The Most Powerful Man in the Power Company

Lonnie Carter is the president and chief executive officer of the state-owned utility company Santee Cooper. I’ve never met Mr. Carter, but I’m sure he’s a fine fellow. All I do know about him is that he’s getting an eight percent pay raise in the coming year. I don’t know what his total compensation is this current year, but in 2013 he pulled down just under $790,000. As the old saying goes, it is good work if you can get it.
Being a curious person, I broke out my trusty calculator and played around with the above dollar figure. I will try not to bore you too much. If you divide what he earned by the 52 weeks in a year, you come up with more than $15,000 per seven-day period. To put it in perspective, he earned more in a week than someone working full time at minimum wage would make in a year. When this gentleman puts in for retirement, I plan on being first in line with my application.
Here’s another way to look at it. Let us say that your monthly power bill averages $175 a month. This figure is probably low for most families, but I just scooted the rabbit over and pulled it out of my hat for convenience sake. At that amount, your annual expense would be $2,100. Does it not seem kind of out of kilter that yours and about 375 of your neighbors’ yearly power bills go to just one man?
I hope you don’t think I am picking on this guy. Were he the CEO at a publically traded company, he likely would be making more. However, Santee Cooper is owned by the citizens of our state. In my mind, that makes him a public servant. An extremely well paid public servant at that.
I find it laughable that the utility’s board of directors approves the mega-bucks because it wants to make sure “Lonnie’s salary is competitive.” Gee, it might take a little on-the-job training, but I would be willing to throw some competition Mr. Carter’s way by offering my services for half a million dollars less that what he makes.
How long should I hold my breath?
James David Altman lives in West Ashley amd is  the son of the late former S.C. Republican House of Representative of John Graham Altman III. You can reach him at rabidreb@gmail.com.