NEW YORK CITY ARCHIVES Governor Cuomo Asks Con Ed to Freeze Executive Bonuses
by Sydney Brownstone
Last week, the New York Times published a searing piece revealing that Con Edison, which is currently undergoing an investigation for its handling of superstorm Sandy, was paying its top executives more than $600,000 in extra bonuses for 2012.
“In our judgment, the company performed in exemplary fashion,” Con Ed compensation committee chairman George Campbell Jr. told the paper, despite the fact that it took the utilities company four to seven days to fully restore power to 1.1 million of its customers in the aftermath of the hurricane.
Both Governor Cuomo and City Council Speaker Quinn have criticized Con Ed for its executive reward system and Sandy dysfunction, but today the governor asked Con Ed to suspend its bonus payout. “No ratepayer should pay a single penny for bonuses given to senior utility executives, especially for bonuses awarded for their performance during Sandy,” the governor said in a statement.
Today, the governor’s office released the letter he wrote to Con Ed Chairman Kevin Burke, who took home a whopping $7.4 million for the year, including $315,000 in bonuses.
“In order to ensure that the terms of the approved rate plan are upheld and that ratepayers are not wrongly put on the hook for bonuses to Con Ed senior executives, I am directing the [Public Services Commission] to conduct a review of bonuses,” the governor wrote.
You can read the full letter below.