Pirate's Cove

It’s not a heck of a lot of money in government terms, but, these are government employees, not secret police

John Kerry’s Climate office costs taxpayers $4.3M a year, yet he refuses to divulge names

Jet-setting climate czar John Kerry doles out six-figure salaries to all but one lone “policy analyst” in his office who just misses the lofty mark in the first public records release to the Herald from the notoriously secretive presidential envoy.

It’s a rare glimpse into Kerry’s fiefdom that hits up taxpayers for $4.3 million in pay per year, according to records obtained using the Freedom of Information Act.

Kerry, however, does not reveal the names of anyone on his staff and redacts the titles of eight top aides paid up to $186,680 a year.

The 27 entries include brief titles — from “policy analyst” to “senior advisor” — and bi-weekly pay. It’s unclear if Kerry is on the list. Kerry’s Climate website does list Rick Duke and Sue Biniaz as as deputy special envoys, yet the FOIA release does not.

An equally reticent State Department told the Herald they “considered the foreseeable harm standard” in exempting names of government employees and some titles.

That standard did not stop former Labor Secretary Marty Walsh from sharing his staff names, titles, and pay this summer. Walsh, the former mayor of Boston now NHL Players’ Union executive director, earned $203,100 as Labor Secretary.

Pretty much every other federal employee is named, excepting certain intelligence agency employees, like those for the CIA, DIA, and NSA. Are we equating these employees the same as intelligence employees?

James Rosenbaum, branch chief of Statutory Compliance for the State Department, cites the exemption that argues adding names of Kerry’s employees “would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of an individual’s personal privacy.”

Federal government watchdog Michael Chamberlain, director of Protect the Public’s Trust, said it all is in lockstep with Kerry’s disdain for transparency.

“Once again, the lack of transparency from John Kerry’s secretive State Department Office of the Special Presidential Envoy for Climate is not only stunning but, sadly, par for the course,” said Chamberlain.

“What little information this document does reveal is that the median salary of folks who work for him hovers around $170,000 per year. And what does the American public get for that?” he added, saying that Kerry’s “disturbing level of influence on foreign policy to powerful left-leaning special interests” should not go unchecked.

This also makes it a lot harder to track where all the other money for this group is going to. What are they spending, and spending it on? Not just salaries. What deals and such are they negotiating with other countries that we know nothing about? What are they doing overall? We do not know. It’s all secret. Why?