This culture of ineptitude also helped keep the ignition issue away from GM's senior leadership. Barra, head of product development Mark Reuss and General Counsel Michael Millikin never received e-mails directly relating to the ignition issue. Valukas cites a Corporate Executive Board Co. survey from 2013 that included reports where "in a different context than the Cobalt," supervisors warned employees "to 'never put anything above the company' and 'never put the company at risk,'" and that "a small number of participants also suggested a fear of retaliation." Notes routinely weren't taken in meetings due to a perception that lawyers didn't want notes to be taken, but Valukas couldn't find that policy stated anywhere and calls it an "urban myth." One settlement with victims was made for precisely $5 million, the highest number GM could pay out without sign-off from Millikin. Amid the "pattern of incompetence and neglect" that Barra identified is another pattern: convenience.