Jerry Forte
Colorado Springs Utilities CEO Jerry Forte received $61,715 in incentive pay this year, a nearly 20 percent drop from his 2011 payout.
Forte is eligible for “short-term” incentive pay awarded right away and “long-term” incentive pay rolled into his supplemental executive retirement account.
This year, the short-term incentive pay was $31,549.50 and long-term totaled $30,165.75.
“These awards have been calculated and administered in accordance with the CEO’s contract and his performance results. The payouts occurred on April 6, 2012,” Utilities spokesman Steve Berry said Monday in an email.
The City Council, acting as the Utilities Board, approves Forte’s performance evaluation.
According to the Utilities Board March 21 agenda, Forte received a performance rating of “meets expectations,” “exceeds expectations” and “superior performance” in every category but one.
For the “Days Cash on Hand” category, Forte received a rating of “improvement necessary.”
The four-service utility, which is owned by the city, has a target range of 61 to 75 days cash on hand.
“The 2011 result is 58.93 days,” the agenda states.
When asked why Forte received nearly $15,000 less in incentive pay this year compared to the year before, Berry said it was “most likely due to a slight difference in where he landed on the metrics.”
Forte was hired as Utilities’ chief operating officer in January 2002 making $175,000 a year. He was promoted to CEO in December 2005 with an annual salary of $270,000. Forte’s current annual salary of $276,750 hasn’t changed since 2007.
Since 2002, Forte has received nearly $553,000 total in incentive pay.
Half a million dollars incentive from a PUBLIC utility? Seriously?
Blatant theivery.
Now I know why the rate increases…
…no wonder he’s smiling…
The newly released results report CEOs’ salaries are slowly increasing after taking a significant hit in 2008. That year, average base rates stood at $382,000, but the 2009 results indicate it dropped to $346,600. In 2010, that number dropped even further to $332,900. This year’s results show the average base rate was $338,300, demonstrating the possibility for an upward trend. -Compudata (Compdata Surveys is the nation’s leading compensation and benefits survey data provider)
If it was a PRIVATE utility, it would’ve been a whole lot more. Besides, I would want our public utility to be run better than the likes of Xcel or PGE and it has.
Sam, so you are saying it is okay for a publicly owned utility to raise the rates of customers to pay people for doing their job?
I say if the workers/executives do such a great job, then give them a raise the next year of their contract, not pay them extra to do their jobs.
Realy? I wish I made 60 G’s a year again! I have to settle to pay someone 60 G’s extra for doing what he was hired to do!
geez , how obscene , and half the year isn’t even over yet so he’ll get alot more . i’ve got friends who are able to live in this city without utilities , maybe i can. performance results ? 100 push ups ? he shows up every day ? what performance ? hamlet ?
As an employee and customer, this infuriates me! Some employees received very modest raises of 1-1.5% this year,but not everyone received one. Our staffing levels have been cut and workload and stress levels have increased significantly. Everyone is doing more with less and we are not complaining. We are very grateful that we have a job especially with the difficult economy. I understand he is a CEO and has a contract, but it should be amended to remove this requirement. With our current economic situation, this should not be allowed. Everyone needs to sacrifice, not just the lower level employees.
WHY ARE CSU CUSTOMERS PAYING FOR A $2 BILLION WATER PIPELINE THAT DOESN’T SERVE CSU CUSTOMERS?
THAT’S GOOD OLD BOY POLITICS WAYNE.
We pay incentives for people just doing their jobs? The loonies are running the asylim.
A $275,000 CEO answers to an ELECTED Board (City Council) who is paid $6,250 or combined, $56,250 Annually. The Max this CEO should command is 1/5 what he saves
CSU Annually. If Forte saved CSU Operations $1 million dollars last year, he earned $200,000. Six Sigma principles…
Jerry Forte does have an employment agreement (contract) and as part of the contract his SERP (Supplemental Executive Retirement Plan) can be up to 20% of his base pay.
Since this man has been in charge the cost of utilities has increased to the point that it is no longer cheaper here than other places. I pay the same for utilities in Houston and El Paso Texas as I do here. But then again those utilities do not include pricing to have a $32 million return to the cities.