I understand the frustration of seeing these people making such large salaries when finances are so tight. However, we need to consider a number of factors:

1. The former approach to these problems did not work, and will not work in the future. Bringing in competent untainted outsiders is key to effectively solving the city's long-term financial and operational challenges.

2. With perhaps the exception of Gary Brown, the people that have been hired could make many times this salary in private practice or consulting. Kevin Orr and other similarly situated partners at Jones Day make well over $1 million dollars per year. Given that Orr probably set up his life with the expectation of making that much money, he probably needs the $225K to pay his bills. If someone had asked him to do the job for free, he almost certainly would have said no. Also, while he receives some prestige from being the emergency manager, he also has accepted the downside risk if everything gets screwed up even further.

3. For the reason described above, it would not be possible to obtain high quality talent to work on these problems at a much lower cost.

4. These costs are temporary, and in the long-run will not significantly harm the city's finances. In contrast, the problem with pension funding is one that must be fixed or it will weigh on the city's finances for decades.