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Search Employee Retention Agreement by:
Exhibit 10.3
April 18, 2000
Mr. William
H. Odell
Vice President, Districts
Cascade Natural Gas Corporation
P.O. Box 24464
Seattle, WA 98124
Dear Mr. Odell:
Cascade Natural Gas Corporation (referred to as the “Company”) considers your continued employment as a member of its key management team to be essential to the best interests of the Company and its shareholders. The Company recognizes that, as is the case with many publicly held corporations, the possibility of a change in control may arise and that the attendant uncertainty may result in the departure or distraction of key management personnel to the detriment of the Company and its shareholders. Accordingly, the Board of Directors of the Company (the “Board”) has determined that appropriate steps should be taken to reinforce and encourage the continued attention and dedication of members of the Company’s management without distraction from the possibility of a change in control of the Company. The Board believes it important that, in the event of a proposal for transfer of control of the Company, you be able to assess the proposal and advise the Board without being influenced by the uncertainties of your own situation. The Board also considers the Company’s management one of the Company’s most valuable attributes and wishes to take appropriate steps to preserve the management group through the uncertainties which may attend any potential transaction involving a change in control.
In order to induce you to remain in the employ of the Company, this letter Agreement, which has been approved by the Board, sets forth the severance compensation which the Company agrees will be provided to you in the event your employment with the Company is terminated subsequent to a “change in control” of the Company under the circumstances described below.
1.
Agreement to Provide Services; Right to Terminate; Confidentiality.
a.
Termination Prior to Certain Offers. Except as otherwise provided in paragraph b below
or in any written employment agreement between you and Company, the Company or
you may terminate your employment at any time, subject to the Company providing
the severance compensation, if any, required under the specific conditions of
the termination.
b.
Termination Subsequent to Certain Offers. In the event a tender offer or exchange offer is
made by a Person (as hereinafter defined) for more than 30 percent of the
combined voting power of the Company’s outstanding securities ordinarily
having the right to vote at elections of directors (“Voting
Securities”) including shares of common stock of the Company (the
“Company Shares”), or in the event an offer is made by a Person to
purchase substantially all of the Company’s business assets, you agree
that you will not leave the employ of the Company (other than as a result of
Disability
as such term is hereinafter defined) and will render services to the Company in
the capacity in which you then serve until such tender offer, exchange offer,
or asset purchase offer has been abandoned or terminated or a change in control
of the Company, as defined in Section 3 hereof, has occurred, and the
Company agrees that it will not terminate your employment during such period
unless it shall provide you with the severance benefits set forth in
Section 5 hereof. For purposes of this Agreement, the term
“Person” shall mean and include any individual, corporation,
partnership, group, association, or other “person,” as such term is
used in Section 14(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the
“Exchange Act”), other than the Company or any employee benefit
plan(s) sponsored by the Company.
c.
Confidentiality.
You acknowledge that by reason of the capacity in which you have been employed,
(A) you have financial information regarding the Company which has not
been publicly disclosed and which is confidential to the Company, and
(B) disclosure of such financial information could cause irreparable harm
to the Company. You agree that you will not disclose, without prior
written consent of the Company, any financial information regarding the Company
which has not been publicly disclosed by the Company.
2.
Term of Agreement.
This Agreement shall commence on the date hereof and shall continue in effect
until December 31, 2002.
a.
This Agreement shall
be extended as follows:
i.
The term of the Agreement shall automatically be extended for one additional
year unless either you or the Company give notice at least 30 days before the
end of any calendar year that the agreement will not be extended.
ii.
The term of the Agreement (as extended under i.) shall be extended by an
additional 36 months, if a change in control of the Company (as defined in
Section 3) occurs.
b.
This Agreement shall
terminate when the first of the following occurs:
i.
The Agreement’s normal term, as extended under a, expires.
ii.
Either you or the Company terminate your employment before a change in control
of the Company.
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iii.
Your benefits under the Company’s Executive Supplemental Retirement
Income Plan become fully vested.
PROVIDED, HOWEVER, that the benefits to the Employee provided in Section 5.c.iii and Section 5.d shall not terminate upon vesting in Company’s Executive Supplemental Retirement Income Plan, but shall continue to apply for a period of three years after such vesting.
3.
Change in Control.
For purposes of this Agreement, a “change in control” of the
Company shall mean:
a.
A change in control of
a nature that would be required to be reported in response to Item 6(e) of
Schedule 14A of Regulation 14A as in effect on the date hereof pursuant to
the Exchange Act; provided that, such a change in control shall be deemed to
have occurred only at such time as any Person acquires, directly or indirectly,
actual economic beneficial ownership (as opposed to “beneficial
ownership” as defined in Rule 1 3d-3 under the Exchange Act), of 30
percent or more of the combined voting power of the Company’s Voting
Securities;
b.
During any period of
two consecutive years, individuals who at the beginning of such period
constitute the Board cease for any reason to constitute at least a majority thereof
unless the election, or the nomination for election by the Company’s
shareholders, of each new director was approved by a vote of at least
two-thirds of the directors then still in office who were directors at the
beginning of the period;
c.
There shall be
consummated (A) any consolidation or merger of the Company in which the
Company is not the continuing or surviving corporation or pursuant to which
Company Shares would be converted into cash, securities, or other property, or
(B) any sale, lease, exchange, or other transfer (in one transaction or a
series of related transactions) of all, or substantially all, of the assets of
the Company; or
d.
Approval by the
shareholders of the Company of any plan or proposal for the liquidation or
dissolution of the Company.
4.
Termination Following Change in Control. If, and only if, your employment with the Company
should be terminated by you or the Company within 36 months from the date of
occurrence of any event constituting a change in control of the Company (it
being recognized that more than one such event may occur in which case the
36-month period shall run from the date of occurrence of each such event), you
shall be entitled to the benefits provided in Section 5 hereof unless such
termination is because of your death or is effected by you other than for
“Good Reason” (as hereinafter defined). Provided, however,
that:
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a.
Absence Without Disability. If you fail to attend to your regularly assigned duties at the
Company on a full-time basis for reasons other than incapacity due to physical
or mental illness, or other than due to “Disability” as defined,
and within 30 days after written notice of termination is given you shall not
have returned to the full-time performance of your duties, the Company may
terminate this Agreement for Cause. “Disability” for purposes
of this Agreement may be established by a written certificate from a licensed
physician.
b.
Cause. The
Company may terminate your employment for Cause. For the purposes of this
Agreement, the Company shall have “Cause” to terminate your
employment hereunder if, and only if, (A) you shall commit an act of
fraud, embezzlement, or theft constituting a felony, (B) you become liable
to the Company for acts or omissions involving intentional misconduct or a
knowing violation of law, (C) you engage in any transaction relating to
the Company from which you personally receive a benefit in money, property, or
services to which you are not legally entitled or (D) cause as described
in paragraph 4(a) above. Notwithstanding the foregoing, you shall
not be deemed to have been terminated for Cause unless and until there shall
have been delivered to you a copy of a resolution duly adopted by the
affirmative vote of not less than three-quarters of the entire membership of
the Board at a meeting of the Board called and held for the purpose (after
reasonable notice to you and an opportunity for you, together with your
counsel, to be heard before the Board), finding that in the good faith opinion
of the Board you were guilty of conduct constituting Cause as defined above and
specifying the particulars thereof in detail.
c. &nb






