The firm that brought Lee Domanico to El Camino Hospital five years ago has been hired to find the chief executive officer’s replacement.
The hospital board of directors agreed in closed session Jan. 11 to hire Witt/Kiefer for an undisclosed amount. The board expects the search to take three to six months.
Interim CEO Marla Gularte is continuing to serve as chief financial officer as well. The directors agreed to pay her an additional $10,000 for each of the first three months she serves as interim CEO and $2,000 per month in addition to that thereafter, capping the salary additions at $30,000 per month. If Gularte retires early, she will receive additional insurance benefits. She earned a base salary of $234,038 and a total compensation package of $346,416 last year as the hospital’s chief financial officer.
Shaking off some testiness, the directors agreed in open session to take over the task of appointing the two-director committee that advises the full board in setting the chief executive officer’s salary and benefits.
Until now, the CEO has appointed the compensation committee, on which Dr. Dominic Curatola and David Reeder have served for the past five years. They worked with a consultant to produce the contract when Lee Domanico was hired as CEO.
Board Vice Chairman David Reeder presented a complex motion in last week’s regular board meeting that was quickly broken into three. The third motion failed for lack of a second, but not before some sore spots were touched. Contention arose over Reeder’s unseconded motion to “take the high road” by appointing himself and Mark O’Connor to the compensation committee. Dr. Curatola, the committee chairman, took exception to Reeder’s “insulting and presumptuous” implication that appointing him or board chairman Dr. Ed Bough would be “taking the low road.” Reeder later apologized.
O’Connor said, “I don’t see any reason to rush to change the makeup of the compensation committee. Time is on our side to get a consultant out here to educate us.”
