08/24/04 Minutes

GEORGIA WORLD CONGRESS CENTER AUTHORITY
COMPENSATION COMMITTEE MEETING
August 24, 2004

MINUTES

Committee Members Present:
David Allman
Bill Archer, Ex-Officio
Louise McBee, Legislative Advisor
Bob Prather, Chair
Tommy Vance

GWCCA Staff Present:
Dan Graveline
Dale Aiken

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Chairman Prather called the Compensation Committee meeting to order at 8:10 a.m. For the benefit of new committee members, Mr. Graveline reviewed the recommendations made by the committee at last year's meeting. At that time Mr. Prather asked for approval of the minutes of the meeting held August 25, 2003.

Motion to approve the 2003 Compensation Committee meeting minutes as presented was made by Bill Archer seconded by Tommy Vance and unanimously approved.

Mr. Graveline reviewed the Key Employee Incentive Compensation Plan, the Fiscal Year 2004 Review, and Facility Performance Reports, which are attached and made part of these minutes. A copy of the Key Employee Incentive Compensation Plan plan will be sent to David Allman and Tommy Vance for their records. At the end of last year's meeting the committee suggested Mr. Graveline and his staff look at ways the committee might evaluate performance in future years based upon factors other than just financial performance. With that in mind, Mr. Graveline introduced two new reports. The first report is entitled "Building on our Traditions in FY 2004" and the second report is an Economic Impact Analysis, both of which are also attached and made part of these minutes. "Building on our Traditions in FY 2004" points out ways GWCCA has improved customer service and controlled expenses. The Economic Impact Analysis is a statistical report developed by The Selig Center for Economic Growth, Terry College of Business, University of Georgia, and based on data obtained from the International Association of Convention and Visitor Bureaus' 2000 Update and 1998 Convention Income surveys (August 2004) as well as specific GWCC attendance statistics.

At this time Mr. Graveline introduced two proposed Employee Leave Programs. The first proposal is to allow employees to convert a portion of unused sick leave to personal leave. This proposal is the same as the existing state policy, once a year if an employee has a balance of 120 sick leave hours, he/she can convert up to three (3) days of unused sick leave to personal leave at year-end. Such personal leave must be used within the calendar year or be lost and is not paid when an employee leaves authority employment. This is an incentive to employees to not abuse the use of sick leave.

The second proposal is to allow employees to convert annual leave to cash. To be eligible, an individual must be employed with the Authority for at least two (2) years and maintain a minimum of one hundred (100) hours of annual leave (after this conversion/payout). With these eligibility requirements met, an employee can convert the following earned annual leave days to cash one time per year:

• Two (2) years of service qualifies for up to sixteen (16) hours of pay;
• Three (3) years of service qualifies for up to twenty-four (24) hours of pay;
• Four (4) years of service qualifies for up to thirty-two (32) hours of pay; and
• Five (5) years of service qualifies for a maximum of forty (40) hours of pay.

This policy is an incentive for retention of employees and allows an additional option for earned leave, but at the same time does not penalize them when they need to use annual leave during the year. This proposal would be a significant boost to moral.

Motion to approve the proposed Employee Leave Programs as presented was made by Bob Prather, seconded by Louise McBee, and unanimously approved.

The next topic of discussion was Personal Use Leased Automobiles. GWCCA proposes to eliminate personal use vehicles for top management employees. GWCCA currently leases ten (10) vehicles. These vehicles would be phased out as the leases expire and replaced with $850 per month salary increase ($10,200 per year). This would not be considered an automobile allowance. This proposal would allow the Authority to get out of the leased automobile business and would be cost neutral to the Authority.

Motion to approve the proposed Personal Use Lease Automobile Phase-out Program as presented was made by Louise McBee, seconded by David Allman, and unanimously approved.

The Compensation Committee will present the proposed Employee Leave Programs and the Personal Use Leased Automobile Phase-out Program to the Authority for approval at the next meeting scheduled for August 31, 2004.

At this time Mr. Graveline noted that this year GWCC Authority has the latitude to reward employees with an average 3% merit raise. The raises will range from 0%-4% giving managers latitude to determine the amount of raise based on an employee's performance.

Mr. Graveline and Ms. Aiken were excused from the meeting for Committee deliberations. Upon the return of Mr. Graveline and Ms. Aiken, Chairman Prather reported the committee unanimously voted to make the following recommendations, which will be brought to the Authority for approval at the next meeting scheduled for August 31, 2004:

1. The committee voted to recommend the following:

• All employees receive an average three percent (3%) merit raise, with a range of 0 - 4%;
• A three percent (3%) merit raise for Mr. Graveline;

2. The committee voted to award the overall organization a superior rating thereby establishing a total compensation pool of $292,001 for the Key Employee Incentive Plan.

3. The Committee then voted to award Mr. Graveline a superior rating of 150%, which awards Mr. Graveline $71,963 spread over the next three years as his portion of the Key Employee Incentive Plan.

Mr. Prather requested the minutes reflect that a motion to approve the above referenced recommendations was made by David Allman, seconded by Louise McBee, and unanimously approved.

In conclusion Chairman Prather suggested that the Committee would like to consider revising the Key Employee Incentive Plan next year by considering Mr. Graveline's incentive as separate from the rest of the incentive pool in order that his award would have less impact on the other participants. Mr. Graveline felt that was a good suggestion and that staff will give some thought to alternative approaches for the Committee's consideration before next year.

Mr. Graveline thanked the committee for their continued support.

Motion to adjourn the meeting at 12:05 a.m. was made by Bill Archer, seconded by Tommy Vance and unanimously approved.