Palm Beach paper pulls editorial critical of CEO’s pay package

Kevin Gale, the editor of the South Florida Business Journal, reports Monday that the Palm Beach Post has pulled an editorial it published on Friday from its website about the compensation package of Office Depot’s departing CEO after the company raised questions about several facts in the editorial.

Gale writes, “The editorial generally looked at whether Odland deserved a $11.5 million severance package, given what’s happened at the company in recent years.

“Those events include a settlement with the SEC that involved Odland and investigations into the company’s pricing practices, including a pending one by the U.S. Department of Justice.

“On Sunday, I e-mailed Brian Levine, vice president of corporate communications at Office Depot, and asked whether the company had communicated any concerns about the article.

“He replied: ‘Yes. The story was inaccurate and contained errors.’

“When I asked Levine for further specifics, he replied: ‘Mr. Odland had no involvement in the government contract mistakes. In fact, he led efforts to put in place best practice contract compliance programs. He also led efforts to retrain the entire sales team. The insinuation that he had anything to do with these issues was wrong on many levels.'”