“Please sir, I want some more”

What do you get for lying to Colorado state legislators when you testify in front of them?  If you’re Connect for Health Colorado’s CEO Patty Fontneau, you get a $14,000 bonus and an almost $5,000 raise.

Where do we even start with this mess?  Fontneau’s audacity to ask for a raise as her organization was experiencing a horrendous rollout?  Her organization’s proposal to raise fees on people not even getting their healthcare through her exchange (someone’s got to pay for her raise)?  When she went before Colorado state legislators and claimed C4HCO didn’t need to be audited because the federal government was doing that, only to have The Colorado Observer reveal last week this was a complete lie?  Or, the timing of this raise coming conveniently less than a week after the Colorado state legislator just adjourned for the year?

As The Denver Post reports today:

Connect for Health Colorado’s board gave chief executive Patty Fontneau a 2.5 percent raise and a $14,291 bonus Monday morning.

Fontneau’s salary for this year increases to $195,314, making her the third-highest paid executive of an independent state health exchange under the Affordable Care Act. Only the California and Connecticut exchanges pay their chief executives more.

Yep, certainly sounds to us like C4HCO doesn’t need a single audit by the state of Colorado.  We mean, why should we be concerned Fontneau is receiving a bonus and a raise at the same time she and the bureaucracy she is running claims it can’t pay its own bills?  She’s already claimed she’s cut all expenses to the bare bones.  Bare bones is a $14,000 bonus?  What’s the non bare bones bonus? A private island for Fontneau?

So far, we only know of this bonus that Fontneau’s receiving, but what about the rest of the chiefs at C4HCO?  Will the chief marketer, or the chief technology officer be getting comparable bonuses?  They’re already paying them millions. This is the exact reason we need an independent legislative audit, so we know these answers.  That way, when Fontneau sets aside her jewels and furs to come beg poverty for increased fees in front of the legislature, it has the ability to call her out on her BS.