Don Smiley’s Latest Paycheck Was $991,154

Don Smiley speaks to the media. Photo taken December 8th, 2016 by Michael Horne.

2021 was a good year for Summerfest President Don Smiley. He collected total compensation of $991,154, just shy of one million dollars, according to the most recent federal tax form compiled by Summerfest’s parent organization, Milwaukee World Festivals (MWF).

“Wow. That’s a lot of money,” said Milwaukee Alderman Michael Murphy, who has a been a watchdog of the festival, in an interview with Urban Milwaukee

“Oh my God, that’s insane,” said Ald. Jonathan Brostoff, who joined the Common Council just eight months ago and is not used to the kind of compensation Smiley routinely collects. In 2020 Summerfest’s boss garnered $1.29 million and in 2019 he got 1.19 million in total compensation, as Urban Milwaukee has previously reported.

Over the last five years Smiley has collected $6.56 million, including some $1.3 million in bonuses deferred from prior years. Smiley has likely collected similar compensation in 2022 and this year, which he has announced is his last as Summerfest president.

“I’ve always felt his position is overpaid, when you compare it to the president of Wisconsin State Fair, which is a similar festival except it has greater attendance, and the director of it earns much less,” said Murphy.

Smiley’s compensation in 2020 was nine times more than the annual salary of State Fair director Kathleen O’Leary, which was $140,130 that year. O’Leary retired in 2021 and was replaced byShari Black, whose salary last year was $143,821.

Officials with Summerfest declined to comment on Smiley’s payout, but in the past they have said that his compensation is “evaluated by an independent firm, Mercer. Mercer’s study took all job responsibilities into consideration when studying Mr. Smiley’s compensation, such as festival management, fund raising, construction management, facilities management, and the production of hosting over 35 annual events. The resulting package, including retirement benefits as well as deferred compensation, is aligned with the results of the study.”

However the festival declined to provide any copies of the annual evaluation. or a list of comparable salaries at other organizations used to determine Smiley’s compensation.

In past comments to Urban Milwaukee, MWF Board Chair Howard Sosoff said Milwaukee World Festival considers itself “a private corporation” and determines the compensation for Smiley based on comparisons to executives at for-profit companies. Sosoff’s predecessor as MWF board chair, Ted Kellner, took a similar line, saying Smiley’s pay was in line with that of for-profit CEOs.

“They view themselves as a private corporation and they operate as such,” said downtown Alderman Bob Bauman, whose district includes the area where Summerfest is located. “That’s what private corporations do, they pay their CEOs astronomical amounts of money.”

But in fact, the organization’s mission statement on its federal tax form describes itself as “a civic organization not organized for profit but operated exclusively for charitable and educational purposes.”

It also described itself as a public charity and noted that the “reason for public charity status” is that it is an “organization that normally receives a substantial part of its support from a governmental unit or from the general public.”

Summerfest was founded by the City of Milwaukee, was heavily subsidized by the city (some $42 million through one TIF plan alone) in its early decades and still pays much lower rent for city land it uses than for-profit entities like Harbor House, as Urban Milwaukee has reported.

As for support from the public, its tax form shows it received $63.6 million in gifts, grants and contributions in the five years from 2017 through 2021. It is also exempt from federal, state and local taxes, meaning it is subsidized by taxpayers.

The 25-member Summerfest board of directors has three members appointed by government: one each by the city’s mayor and Common Council president and one by the Milwaukee County Executive. But as of last year none of them served on the board’s personnel committee that oversees Smiley’s compensation.

As for who is on the personnel committee this year, or the list of MWF board members, its website offers no information on this. In March the group announced that Mary Ellen Stanek, the Managing Director of Robert W. Baird & Co. and President of the Baird Funds, will succeed Sosoff aa chairperson of the MWF Board of Directors.

For some years the festival gave many free Summerfest tickets to council members, but that hadn’t happened in at least 25 years, noted Murphy, the longest serving member of the council. But this year Summerfest gave each council member “a huge pile of tickets,” Bauman noted. “We didn’t ask for them.”

Some in City Hall have questioned whether the gesture was meant to curry favor with the alders, but Murphy said he saw nothing “nefarious” on the part of Summerfest. Nonetheless, Murphy, Bauman and Brostoff all said they don’t intend to use the tickets or give any of them away.

“I want to avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest,” Murphy said.

“I didn’t touch them,” said Brostoff.