Panacek's Vision
Re: "Not Child's Pay" by Francis X. Gilpin (Feb. 6-12)
The negative slant begins with the title and its subtext: "Not Child's Pay, The head of Hillsborough County clearinghouse for funding youth programs gets a big raise amid cutbacks elsewhere and grumbling about her larger-than-local focus." Brushing over Dr. Luanne Panacek's accomplishments and giving lots of ink to her detractors while omitting comments from six board members who voted for her raise is not balanced reporting.
Panacek's role as a visionary to positively influence locally and nationally policies that affect children and families is exactly what she should be doing. As a former executive director of social service programs, I know that real change will not occur as long as we continue to pursue the same old ways of evaluating and funding these programs. At a fundraising seminar, a consultant once told the story of babies floating down the river and people going over and one by one rescuing the babies and taking them to safety. She said that someone had to move away from that myopic view and go up the river to see why the babies were floating downstream. Panacek's work to influence national policies and to assure that the Children's Board's decision-making rests on a solid foundation of systemic thinking, advocacy, planning and evaluation is critical to the meaningful transformation of children's services.
I'm in agreement with the six out seven board members who voted to give Panacek the pay raise. She deserves it. She is raising the bar on CEOs' performance at social service agencies for making profound and lasting change.
Jan Roberts
Tampa
Clarification The advertisement endorsing Frank Sanchez for mayor in last week's Planet was paid for by Alan Kahana.
This article appears in Feb 20-26, 2002.