CIRI makes salary cuts, lays off 13 employees
ANCHORAGE - Cook Inlet Region Inc. has laid off 13 staffers, cut executive and director pay, and eliminated some perks in an effort to slash overhead by 25 percent.
Chief executive Carl Marrs said the belt-tightening comes as management considers its next move after a wildly successful foray into telecommunications. CIRI is the most profitable of the Alaska Native corporations created by Congress in 1971.
The Anchorage-based company scored big two years ago when it cashed out an investment in VoiceStream Wireless. CIRI rewarded its owners with two huge payouts totaling $65,000 to the typical shareholder with 100 shares.
Now, as the company weighs its next investments and starts to pay higher taxes, it's time to ratchet back, Marrs said. The company faces higher taxes because it has exhausted the net operating losses that helped shelter its real estate income from taxes in recent years.
CIRI has trimmed the salaries of senior managers, including himself, Marrs said. He declined to specify by how much. Marrs' base salary 2001 was $321,021, not including a $220,000 bonus and $17,000 in profit-sharing, according to a company proxy statement.
The cuts coincide with calls for a $10,000 dividend for shareholders and continuing accusations from dissidents of extravagant spending by CIRI management.