Will lead Avista for less

In reading the fine March 22 article on Avista and utility rate increases, I read that Avista considers its executive pay to be mostly paid by shareholders and company profits; i.e., not paid by customer rates.

Is there some Avista bond covenant or company bylaw that makes it illegal to use company profits for expenses other than executive pay? Surely not. If I am wrong, please correct me, but to say that customers aren’t paying for executive pay, or at least most of it, because company profits are paying for it strikes me as disingenuous at best, obfuscation at worst.

Company profits could keep rates lower if Avista so chose, I believe, and my guess is that Avista could find someone of reasonable intelligence with knowledge of the utility field for the pittance of $1 million per year. Why, I might even be willing to go back to school and learn how to help Avista through these difficult times for $1 million a year. Count me in at $5.5 million.

Bob Tattershall

Pullman