GPB producer quits in protest of Rogers' hiring, salary

A little more than a month after former State Sen. Chip Rogers resigned his seat to take a high-paying job with Midtown-based Georgia Public Broadcasting (GPB), an executive producer and 15-year employee at GPB has quit in protest, saying the hiring of the former State Senate Majority Leader “stinks of  cronyism.”

Rogers began his $150,000-a-year job as a executive producer on Tuesday at GPB, located at 260 14th Street. Late last year, GPB announced it was launching a new initiative in which it would facilitate coverage of economic development and jobs in Georgia.

Rogers was hired to spearhead the initiative with a statewide, weekly radio program that will examine current economic development trends and highlighting companies that are growing and creating jobs.

But on the day this week that the former lawmaker from Woodstock began his new job, Ashlie Wilson Pendley submitted her resignation letter to GPB President and CEO Teya Ryan. The letter, which was leaked to the advocacy group BetterGeorgia.com, can be viewed here.

Pendley was upset over the salary the Rogers is to be paid while some GBP employees have been laid off or furloughed and jobs continue to be outsourced or eliminated altogether. She mentioned several rounds of layoffs, the outsourcing of jobs and continued stagnant wages as helping prompt her decision.

According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Rogers’ salary makes him the second highest paid employee at GPB.

While there were reports that Rogers had credited Governor Nathan Deal with helping him land the GPB job, the governor's office said Wednesday it had nothing to with it.

That was disputed by Better Georgia on Wednesday.