The CEO's beer money and other proxy tales

The less is really more award
To Fortune Brands Inc., for cutting perks. Or not. The Deerfield, Ill.-based distributor of Jim Beam, Absolut vodka and golf equipment said in its proxy statement that it would eliminate the auto allowance, financial planning and country club dues it covers for its executives, as of March 31, 2007.

But that money isn't going to be put to better use at the company or returned to shareholders. Instead, executives will just get more cash in their salaries to make up the difference.

The 'Why not call cash cash?' award
To any of the companies touting their "flexible" perks programs. That's really nothing more than an executive slush fund that they can dip into as they please; they don't have to then disclose specifically what the money is going toward.

Among them is Dayton, Ohio-based regional energy and utility company DPL Inc., which is giving each executive a $20,000 allowance to "purchase his or her own perquisites such as financial planning, annual physicals, additional life insurance or disability benefits."

That cash is an additional $20,000 in salary since it is granted at the beginning of the year and executives don't have to do anything to earn it. And it's on top of a long list of other perks given to executives at the company. Among them is the $250,000 in commuting reimbursement to executive chairman Robert Biggs, whose tenure ended June 30, 2006.

"With such a liberal awarding of perquisites, we think the extra $20,000 that DPL hands out is flexing right across the borders of Perk City," said Michelle Leder, whose blog footnoted.org tracks corporate financial filings.

The 'They got the message' award
To Sunoco Inc. CEO John Drosdick, for actually giving up some perks in 2006.

According to Sunoco's recent proxy statement, Drosdick voluntarily returned his company-provided leased car last summer and will no longer get a company vehicle. He still gets a company-provided parking spot, but will pay the company the full market value for it.

The CEO of the Philadelphia-based oil refiner and marketer also eliminated certain company-provided tax payments on personal aircraft use, and paid the full value of the home security monitoring that the company would cover.

Such givebacks should please Sunoco's shareholders, who have watched profits fall _ including a 57 percent drop in the fourth quarter _ and shares lose a quarter of their value over the last year, from highs topping $88 a share in April to around $65 in recent days.

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