DeWITT — The top executive of DeWitt–based Community Bank has a new three-year employment contract, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The new deal, which pays Community Bank President and CEO Mark Tryniski a base salary of $620,000, took effect Jan. 1 and expires Dec. 31, 2014. Tryniski’s previous […]
DeWITT — The top executive of DeWitt–based Community Bank has a new three-year employment contract, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
The new deal, which pays Community Bank President and CEO Mark Tryniski a base salary of $620,000, took effect Jan. 1 and expires Dec. 31, 2014. Tryniski’s previous employment agreement ran from March 18, 2009, to Dec. 31, 2011, and paid a base salary of $454,000.
Tryniski is also eligible for incentive pay. His total pay in 2010 was more than $1.3 million, including bonuses and stock-based compensation, according to a filing with the SEC.
Pay information for 2011 has not been filed with the commission yet.
Community Bank has $6.5 billion in assets and more than 170 branch offices in upstate New York and Pennsylvania. The banking company also operates subsidiaries in employee benefits, insurance, investment management and advising, and wealth management.
The board undertook a lengthy process, including using an outside consulting firm, to establish the right comparisons for Tryniski’s salary, Community Bank CFO Scott Kingsley said in an email. The process also takes performance into account, he added.
Although fourth-quarter results have not been released yet, Community Bank System, Inc. (NYSE: CBU) earned $54.2 million, or $1.50 per share, through the first nine months of 2011, up more than 14 percent from the same period in 2010. The company set earnings records in each of the first three quarters.
For the third quarter, the banking company earned $20 million, or 54 cents a share, up nearly 16 percent from a year earlier.
Community Bank System’s stock price finished 2011 at $27.80 per share, up 3 cents, or 0.1 percent, from the end of 2010. In all, the company’s share price rose more than $12, or nearly 77 percent, over the course of Tryniski’s last nearly three-year contract.
In addition to its string of record results, the banking company expanded its footprint in 2011 with the acquisition of Oneonta–based Wilber National Bank. The $103 million deal brought $464 million in net loans, $772 million in deposits, $300 million in trust assets, and 22 branches in Otsego, Delaware, Schoharie, Ulster, Chenango, Onondaga, Saratoga, and Broome counties, along with a loan-production office located in Saratoga County.
Community Bank System’s employee-benefits subsidiary, Benefit Plans Administrative Services, Inc. (BPAS), also added another piece in 2011. The firm announced it acquired CAI Benefits, Inc. in October.
BPAS had been looking to establish a firm base in the metro New York City area and CAI has offices in the city and New Jersey, bank leaders said.
Tryniski said during the year he sees strong potential for growth at Community Bank in its home market. The Wilber deal brought the bank its first location in the immediate Syracuse area with a branch on State Route 31 in Cicero.
Tryniski said he’d also like to open a branch in the DeWitt area.
Community Bank System employs 2,000 people, including about 120 at its corporate offices in DeWitt’s Widewaters Park.
