*Totally off topic*!! Cap - On the other hand, maybe the pressure *IS* getting to some of these CEOs - check this guy out, he like to cruise around his estate blasting his leafblower - while sitting in the trunk of his car.... You have insurance thru Chubb???
Regards,
John <ggg>
In New Jersey, Noise Complaints
Over Yard Tools Burn Chubb CEO
By GREGORY ZUCKERMAN
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
FAR HILLS, N.J. -- Dean O'Hare, the chairman and chief executive officer of Chubb Corp., runs one of the biggest insurance companies in the world. He sits on a trade committee that advises President Bush. He oversees 10,000 employees.
Mr. O'Hare also has an unusual hobby, his neighbors say: He likes to use loud yard equipment at odd hours, and in all sorts of weather.
Neighbors say they have spotted him in the evening sitting in the open trunk of his car, blasting his leaf blower, as his wife, Kathleen, drives him up the nearly half-mile driveway to his brick mansion. When there are no leaves, they say, he and his gardeners turn to snow blowers or lawn mowers for hours on end. At other times, he cranks up a high-powered garage vacuum.
For the other wealthy people who live near his 20-acre estate, Crestline, Mr. O'Hare has become a high-powered nuisance. Now he's the object of an unusual public ruckus. Two weeks ago, the Far Hills borough council, spurred by complaints about Mr. O'Hare, held a public hearing to talk about initiating a leaf-blowing ban outside normal work hours. The Newark Star-Ledger has weighed in with two stories about the issue, and an editorial headlined "The Roar From a Boor."
For Marvin and Leonora Flowerman, retired septuagenarians who live on the property adjoining Crestline, the breaking point came on a Sunday in late October. Mrs. Flowerman, who had settled down to read a book in her den, was jolted out of her chair by a high-pitched sound. The noise, like an air-raid siren, Mr. Flowerman recalls, came from Mr. O'Hare's place.
The Flowermans say they heard it all afternoon, and again in the early evening, even after they had closed their windows.
The two say they have been enduring buzzing sounds for long stretches of time ever since Mr. O'Hare, his wife and their two sons moved in 14 years ago. "I had it up to here," Mrs. Flowerman says, gesturing upward.
Mrs. Flowerman, joined in her cause by another neighbor, Mary Jane Semcer, called the O'Hares, and then the police, to complain.
After interviewing Mr. O'Hare, Sgt. John Lucas Jr., stopped by the Flowermans' home to relay a message from the CEO. "He says to do an unnatural act to yourself," they say the police officer told them. (That account also was included in a police report on the incident.)
Asked about the noise allegations by a Star-Ledger reporter, Mr. O'Hare cracked that the people complaining about his lawn habits are nothing but "penny millionaires."
"I probably could buy and sell most of them," the paper quoted Mr. O'Hare as saying.
Mr. O'Hare, 59 years old, declined to comment for this article. According to a spokesman, Mr. O'Hare, who owns Chubb shares valued at about $10 million, denies saying he could buy and sell his neighbors. Rather, says the spokesman, he simply agreed with the reporter when she made that observation to him.
Born into a middle-class family in Jersey City, N.J., Mr. O'Hare graduated from New York University in 1963 and joined Chubb as an underwriter trainee. With stops along the way as a financial analyst and administrative assistant to Percy Chubb II, he worked his way up to chief executive in 1988, the same year he, his wife and their two sons moved into the estate in Far Hills.
In a prepared statement, he calls the leaf-blowing episode "grossly exaggerated, as my gardening equipment has been tested for noise levels ... Moreover, the impression of incessant disturbance by activities when I come home from work is false; I travel extensively and was at home only 62 nights in 2001."
He says the Flowermans have always complained about him. "It's unfortunate that my neighbor has behaved in an unneighborly fashion from the day I moved in, harassing me about my home blocking his view and my lights shining into his window, calling the police about leaf blowing at 4:00 in the afternoon, and permitting a reporter to prowl around with a flashlight at night at the edge of my property to spy on me," the statement said.
Responds Mrs. Flowerman: "I don't care if he wants to have his fun, just be neighborly about it."
After the newspaper stories appeared, Mr. O'Hare sent a memo to Chubb employees apologizing if he had embarrassed any of them.
Chubb, a regional property and casualty insurer when Mr. O'Hare took the helm, has grown into a world-wide power with offices in 31 countries. Mr. O'Hare pushed Chubb into the top spot in the business of insuring wealthy homeowners, and the company wins kudos for its customer service. Under his stewardship, Chubb's market capitalization has grown to $14 billion from $800 million.
Other neighbors of Mr. O'Hare's have tried taking matters into their own hands. "I've driven by to give him a couple of dirty looks" to get him to quiet down, says John Baumstark, head of maintenance for a factory in town.
Despite the complaints, the police have been unable to act. Even with the proposed new ordinance -- which carries a penalty of as much as $1,000 or 30 days in jail -- it isn't clear that Mr. O'Hare would ever be forced to lay down his blower. The law "would be a nightmare to enforce," says Far Hills' mayor, Carl Torsilieri, who owns a lawn-maintenance company.
Some of Mr. O'Hare's supporters have come forth to defend him. Chubb employees Judy Iradi and Linda Bittman sent a letter to the Star-Ledger saying that Mr. O'Hare is a "down-to-earth and extremely compassionate man." They said that, among other charitable works, he helped pay the college tuition of the child of a Chubb employee who died.
Warren Rudman, the former U.S. senator, who is now on Chubb's board, says Mr. O'Hare is "a compassionate, reasonable guy, but obviously, he's a bit ticked off about his neighbor."
In late December, there were signs that Mr. O'Hare might be turning over a new leaf. He sent a letter to Mayor Torsilieri, saying that the sound of his maintenance equipment had been tested and was within the acceptable decibel limitations of state guidelines.
While Mr. O'Hare says his neighbors' complaints showed "an element of intolerance and unfriendliness," he acknowledged that he "probably overreacted, verbally at least," when they complained, and he said he would "do all I can to avoid any unreasonable disruption of the sensibilities" of his neighbors. |
