Former United Way Chief Still Drawing $390,000 Pay : Charity: Aramony stays on salary after being forced to resign. Angry local affiliates continue to withhold dues from the national office.

The United Way of America president who resigned under fire last week is still receiving his $390,000 salary while angry local affiliates have cut back their voluntary dues by 21%, officials said Friday.

The news of William Aramony’s continued compensation came in a teleconference with the charity’s headquarters and affiliates nationwide. The session introduced the interim president, IBM Vice President Kenneth W. Dam, who is working without pay for the United Way while he remains on salary at IBM until his retirement from the corporation in September.

Aramony, president of the nation’s largest charity for 22 years, resigned under pressure from affiliates after news reports that his annual compensation package was worth $463,000, including benefits, and that he traveled in high style. Questions also arose about two taxable businesses created by United Way, one of which is headed by Aramony’s son.

When Aramony quit, he “indicated his desire to retire, (and) the board has agreed to that,” John Akers, chairman of both the charity’s board and IBM, told reporters after the teleconference.

The charity’s lawyers are working out details complicated by “the abruptness of the departure,” said attorney Berl Bernhard. Aramony “absolutely” is entitled to severance as well as retirement pay, Bernhard said.

Although the question was raised by Craig Laferty of Danbury, Conn., during the teleconference, Akers said he did not believe the affiliates would perceive Aramony’s continued pay as a belittling of the situation’s seriousness.

“I don’t think this process that the United Way of America is going through or Mr. Aramony is going through is a process that’s bestowing a lot of honor,” Akers told reporters.

Local affiliates have been reeling from the initial revelations and from news Thursday that Aramony had ordered the disposal of five drawers of documents belonging to the United Way International affiliate, which he has served as unpaid president.

“Unfortunately, it gets worse every day,” Stephanie Nowack of Phoenix said during the teleconference. “The longer the stories are drug out, the more difficult it is for everyone.”

Ninety-eight of United Way’s 1,400 local affiliates, according to the biweekly Chronicle of Philanthropy, have said they are waiting for the national office to complete an investigation before they decide whether to send in their dues.

They include such big cities as New York, Los Angeles, Washington and San Francisco, said United Way of America spokesman Tony De Cristofaro.

Akers and other officials said they hoped to have the probe completed by the next board meeting, scheduled for April 2. The investigators have not yet turned up any misappropriation of funds, but they have found a number of procedural omissions, such as a lack of documentation for expenses, Bernhard said.

As of Friday, pledges and payments of voluntary dues to the United Way of America from local affiliates were running 21% behind last year’s level.