Five Empire District Electric Company officials saw their pay packages increase more than $400,000 during calendar year 2007, despite the onslaught of two ice storms, according to a proxy statement filed today with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
And should the day ever come when CEO William Gipson's services are no longer required by Empire, he will walk away with more than $2.3 million.
Gipson's base salary only increased from $300,000 to $315,000, but his pay package included a $5,000 bonus, $239,075 in stock awards, $65,647 in stock options, $155,626 in non-equity incentive plan compensation, $135,662 in deferred compensation earnings, and $9,896 listed as "all other compensation."
The total package amounted to $925,206, up from $759,906 in 2006.
If things ever go south for Gipson and he happens to lose his job at Empire, don't worry about where he will get his next meal. His severance plan, which is also included in the proxy statement, is worth more than $2.3 million, including $1,221,504 in severance pay, $155,926 in "incentive bonus) (though how can you give an incentive for someone who no longer works for you is a difficult concept to grasp), $12,548 in stock options, $177,408 in divident equivalents, $252,068 in performance-based restricted stock, $31,356 in "benefits continuance," $504,233 in "excise tax and related gross-up."
The total amount of Gipson's severance package is $2,354,743.
Gipson's top officers also have generous pay and severance packages, according to the proxy report.
Not sure what your point is. Empire is a publicly held company. If the shareholders did not think the officers deserved the compensation package they would not approve it. We'll see how the shareholders vote, but I'll bet they were quite impressed with the company's operations this year.
ReplyDeleteAs for the natural disasters, Empire didn't cause Mother Nature's ice storms and did everything they could to react to it. Within 48 hours of the event they had hundreds of additional linemen in town and coordinated an effort to restore power to tens of thousands of people. If that's not having a plan and executing it, I don't know what is. It's funny when people try to play armchair quarterback with utilities yet have no understanding of the regulatory environment under which the utilities are placed by the Public Servic Commission.
I certainly didn't pick well when in College, when it came to professions that pay well.
ReplyDeleteI think Mr. Turner's point is that HOLY CRAP that man is making a lot of money in a year when many of us were without power for so long and had to pay increased rates after the storms. I'm no CEO, but that is what I believe the point was. So many seniors, middle income and low income families are really stretching to meet their utility bills and this fellow gets a freakin' raise. Maybe he'll be nice and donate his substantial increase in pay back to help the poor. Ha!
A bit discouraging for a long time shareholder to hear. Maybe its time to sell and move on. I really thought these guys were different than the average greedy executive.
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