Underwater rescue

It pays to have an understanding boss. Christopher Celtruda is group vice president of Corona-based Circor Aerospace Products, a division of Massachusetts-based Circor International, a manufacturer of valves and other industrial products. He was hired in June 2006 and relocated to Corona from Phoenix. Since then, the value of his residence has fallen by 50 percent, thus putting him underwater. At the same time, Celtruda has not been able to sell his Phoenix home, again the result of market conditions. So the company has agreed to purchase Celtruda’s home in Corona at its current fair market value - and to make payment on the $488,000 that's left on his mortgage. Circor is also picking up the state and federal taxes connected to the sale. The only catch is if Celtruda's employment is terminated prior to Dec. 31, 2012. In that case, he'll need to reimburse a portion of those payments. Here's the 8-K filing.

Footnoted.org's Michelle Leder, who came across the filing, wonders how many other companies are making similar moves, but not disclosing them because they don't consider it material. (Or because it might look bad to have their executives being bailed out of the housing mess.) For what it's worth, the latest proxy shows his base salary at $207,000 (additional benefits push him to around $500,000). In the corporate world, that's not over-the-top compensation. So should companies be rescuing their executives this way?