One of the last official acts of Aquila Inc.'s board of directors before handing the company to Great Plains Energy Inc. on Monday was to give its outgoing chief executive a $1 million parting gift.
In a securities filing filed late Monday, the Kansas City-based utility said its board voted July 8 to give Richard Green Jr. a $1 million bonus for his "superior performance" when judged against financial and operational benchmarks for the fiscal year.
The decision wasn't disclosed before Great Plains acquired the company, and it angered Aquila shareholders who have suffered for years as the company's stock has fallen in value by almost 90 percent.
"It's financial malfeasance," said Richard Hull, an investor from Johnson, Neb. "It's not the way capitalism is supposed to work."
Green already was slated to receive $3.5 million in severance pay once the Great Plains deal was completed.
He had been criticized in the past for his compensation, which often remained high despite Aquila's problems. In 2002, he received compensation valued at $10 million as the company got caught in the collapse of the energy trading market following the Enron bankruptcy.
Green told shareholders in recent years that he wasn't taking bonuses because of the company's struggles. Investors hadn't received a dividend in six years.
On Monday, Great Plains Energy, the parent of Kansas City Power & Light, bought Aquila's electric operations in Missouri for $1.7 billion. Black Hills Corp. of Rapid City, S.D., bought the company's electric and natural gas operations in Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado and Iowa.
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