By Molly Parker
SCBIZ Daily Staff
CHARLESTON -- Despite declining container traffic at the Port of Charleston, S.C. State Ports Authority executives have been awarded bonuses totaling $208,089.
The largest bonus went to President and CEO Bernard Groseclose. He pulled in $27,720.
The next-largest bonuses went to Joe Bryant, vice president of terminal development, who received $21,620, and CFO Peter Hughes, who was awarded $19,243. Their annual salaries are $166,500 and $149,000, respectively.
Groseclose earns a $264,000 salary, according to the S.C. State Salary Database operated by The State newspaper in Columbia. Groseclose is the 23rd-highest-paid state, or quasi-state, employee. Stuart Smith, executive director of the Medical University Hospital Association, is the top earner, making $431,571.
The SPA provided the bonus information this afternoon in response to a request last week by the Charleston Regional Business Journal. The incentive performance plan was established by the SPA board and is operated at the board’s discretion, SPA spokesman Byron Miller said.
Here’s how the SPA executive team’s bonuses broke down:
Name, job title, bonus
Bernard Groseclose, president and CEO, $27,720
Joe Bryant ,vice president of terminal development, $21,620
Peter Hughes, CFO, $19,243
William McLean, vice president of operations, $19,091
Philip Lawrence, chief legal counsel, $18,930
Fred Stribling, vice president of marketing and sales, $18,327
Stephen Connor, vice president for security, risk management and human resources, $17,177
Pamela Everitt, chief information officer, $16,991
David Schronce, director of Port of Georgetown, Port Royal and Veterans Terminal, $13,107
Peter Lehman, director for planning and business development, $12,620
Byron Miller, director of public relations, $12,123
Barbara Melvin, manager of government relations, $11,130
The SPA said the bonuses are part of an incentive plan to encourage “superior performance.” To trigger the program for the 2008 fiscal year, the authority had to meet its operating margin target of 32.54%.
The authority’s revenues and earnings hit all-time records and it closed the year with an operating margin of 34.28%, the SPA said. Operating revenues increased 7.6% to $165 million, operating expenses rose 6.6% to $110 million and earnings increased 9.7% to $54.7 million.
Still, container traffic dropped 10% and S.C. lawmakers have been increasingly scrutinizing the port’s activities. A decline in container traffic impacts many other maritime-related businesses including truckers and commercial developers.
Compounding problems, Maersk Line has threatened to leave the Port of Charleston without a compromise between the SPA and the International Longshoremen’s Association that would lower its operating costs in Charleston. The Denmark-based company is the port’s largest customer, accounting for almost 25% of container traffic.
All employees were eligible for the incentive so long as they had worked for the SPA for an entire year and had no disciplinary actions.
The average rank-and-file employee received a $1,152.07 bonus, Miller said.
It is much like the incentive plan at two dozen other ports across the country, Miller said. Most of those ports are operated by private companies. The SPA is a quasi-state agency that does not receive taxpayer money for day-to-day operations. The state recently set aside $182.5 million to build an access road that will connect the terminal under construction on the former Navy base to Interstate 26.
Last year, port employees did not receive an incentive because they did not meet established profit targets.
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