Outspoken MTA board director resigns after board scolding

PALMER — A special meeting this morning of the Matanuska Telephone Association Board of Directors to discuss negative statements made about the management of the cooperative by one of its most critical members ended in the resignation of that member.

The five-member board had gathered at 10 in their Palmer headquarters board room to discuss only one item: the possible negative impact of a Dec. 24 Frontiersman story about MTA CEO Greg Berberich granting all 350 employees a $1,000 holiday bonus. That story included statements from Board Director Chuck Foster that the management of MTA has kept certain pieces of information from its members that should be public.

In that article, Foster said members would be shocked to know that Berberich’s annual compensation package is more than $500,000 and that he makes Gov. Sean Parnell “look like a pauper.”

Board members also took issue with a statement Foster had made in that article that members are unable to get copies of board meeting minutes when requested.

Foster argued to the board today that he didn’t think he violated the board’s policy of keeping Berberich’s salary confidential because he never told the Frontiersman exactly what the CEO’s salary was — only giving the newspaper a general idea of what his salary, benefits and bonuses added up to.

“Aren’t members allowed to know a ballpark figure of the CEO’s compensation?” Foster asked the board, pointing out that CEO salaries of MTA competitors are not kept secret. “GCI’s executive director’s salary is posted on their website.”

Although board members discussed during Monday’s meeting the possibility of releasing Berberich’s salary to the public to show that they don’t have anything to hide, they still took issue with Foster’s habit of challenging the board’s confidentiality clause.

“You’re putting us in a negative light,” Chief Governance Officer Earl Lackey told him.

Frontiersman research discovered recently that CEO salaries in general for member-owned cooperatives and non-profit organizations can be accessed online through a watchdog organization called Guidestar. The IRS sends Guidestar copies of 990 forms filed with them by the organizations.

Through Guidestar, the Frontiersman found that in 2007, Berberich was paid an annual salary of $359,410 and received another $55,000 toward a “deferred compensation plan.”

That year, second in command was former CFO Desmond Mayo. Mayo was paid $147,725, with no additional monies in the deferred compensation column.

Total compensation of “officers, directors and key employees” for 2007 was $576,432, according to the IRS form.

Comparatively, in 2005 Berberich was paid $289,449 and nothing was listed under deferred compensation for him on the 990 form. He was the only executive listed with such a salary, except for the board’s directors, whose payments ranged between $975 and $2,375 per year.

Form 990 figures for MTA since 2007 were not available online, although it is unclear why.

Recent e-mails to the Frontiersman from former MTA executives reveal employees have been awarded large holiday bonuses for years and urged the newspaper to continue digging into the organization’s finances and management practices over the years.

During today’s meeting, Foster admitted he misspoke to the Frontiersman about the meeting minutes. He said he should have made it clear that he meant tapes of the meetings are not accessible to the public after 30 days because they are destroyed.

But Board Director Al Strawn told the board that it wasn’t only Foster’s recent statements in the newspaper, but his “pattern of behavior” of violating board policies over the years that disturbed him.

Strawn said Foster’s actions could leave MTA open to lawsuits, although he didn’t elaborate further.

“I’m incensed by his attacks of our process,” Strawn said. “To say that the board has no control over the CEO, there’s nothing further from the truth.”

In a written statement he initially wanted to submit to the Frontiersman to clear up some items in the Dec. 24 article, Strawn argues that board members are always kept well informed about the management of the organization and have the final say in approving the CEO’s salary.

“MTA has been operating under our current governance structure for nearly 10 years. Most of the board members who have served MTA during this time have grown to greatly appreciate the value of our governance process,” Strawn wrote. “Our board strives to have an outward vision rather than an internal preoccupation. Some folks from the ‘old school’ of governance want to micro-manage and second-guess every management decision. Some seem to thrive on controversy and like to create division. This seems to attract bold headlines in local newspapers, but it is not the way to run a successful organization and bring value to our membership.”

Board Secretary Catherine Fosselman said it’s important for the public to realize that employees endured a 3 percent budget cut in the past and deserved every penny of their $1,000 bonus for all their hard work this past year.

“If we ask employees to make sure they don’t have any overtime and do everything we ask of them and end up having funds left over, that’s a wonderful thing,” Fosselman said. “This article made it sound like it was a horrible thing.”

In submitting his resignation, Foster told the board that he feels he is not a good fit with the organization’s Carver Model of Management and that MTA would be better served without him.

“There are no hard feelings on my part because I love MTA and I want to see it grow and not experience another 25 percent loss (of customers),” Foster said, stressing that he hopes the board will find a representative from Chugiak or Eagle River to replace him so that it’s not only Wasilla and Palmer residents on the board. “The board is more than capable of carrying on without me. MTA deserves better.”

Contact K.T. McKee at kate.mckee@frontiersman.com or 352-2252.