Mayor Julian Castro says he agrees with ratepayers who've been outraged at excessive spending on meals and parties by CPS Energy top brass and wants the public utility to pull the plug on the expensive events.
Castro, who did not attend any of the meals or parties I’ve been reporting on in recent days, says he’s told CPS CEO Doyle Beneby and Board Chairman Derrick Howard that changes are need in the wake of my investigation.
“Doyle and I have touched on this issue briefly and I'm sure we're going to have a much larger conversation. And I've talked to Derrick as well,” Castro said. “And I think everyone is in agreement, we need to look at the policy, figure out what makes sense for the utility. And understand this is a public utility, that it is not a private company.”
And because CPS is a public utility fueled by ratepayer's money, Castro thinks the utility should adopt policies similar to those in place at the city.
“Here at the city of San Antonio we have a policy of not allowing reimbursement of alcohol. And also the price of a meal is clearly an issue,” said Castro. “So those are the types of things we can look at revising. There was some stuff in there that of course, any reasonable person would look at and say, hey, we need to take a look at this policy.”
The mayor made it clear he believe Beneby is doing a great job overall running the massive utility and he's not slamming his leadership.
Castro just thinks Beneby, and the rest of the utility’s leadership, needs to be better stewards of ratepayer’s money.
