CPS Energy chief’s bonus is 30% bigger than last year’s award

CPS CEO Paula Gold-Williams. CPS CEO Paula Gold-Williams. Photo: Robin Jerstad / Photo: Robin Jerstad / Image 1 of / 41 Caption Close CPS Energy chief’s bonus is 30% bigger than last year’s award 1 / 41 Back to Gallery

CPS Energy trustees on Thursday handed the city-owned utility’s chief executive a performance bonus of $338,783 for the last fiscal year — which is 30 percent bigger than the previous year’s award.

CPS President and Chief Executive Paula Gold-Williams will also receive a three-percent raise in her base salary to $485,850.

Her last bonus was $261,000.

Mayor Ron Nirenberg, who is a member of CPS’s board, and other trustees said Gold-Williams had done an outstanding job in the last year running the utility, citing factors such as customer satisfaction.

Trustee Ed Kelley, who chairs the trustees’ personnel committee, said earlier Thursday that Gold-Williams has been underpaid compared with the top executives of other utilities.

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He said a study by consulting firm Willis Towers Watson showed Gold-Williams was paid on average around 70 percent below the average compensation of a peer group of 18 other utility CEO’s.

The study looked at executive compensation at 12 investor-owned utilities and 6 municipally-owned utilities, which Kelley said had revenue, power generation and lines of business similar to CPS.

CPS is the largest city-owned utility in the U.S. with more than 800,00 electric customers and more than 300,000 gas customers.

Gold-Williams is the highest paid official among San Antonio government employees. Robert Puente, president of the San Antonio Water System, earns $468,000 annually, and City Manager Erik Walsh makes $312,000 a year.

“Her number is going to be big compared to the average guy walking in to the H-E-B store,” Kelley said of Gold-Williams’ compensation.

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She deserved the incentive pay, he added, in light of what he called her outstanding performance.

The five-member board measured Gold-Williams against 13 one-year and two-year goals in categories that included customer satisfaction, power plant performance and maintaining the agency’s AA credit rating. Kelley said she exceeded 11 of the goals.

Gold-Williams narrowly missed achieving a satisfactory rating in workplace safety and system reliability, which is the time CPS’ power grid operating without interruption.

She replaced Doyle Beneby as head of CPS on an interim basis shortly after he resigned in November 2015. In July 2016, trustees selected her to permanently fill the position.

Randy.diamond@express-news.net