Codorus Valley Bancorp in York, Pa., has fired the president and CEO of its bank.
The $1.7 billion-asset company disclosed in a regulatory filing Wednesday that it had parted ways with Dwight Utz, who had also been its chief operating officer. In a single sentence, Codorus Valley said it had terminated the executive’s employment “without cause,” triggering a clause that guaranteed him payment of a year’s salary and benefits.
Utz’s salary was $390,000 in 2017, according to the company's last proxy statement.
Utz joined the $1.7 billion-asset Codorus Valley in September 2015 as its chief operating officer. He became president and CEO of its bank a few months later.
Utz served as president and CEO of ECB Bancorp in Engelhard, N.C., from June 2009 until its
Utz’s departure came as a surprise. Codorus reported earnings of $12 million last year; that was a decline of 8% from a year earlier, but the primary reason was a one-time tax adjustment. The company saw double-digit increases in loans, deposits and revenue, and nonperforming assets were just 0.38% of total assets. It said earnings would have risen 13% without the tax adjustment, and parent company CEO Larry Miller described 2017 as "another year of strong performance" in a Jan. 18 news release.
Utz’s original two-year employment agreement was renewed for an additional 12 months in May 2017.
Efforts to reach Utz and Larry Miller, Codorus Valley's chairman and CEO, were unsuccessful.
