Executive Compensation

Legg Mason shareholders voted to approve a $4.9 million pay package for Chairman and CEO Mark R. Fetting at the Baltimore-based investment firm's annual meeting Tuesday morning. Fetting's compensation package was $1 million less than the package approved at last year's meeting. Compensation for four other executives was approved in amounts ranging from $1.8 million to $3.5 million. The shareholder's approval of the compensation packages was advisory and nonbinding. Shareholder guidance group Glass, Lewis & Co. had recommended that stockholders support the compensation packages, which it said are similar to Legg Mason's peers.

After T. Rowe Price executives recapped last year's highlights at Tuesday's annual meeting, a shareholder raised concerns about the loss of a top money manager, competition from exchange-traded funds and an Obama Administration tax proposal that could dampen Price's retirement business. President and CEO James A. C. Kennedy said that Kris Jenner, the former manager of T. Rowe Price Health Sciences Fund, left "millions" in deferred compensation on the table by leaving the company in February.

Two state senators are requesting that Maryland's attorney general broaden his inquiry into the compensation of Constellation Energy Group's chief executive, Mayo A. Shattuck III. In a letter dated Aug. 10 to Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler, Democratic state Sens. Jamie Raskin of Montgomery County and James Brochin of Baltimore County said that about 30 percent of Constellation's executive compensation costs, not including salary, is allocated to Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. The senators said they are concerned that future compensation costs, including potentially tens of millions of dollars if Shattuck is terminated in connection with a change in control at the company, will be borne by BGE and its ratepayers.

Fun (or possibly not-so-fun) factoid: Six of the CEOs running the Baltimore area's largest public companies saw their compensation soar last year even though profits shrank -- or the firms lost money. The smallest pay-package increase among those half-dozen execs was 11 percent. The biggest? An eye-popping 402 percent, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings. Find out who got that increase -- and why his company says his true compensation merely doubled -- in our CEO pay story . You can see how well all the big public companies in the region paid their CEOs in this interactive chart that tracks pay and performance . (Click on a row to see all our data.

The pay cuts didn't last long. Chief executives of publicly traded companies in Maryland and across corporate America saw their compensation rebound in 2010 as profits came back and the stock market recovered much of the ground it lost in the recession. Fourteen of the 19 companies in the Baltimore region that paid their CEOs at least $1 million last year reported increases in executive compensation in 2010, according to a Baltimore Sun analysis. The increases largely reflected improved performances by the companies.

Rep. Elijah E. Cummings said Monday he is launching an investigation into the salaries and bonuses paid to the top executives of for-profit colleges, noting that a majority of their revenue comes from students who are receiving federal tuition aid. Cummings, the top-ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, sent letters to 13 schools requesting their senior executive contracts. The Baltimore lawmaker said he wants to determine whether salaries, bonuses and other compensation are tied to student performance.

For 2004, a year that saw the shares of T. Rowe Price Group Inc. surge more than 31 percent, company chief executive George A. Roche received a more modest 21.7 percent bump in his compensation - just about all from performance bonuses. In short, a half-million-dollar increase in his 2004 bonus was Roche's reward for guiding the company through a year that saw its market value soar nearly $2 billion. The bottom line: When it comes to executive compensation, T. Rowe Price is one of a number of Maryland public companies where shareholders are getting "bang for the buck."

Even after Stanley Black & Decker shareholders rejected the tool and security company's executive pay plan last spring, the company paid Nolan D. Archibald, its executive chairman and the former CEO of Black & Decker, a total of $64.4 million in 2011. Archibald became chairman in March 2010 when the former Towson-based Black & Decker Corp. was bought by the Stanley Works in a $4.5 billion deal. At the time, Archibald's sale-related compensation, including bonuses tied to cost-cutting targets, drew criticism from corporate governance experts, who had estimated its worth at $89 million over three years.

Eight top Baltimore hospital executives pulled in more than $1 million each in fiscal 2009, according to newly detailed disclosures from the Internal Revenue Service. Close to a dozen had personal dues for "social clubs" financed by your charitable donations, tax dollars and health insurance premiums. Many enjoy lavish and opaque executive retirement plans that also put upward pressure on the medical costs that threaten government budgets and the economy. Don't say they're worth it. Don't say that there's a "market" in hospital-management talent and that organizations must pay top dollar.

Investors should have a say in executive salaries, according to 88 percent of callers to SUNDIAL, or 228 of 257 callers. Twenty-nine callers (11 percent) disagree.Similarly, nearly 90 percent of the callers (227 of 253) say companies should disclose executive compensation, while 26 callers (10 percent) oppose the notion.A federal regulatory ruling giving shareholders of publicly held companies a say in executive compensation probably will make all corporate boards rethink the question of pay for top officers, in the opinion of 171 of 251 callers (68 percent)

As pay raises go, it's hard to beat a fivefold increase. That's the jump Hunt Valley-based Omega Healthcare Investors' CEO saw in compensation last year. After getting a thumbs down for its executive pay from a shareholder advisory firm, the company told investors his pay package skyrocketed to $7.8 million because stock awards at the firm are doled out once every three years or so, and 2011 was one of those years. But even with the adjustments Omega suggests, such as dividing the multiyear incentives by three, CEO C. Taylor Pickett's pay doubled — in a year in which the company's profits and stock price fell.

Legg Mason shareholders voted to approve a $4.9 million pay package for Chairman and CEO Mark R. Fetting at the Baltimore-based investment firm's annual meeting Tuesday morning. Fetting's compensation package was $1 million less than the package approved at last year's meeting. Compensation for four other executives was approved in amounts ranging from $1.8 million to $3.5 million. The shareholder's approval of the compensation packages was advisory and nonbinding. Shareholder guidance group Glass, Lewis & Co. had recommended that stockholders support the compensation packages, which it said are similar to Legg Mason's peers.

Sinclair Broadcast Group's chief executive, David D. Smith, earned $4.2 million last year, a 16 percent increase that included more than $2 million in stock option awards, the Hunt Valley-based broadcaster reported. Compensation for Smith, who is also the company's president, included a $1 million base salary and $1 million in cash bonuses, the company reported Monday to the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company said 94 percent of shareholders approved the company's executive compensation package last year in Sinclair's first-ever "say on pay" vote.

Even after Stanley Black & Decker shareholders rejected the tool and security company's executive pay plan last spring, the company paid Nolan D. Archibald, its executive chairman and the former CEO of Black & Decker, a total of $64.4 million in 2011. Archibald became chairman in March 2010 when the former Towson-based Black & Decker Corp. was bought by the Stanley Works in a $4.5 billion deal. At the time, Archibald's sale-related compensation, including bonuses tied to cost-cutting targets, drew criticism from corporate governance experts, who had estimated its worth at $89 million over three years.

Rep. Elijah E. Cummings said Monday he is launching an investigation into the salaries and bonuses paid to the top executives of for-profit colleges, noting that a majority of their revenue comes from students who are receiving federal tuition aid. Cummings, the top-ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, sent letters to 13 schools requesting their senior executive contracts. The Baltimore lawmaker said he wants to determine whether salaries, bonuses and other compensation are tied to student performance.

A lot of people apparently believe - and in this epoch of corporate hubris, who can blame them? - that the Constellation-Exelon deal is a done deal. They assume the purchase of the Baltimore-based company that owns our beloved Baltimore Gas & Electric Co. by an energy giant in Chicago for $7.9 billion will probably go through, making the smiling rich guys even richer. The whole thing should give BGE customers the creeps; regulators and public advocates are already saying it's a bad deal for Maryland consumers.

Legg Mason Inc. shareholders approved a $5.9 million pay package for Chairman and CEO Mark R. Fetting in an advisory vote announced Tuesday at the Baltimore-based company's annual meeting. The nonbinding "say on pay" measure won the support of 87 percent of voting stockholders. Shareholder guidance group Glass, Lewis & Co. had recommended that investors vote against the company's executive compensation package. The Glass, Lewis report criticized the firm's executive pay practices, saying the asset manager had paid top officers slightly more but performed slightly worse than its peers.

WASHINGTON - A coalition of minority advocacy groups is calling on the Securities and Exchange Commission to push companies to make clearer disclosure of executive compensation in their annual reports. Corporate 10-K annual report forms should list the total compensation of a company's top five executives, including stock holdings, after-tax income and charitable donations, the San Francisco-based Greenlining Institute said in a letter to the SEC. Changes in compensation reporting requirements are needed following Enron Corp.

Legg Mason Inc. shareholders approved a $5.9 million pay package for Chairman and CEO Mark R. Fetting in an advisory vote announced Tuesday at the Baltimore-based company's annual meeting. The nonbinding "say on pay" measure won the support of 87 percent of voting stockholders. Shareholder guidance group Glass, Lewis & Co. had recommended that investors vote against the company's executive compensation package. The Glass, Lewis report criticized the firm's executive pay practices, saying the asset manager had paid top officers slightly more but performed slightly worse than its peers.

The latest news on executive pay at publicly traded companies is good - if you happen to be a CEO, that is. Reflecting the national trend, at least 14 highly-paid chief executives of 19 companies surveyed in the Baltimore region saw fatter paychecks in 2010, according to a Sun analysis. We are not interested in vilifying the executives who in many cases steered their companies toward much better financial performances last year. It's entirely possible many were well-deserving of a merit-based wage increase.