James Hunter

Thursday, July 19, 2012

SJWC - SJW Corporation Compensation & Severance

SJW Corporation - W. Richard (Rich) Roth



Total Severance Package: $11,164,135
plus stock and rights $5,320,962
(Click on link for the entire SCHEDULE 14A, the following is an excerpt)

If (i) Mr. Roth's employment had been involuntarily terminated for any reason other than death, disability or good cause (as defined in Mr. Roth's employment agreement) or his employment had been voluntarily terminated for good reason (as defined in such agreement) on December 31, 2011 and (ii) such termination had not occurred under circumstances entitling him to benefits under the Executive Severance Plan, then he would have been entitled to the following payments and benefits in connection with such termination of employment:



                                                                                              
            
                                                                                                  Value of 36 Months of  
                                                                                         Reimbursed COBRA Continuation
            Cash   Severance                                                        Health Care Coverage
--------------------------                     ------------------------
           $2,437,500 (1)(3)                                                               $41,536 (2)(3)

(1)
Represents 3.9 times the annual rate of base salary of $625,000 in effect for Mr. Roth on December 31, 2011.
(2)
Represents 36 months of health benefit coverage at an average monthly rate of $1,153.77.
(3)
Pursuant to his employment agreement, Mr. Roth may not, during the one-year period following his termination of employment, solicit any individuals who were in the Corporation's employ at the time of such termination or within the preceding six months to work for him or any other entity with which he is affiliated.
As of December 31, 2011, Mr. Roth held outstanding restricted stock units covering 50,517 unvested shares of the Corporation's common stock. Such number does not include restricted stock units covering 7,000 shares which were granted in January 2009 and were scheduled to vest upon the attainment of a specified total shareholder return measured over the three-year period ending December 31, 2011 but which were cancelled because the performance objective was not achieved. Restricted stock units covering 12,667 of those 50,517 shares will vest in one or more successive equal annual installments upon his continued service with the Corporation. Restricted stock units for the remaining 37,850 shares will vest upon the attainment of a specified total shareholder return over the five-year period ending December 31, 2014. However, if on December 31, 2011, Mr. Roth's employment had terminated by reason of death or disability or had been involuntarily terminated other than for good cause (as defined in Mr. Roth's employment agreement) or had he resigned for good reason (as defined in such agreement), then upon such a qualifying termination event, his restricted units covering 12,667 unvested shares of common stock would have vested on an accelerated basis for a total value of $299,448. Such accelerated value was based on the $23.64 per share closing selling price of the common stock on December 30, 2011, the last trading day of the 2011 fiscal year. In addition, Mr. Roth would, as a result of such a qualifying termination event, vest in a pro-rated amount of his 37,850 shares on December 31, 2014 if the applicable performance vesting objective for those particular shares is met upon the completion of the performance period ending on that date. The number of restricted stock units in which Mr. Roth would vest on such pro-rated basis upon such attainment of the performance objective would be determined by multiplying the total number of restricted stock units at the time subject to the award by a fraction the numerator of which is the number of whole months of service (rounded up to the next whole month) completed by Mr. Roth during the five-year performance period and the denominator of which is 60 months. To the extent Mr. Roth were to vest in one or more restricted stock units in accordance with the foregoing, the underlying shares would be issued on January 31, 2015.
In addition, Mr. Roth would be entitled to accumulated retirement benefit with a present value of $5,253,900 as of December 31, 2011 and vested deferred compensation in the amount of $3,472,735 as of that date.
The outstanding stock options granted to Mr. Roth contain a provision pursuant to which those options may remain outstanding for up to four years if he terminates employment under certain prescribed circumstances.


Extended COBRA, Continuation Health Care Coverage, is valued at $41,536 was not included in the estimated severance package for Mr. Roth. Mr. Roth's stock and stock rights are also estimated and listed separately, as there is an extension of the period the options may be exercised, after termination of employment..

Sunday, June 24, 2012

DIVISION OF RATEPAYER ADVOCATES, CPUC, SJWC Water Rate Increase Recommedations

The DRA (Division of Ratepayer Advocates) issued a report, "Report on the RESULTS OF OPERATIONS OF SAN JOSE WATER COMPANY". The report analyzes the proposed rate increase by the San Jose Water Company and it's recommendations are generally very different.



The annual rate increases are compared, the actual table is on page 1 of the DRA Report, Executive Summary.


The complete report may also be downloaded as an Adobe Acrobat PDF. Reference Docket:A.12-01-003, Exhibit Number DRA -001.


CPUC, Division of Ratepayer Advocates Report on Proposed SJWC Water Rate Increase, April 30, 2012.


Additionally interested readers should be aware on page 1-1 the assumed ROR (Rate of Return) is 8.38%, far higher than current financing rates, prime rate, inflation rate, etc.


The following document is available, ASSIGNED COMMISSIONER’S SCOPING MEMO AND RULING.


The original request by San Jose Water Company for the "APPLICATION OF SAN JOSE WATER COMPANY FOR AUTHORITY TO INCREASE RATES FOR WATER SERVICE".



Item (32), page 14


"Applicant requests that the Commission authorize Applicant to establish a
Water Revenue Adjustment Mechanism (WRAM) and a Modified Cost Balancing Account (MCBA) as described in Exhibit E, Chapter 19."

Friday, April 20, 2012

SJWC Proposed Rate Increase

San Jose Water Company (SJWC) is proposing a rate increase of 44%, over the next three years.  There is a public meeting to get our opinions about the proposed rate increase, to be submitted to the California Public Utility Commission (CPUC).  A public meeting on the rate increase, is scheduled for 7 p.m., May 21 at the Corinthian Event Center -- upstairs at the San Jose Athletic Club -- at 196 N. Third St. in San Jose.  A link to Google Maps shows the location of the meeting and public transportation,  196 N. Third Street, San Jose.


The following are other sources of information:


Mercury News, Herhold,  "Huge water bill increase tied to conservation"


KGO TV Channel 7, Rusk "Hefty water rate hike proposed for San Jose"


Some interesting items worth considering are:
  • The SJWC website has gotten a major update.  The justification referred to  by  is available on an Adobe PDF at "The Value of Water" :
    Quote from the page, "Unfortunately, during times when water sales are declining due to conservation efforts, fixed costs remain and will still have to be recovered. Thus, the fixed amount of costs will have to be spread over a lower number of projected sales units, resulting in a higher per unit rate. Depending on your actual water usage, this may not necessarily result in a higher total water bill."

    This is confusing we conserved water and this reduced the SJWC revenues, therefore we have to pay higher rates?
  • The actual filing is available from the SJWC website as an Adobe PDF file at, Authority to Increase Rates for Water Service (Application 12-01-003) - filed January 3, 2012

  • The proposed rate increase is many times the US inflation rate. We are at the end of a major depression, foreclosures of homes are common, many people are working lower salary or part-time employment, seniors on fixed incomes got a small SSI increase and Medicare monthly rate also did increase:

    Cost-Of-Living Adjustment (COLA) Information For 2012

    Monthly Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits for more than 60 million Americans will increase 3.6 percent in 2012.
  • While the SJWC CEO salary is noted as over $625,000, an excellent question is,  "What other water industry or corporate related income sources are not being clearly disclosed".

    W. Richard Roth

    Chief Executive Officer, President, Director, Chairman of Real Estate Committee, Chief Executive officer of SJWTX Water Inc, Chief Executive Officer of San Jose Water Company, Chief Executive Officer of SJW Land Company, President of SJWTX Water Inc, President of San Jose Water Company, President of SJW Land Company, Director of San Jose Water Company and Director of SJW Land Company, SJW Corp.
    AgeTotal Calculated CompensationThis person is connected to 3 Board Members in 3 different organizations across 4 different industries.

    58$2,242,807
    As of Fiscal Year 2011

    So it appears we are paying a part-time executive $625,000 per year? For details.

I look forward to other residents of San Jose concerned with the water rate increase adding their opinions.