I'm a shareholder of Hovnanian Enterprises - symbol "HOV". Buying it was a very bad decision - but I'm a big boy and I went into it with my eyes wide open. However, the Board of Hovnanian decided to give company president Ara Hovnanian a bonus of just under $1 mil after a year where the firm incurred massive loses and the stock plunged.
Now, I'm fine paying huge bonuses to executives who produce, baseball players who hit homers or have low era's, and talk show hosts with big ratings. But rewarding a disastrous performance is stupid and inappropriate.
So, I wrote letters to the heads of the Audit Committee and Compensation Committee of HOV to let them know how I feel.
Somewhere is an SEC filing I got the address for Stephen D. Weinroth, who is head of the Audit Committee. Well, the letter cam back not deliverable. So, if there is someone from the SEC who monitors Google Alerts for SEC - you can check out why directors are filing bogus addresses with you.
And, since I couldn't get a letter to him - I'm putting it here.
Mr. Weinroth:
As a long-time shareholder of Hovnanian, I was shocked at the Board's decision to award Mr. Ara Hovnanian a bonus of almost $1 million. In a year that the firm lost over $1 billion and the share price collapsed, it was incomprehensible.
Shareholders expect better from Compensation Committees. For this year, please relate Mr. Hovnanian's incentive compensation to performance.
If Mr. Hovnanian finds it difficult to live on his $1.1 million base pay, he may have to cut back on custom-made suits and shirts.
Sincerely,
GM
Now, I'm fine paying huge bonuses to executives who produce, baseball players who hit homers or have low era's, and talk show hosts with big ratings. But rewarding a disastrous performance is stupid and inappropriate.
So, I wrote letters to the heads of the Audit Committee and Compensation Committee of HOV to let them know how I feel.
Somewhere is an SEC filing I got the address for Stephen D. Weinroth, who is head of the Audit Committee. Well, the letter cam back not deliverable. So, if there is someone from the SEC who monitors Google Alerts for SEC - you can check out why directors are filing bogus addresses with you.
And, since I couldn't get a letter to him - I'm putting it here.
Mr. Weinroth:
As a long-time shareholder of Hovnanian, I was shocked at the Board's decision to award Mr. Ara Hovnanian a bonus of almost $1 million. In a year that the firm lost over $1 billion and the share price collapsed, it was incomprehensible.
Shareholders expect better from Compensation Committees. For this year, please relate Mr. Hovnanian's incentive compensation to performance.
If Mr. Hovnanian finds it difficult to live on his $1.1 million base pay, he may have to cut back on custom-made suits and shirts.
Sincerely,
GM
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