(b) Departure of Director and Executive Officer
On June 25, 2020, William W. Goetz informed Carriage Services, Inc. (the “Company”) of his decision to resign as President and Chief Operating Officer of the Company, effective as of June 26, 2020. Mr. Goetz has further agreed to resign from his position as a director on the Board of Directors of the Company (the “Board”), also effective as of June 26, 2020. The resignation was not the result of any disagreement Mr. Goetz had with the Company on any matter relating to the Company’s operations, policies, and practices.
(e) Executive Compensation Arrangements
On April 19, 2020, the Company initiated measures to address potential future challenges from the coronavirus pandemic. These measures included cost reduction efforts, including, among other things, a temporary reduction in the base salaries for the Company’s named executive officers (“NEOs”), as outlined in the table below. The quarterly cash compensation fees for each independent member of the Board were also temporarily reduced by 15%. The Compensation Committee of the Board approved all temporary reductions in compensation.
On June 26, 2020, the Board voted to reinstate the 2020 annual base salaries for the NEOs, and cash compensation fees for the independent members of the Board, back to 50% due to the Company’s strong current performance. The reinstatement of 2020 annual base salaries and compensation fees is effective as of June 28, 2020.
The annual base salary reductions for the Company’s NEOs from April 19, 2020 through June 27, 2020 have been treated as a temporary pay cut, and the lost wages from that time period will not be paid.
About Carriage Services, Inc. (NYSE:CSV)
Carriage Services, Inc. is a provider of death care services and merchandise in the United States. The Company operates in two business segments: Funeral Home Operations and Cemetery Operations. The Funeral Homes segment provides funeral services (traditional burial and cremation) and sells related merchandise, such as caskets and urns. Its cemetery products and services include interment services, the rights to interment in cemetery sites (primarily grave sites, mausoleum crypts and niches) and related cemetery merchandise, such as memorials and vaults. It serves suburban and rural markets. It provides funeral and cemetery services and products on both at-need (time of death) and preneed (planned prior to death) basis. It also maintains trusts in connection with funeral home and cemetery operations, including preneed funeral trusts, preneed cemetery merchandise and service trusts and cemetery perpetual care trusts. It operates approximately 167 funeral homes and 32 cemeteries.
