SAN ANTONIO - Doyle Beneby, CEO of CPS Energy, is getting a $410,000 bonus, doubling his salary over the next year to $820,000.
The CPS Energy board of trustees approved the maximum payout during a review of his contract because it says the public utility hit goals for safety, customer service and financials health. Beneby will get half now and the other half when his contract expires in 12 months.
“We just got a report that over 112 new jobs have been created in the last year based on the leadership of Mr. Beneby,” said board president Derrick Howard. “You can only advance if you're succeeding, and I think some of the things we done over the past year, by the new energy economy, bringing in six new companies to San Antonio, they're not only making an investment in their companies but also in education. That's huge.”
The huge payday comes after Beneby took heat for his lavish meal expenses, that I uncovered earlier this year. A month ago Beneby and other top executives said they would not accept a raise after I uncovered the utility handed out 16 million in bonuses to employees with some top execs getting six figure payouts.
Some CPS customers couldn’t believe the massive bonus. "I don’t think that’s right at all, he's already making a lot of money, why should he make more?" said one. Another said
"If anything they should be taking some kind of cut on that, because I know my prices have gone up, on CPS and more and more"
Beneby reacted to the big payday after Monday’s board meeting. “This is a really, really tough business. It's really difficult to day in and day out make the decisions that really move the needle,” said Beneby. “It's always a tough position to try and state the case that you deserve what you earn. All you can do is keep your head down, work hard and hope that the community supports it.”
Despite the controversy over his meal expenses, the board loves him and they want him to stay. Beneby could easily make millions running a privately owned utility and they know that. So the message to Beneby by the board, is that they want him to stick around.
