Take Your Pay and Shove It

No need for executives at Tennessee Commerce Bancorp Inc. to cower when compensation consultants took a look.

Arthur F. Helf, the bank's chairman and C.E.O., got a 110.5 percent raise -- to $400,000 up from $190,000 he was paid last year. Three other top executives also won hefty raises, ranging from 94.4 percent to 157.6 percent over their previous pay.

But three of the Franklin, Tennessee, bank's directors thought the raises were over the top. Although they had been with the bank since it was founded seven years ago, they resigned to protest the higher compensation.

Helf said he was sorry to see retired Genesco Inc. executive Fowler H. Low, T.W. Frierson Construction and Design Systems executive Winston C. Hickman and STAR Physical Therapy president Regg E. Swanson depart the 13-member board at the bank, which serves small and mid-size businesses nationwide.

"I regret their leaving," Helf said, "I respect their opinion, but the rest of the board was in sync."

The bank's management hadn't had a raise since 2003, he said, and outside pay consultants compared the pay structure at the bank, which has $750 million in assets, with similar banks and found it lagging.

In addition to their chunky new pay packets, Helf and Chief Financial Officer George W. Fort, President Michael R. Sapp and Chief Administrative Officer H. Lamar Cox are also each receiving options to buy 50,000 shares over five years if the bank meets its performance goals.

Presumably that now includes recruiting three new board members to watch over shareholders' interests.

In any case, Johnny Paycheck would be proud.

by Elizabeth Olson