OTTUMWA — Parents and supporters may have had time to digest the news that Boy Scouts of America executives in Iowa received “big” salaries, but they said the news still isn’t going down easy.

“Those guys are drawing those big salaries and not thinking about the scouts,” contends David Wright, a former scout master who is the father of two Eagle Scouts. “Our scouts are working hard to pay those salaries, [yet] they are cutting programs.”

Wright was referring especially to the recent discontinuation of funding for a summer camp at Camp Wapello near Drakesville

“They said it was costing too much. You’ve got to think of the scouts instead of these big salaries. That’s just how I feel,” said Wright. “The [Des Moines] Register said the outgoing scout executive was making $175,000. And he’s getting money for retirement and a bonus.”

“It [doesn’t] seem right,” agreed Kathy Fortney, a scouting mom from Eldon. “We weren’t aware the board decided to give him all this money.”

Yet the new director of the Mid-Iowa Council of the Boy Scouts of America said some of the information floating around the water coolers is not 100 percent accurate. Bob Hopper said he wants to communicate with scouting families and that if they understood some of the financial situation a little more, communicating might be easier. While many Americans are uncomfortable discussing their personal information — like salary — he said because of the law, all such information is publicly available.

“As a not-for-profit, we are required to file a Form 990 with the IRS. All that information is on there; under IRS regulations you can look up our Form-990,” he said. “All of our salaries, the salary ranges, are set at the national level [by the BSA]. That range is [applicable] whether you’re in Des Moines or in Miami.”

Depending on tenure or on performance, he said, the local board, all volunteers, can increase that base salary to the top of the range determined by the BSA.

Yet since the IRS has regulations on what executives can earn, the Boy Scouts of America have brought in an outside company to regularly review the salary charts.

“They compare the tasks these positions perform and review our salary charts ... so we don’t go astray of the IRS [regulations] that regulate compensation of not-for-profits. The IRS has really tightened up; I think it’s a lot of good scrutiny.”

As parents in Ottumwa have stated, there will be money paid to Hopper’s predecessor, Eli Brewer. But that annual payment is like a retirement fund set up by a teacher, for example; the employee pays into it, the BSA pays into it; when the employee retires, they can start drawing benefits. The Mid-Iowa Council is “not paying Eli a dime.”

But Wright had asked about the lump sum payment Brewer received, listed in the Des Moines Register as more than $100,000. That, he said, doesn’t sit well when kids are supposed to come first.

“They say there’s not enough to fund summer camp here for scouts, but there is enough to give bonuses,” Wright said.

That was not a bonus, Hopper insists.

The national BSA organization puts a cap on how much councils can pay executives, Hopper said, with the understanding that when an employee hits that ceiling, they may leave their job and go on to a bigger council where they could be paid more.