Northeast Utilities observed ruefully in its recent 10-K filing that “customers have responded to higher energy prices … by using less electricity.” Funny how that happens. Along with many consumers, I was forced to turn down the thermostat this winter and can now report that typing in mittens is even harder than it looks.
So I allowed myself a few giggles upon learning that NU’s chairman, president and CEO is one Mr. Shivery, though I imagine many folks in chilly Connecticut quit laughing about the name thing a while back.
Shivery and his colleagues took some flak recently, when Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal expressed outrage over NU’s 2007 compensation figures and waxed somewhat skeptical about the utility’s need for more rate increases.
And, in an investigation mentioned in the 10-K, officials found that NU subsidiary Connecticut Light & Power was treating customer complaints about faulty meters much the way Basil Fawlty treated customer complaints at Fawlty Towers (assuming anyone out there is old enough to remember that hilarious TV show with John Cleese).
Small Print Disclosures
NU’s compensation disclosure takes up 36 pages of small print, not just because there’s a lot of compensation to disclose, but also because the prose is bloated with explanations and justifications. It’s almost as if the company feared its pay practices would be criticized by a publicity-loving attorney general, or a coterie of mitten-wearing bloggers.
The 10-K covers familiar territory: generous pay packages (over $7 million in total for Shivery), lots of compensation permutations (salary, bonuses, restricted share units, long-term cash incentives, goosed-up retirement benefits, deferred compensation, perks, tax gross-ups) and potentially huge severance payments.
For example, Shivery could get $22 million if he’s fired — unless the firing is for “cause,” but as is the custom on Planet CEO, “cause” means something like embezzling, not mere managerial ineptitude.
Managing Perks
The filing tells us that “the Compensation Committee endeavors to adhere to a high level of propriety in managing executive benefits and perquisites.”
Indeed, the committee proudly proclaims, “we do not provide permanent lodging or personal entertainment for any executive officer.” Congratulations, guys. If you think of anything else you don’t provide, I’ll be the first to pat you on the back, with apologies for my cold hands.
Wendy Fried, a freelance writer, is a contributing editor at footnoted.org and also blogs about matters corporate at her own site, proxyland.blogspot.com.
