LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

CEOs’ pay fuels ire of investors

6/3/2014

Health Care REIT and its chief executive officer, George Chapman, were featured in your May 25 article on executive compensation, “Regional CEOs get their pay; Salary just piece of total compensation package, and shareholders weigh in.”

While Health Care REIT shareholders saw the value of their investment tumble in 2013 from stock prices in the $70 range to the $50s, Mr. Chapman’s compensation package in 2013 took a gigantic leap to $19.8 million from $12.3 million the year before.

It’s small wonder that shareholders are up in arms over the excess generosity of compensation packages at the company. When many Toledo workers have seen their pay decrease in recent years, they are rightly upset when they read of the disparity.

PAUL ZIMMER
Tanglewood Drive

Angelou’s poetry lives on in people
Poets speak to our hearts, expand our horizons, and inspire us. Maya Angelou was such a poet and woman (“Poet, playwright, producer a ‘rainbow amidst the clouds,’” May 29). She left us a small treasure before death cut her off.

Her wisdom touched how we feel and challenges us, and that remains with us. In her words: “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

DAVID DOANE
Whitehouse

 

Dems not helping plight of the poor
I’m amazed that people still buy into the myth that the GOP is the party of the rich and Democrats champion everyone else.

Why are there record corporate profits, but stagnant middle-class wages and an anemic, jobless recovery? Crony capitalism disrupts free markets by rewarding political connections at the expense of everything else.

Helping the little people is always on lawmakers’ to-do lists, but never gets done. The poor remain poor. Income inequality grows.

Misguided perceptions let Democrats get away with sticking it to the people they claim to champion, while claiming they could fix the problem if only Republicans would get out of the way.

JACK BELISLE
South Lyon, Mich.

 

Now that Eagle is out, where’s Sam?
Because Costco is not thinking of moving into the former Giant Eagle store in Rossford, why can’t a Sam’s Club make use of that location (“Finding tenants for vacant sites may be difficult,” May 16)?

All the necessary utilities for such a store are in place. The competition between Costco and Sam’s Club would be interesting.

MARY LU STRATSO
Perrysburg Township