Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Guess who got a really big raise...
It seems Mr. Brunton is leaving because he’s not satisfied with his salary. At least that’s what I infer from reading the SEC filing that reports his retirement.
No, really… last Friday Spirit filed an 8-K Change in Directors or Principle Officers form with the SEC, the first paragraph of which states Mr. Brunton had announced his retirement on Thursday the 16th, effective December 31. The announcement itself doesn’t go into specific reasons, but the subsequent paragraphs -- discussing Mr. Turner’s 90% raise -- give some indication.
To summarize, the Board has increased Mr. Turner’s base salary to a half-million dollars from $263K, effective our next pay period. In addition, his short-term and long-term performance bonuses payouts were increased as well. 1
"Why," you might ask, "would they do such a thing, in a year that they’ve denied raises to the rest of the management team?" 2
Well, according to the SEC filing, thedecision was made with the Company’s goal of retaining executive talent and … to further ensure that the Company’s compensation policies and practices do not create risks that are reasonably likely to have a material adverse effect on the Company.
Reading between the lines regarding "retaining executive talent" and "risks likely to have an adverse effect," I can only assume that the Board is concerned that Mr. Turner might also skip out like Mr. Brunton (and several other Execs recently, now that they’ve past their five-year "Day One" vesting period). And, as they’re offering more money to Turner as the fix, I can only assume that’s the reason Brunton’s leaving.
-- Bill, who’ll be using the Board’s Tower Watson companies as the WTPU’s market during next year’s negotiations. If it's good enough for them, it's good enough for us…
