Redflex Executive Salary Exceeds Shareholder Profit
Morale at Redflex Traffic Systems, the Australian photo enforcement company with more contracts in the United States than any other firm, has never been lower. Yesterday, the company faced the real possibility that the state government in Victoria, Australia would sue for the recovery of $15 million in citations issued by a faulty Redflex freeway speed camera system. Although the government currently refuses to issue refunds, it issued equally stern denials before giving in to public pressure by refunding $26 million worth of tickets over a high-profile accuracy failure in 2003.
The latest bad news comes as employees in the US office fear layoffs in the wake of the cancellation of the multimillion-dollar Arizona freeway photo radar program. Some workers at the company have privately expressed anger that, despite firm’s precarious financial state, the head of US operations will receive a substantial raise. Shareholders are no more likely to be pleased to learn at the November 19 annual meeting that Karen Finley will be paid US$498,108 in a year when net profit for shareholders dropped 92.6 percent to a total of just $437,300.
This year, Finley boosted her salary by $9000 to $309,000 in addition to requesting 79,701 shares of stock incentives worth US$189,108. Other company directors can look forward to lavish increases as the annual meeting will vote on increasing the maximum annual payment to company directors from $396,000 to $693,000. Redflex CEO Graham Davie will be paid slightly less than Finley at $496,637– $310,375 in salary and $186,262 in stock.
In the past five years, that stock has dropped 19 percent compared to a 7 percent gain on the ASX 200 with shares currently trading at just US$2.41 on the Australian Securities Exchange. This poor performance has made the company an attractive buyout target. Toll road giant Macquarie Bank made an offer to buy out the firm, and more recently the German conglomerate Siemens AG has expressed interest.
Shareholders must approve the raises for company directors, the performance rights granted to Finley and Davie and the overall remuneration report.
[Courtesy: Thenewspaper.com]
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While I am not really interested in them, RDF.AX are up 60% from their post GFC low, a performance that beats my portfolio in that timeframe.
Why do politicians buy the cameras? 1. They think we like cameras! There's Astroturf Lobbying by the red light cam Industry. (Google Rynski and Astroturf.) Astroturf Lobbying is when a PR firm creates an artificial grassroots movement via comments posted on newspaper articles like this one. The politicians, sensing strong public support (they read these comment columns too), give the OK for cameras. 2. They're immune to the tickets! In California 1.5 million privately-owned cars have plate numbers protected from easy look up, effectively invisible to agencies trying to process camera violations. This includes local politicians, bureaucrats, retired cops, other govt. employees, their families and ADULT children! Until August, there was a AB 2097 in Sacramento to change things so that the protected guys would receive the tickets they are due. But the politicians killed it.. They, and the bureaucrats, will continue to laugh at us as we pay our $500 (five hundred) fines.