Shareholders should have say on bank salaries

To the editor:

I read with interest an article concerning the compensation package for retiring U.S. Bank chairman John Grundhofer. It seems after the merger with his brother's bank, Firstar, his salary of a little over $900,000 will go up to $2.9 million upon his retirement for the rest of his life. Why does he earn more for staying home?

But these banks don't really belong to the brothers. They are publicly owned and traded. So we stockholders are the owners. The question should be: Why can the top management of our bank take away so much in compensation while cutting employees and facilities which, as anyone who deals with a bank now knows, hurts service.

I don't have the answer, but I hope someone out there can share with everyone how we the owners can influence the board of directors to cut back on the greed of the CEOs of these companies. Why should they be able to, merge, slash, cut and consolidate and then leave with more than they brought to the table?

MITCH MAYBERRY

Cape Girardeau