By Town Crier Staff Report

El Camino Hospital’s chief executive officer earned a base salary of $492,291 in 2004, according to IRS Form 990, released by the hospital last week. In addition, CEO Lee Domanico received a bonus of $173,306, $9,000 in expenses and allowances and $249,127 in deferred compensation and contributions to his benefit plan. In 2002, the hospital lent the CEO $850,000 at 6 percent simple interest on a 10-year loan. Annual interest forgiveness is treated as additional compensation. In 2004, $19,380 in interest was forgiven.

Jon Friedenberg, vice president for strategy and external relations as well as president of the El Camino Hospital Foundation, said the board of directors retains a compensation consultant who surveys comparable hospitals across the nation and sets parameters for executive salaries. Hospital officers’ and directors’ salaries totaled $1.2 million on Form 990 for 2004. The board has been working with the consultant to determine Domanico’s compensation for the 2005-2006 fiscal year, which it plans to decide in its next regularly scheduled meeting Dec. 7.

The typical salary of a CEO of an independent hospital with more than $200 million in annual revenue was $426,000 in 2004, according to Sullivan, Cotter and Associates, which prepared the comparison sheet the hospital released with the Form 990. The independent El Camino Hospital’s revenue is more than $300 million a year, Friedenberg said.

The CEO’s compensation has been a matter of interest in the community, largely because the amount was not disclosed to the public until persistent requests by local media and the Los Altos-Mountain View Area League of Women Voters had their effect. Hospital officials argued that the institution was a private entity and not subject to laws requiring public disclosure of such information.