superintendent Dolan Blakey, who makes $186,560
  • Three health department psychiatrists — Nathan Lawrence Centers, David Sibley and Duane Shubert — each of whom make $185,497