All employees of the Russellville Electric Board received the first of two 2022 'Performance and Safety Incentive' bonuses last week.
These incentive payments are nothing new—REB employees have received them for many years—and we at the FFP have no problem with employees getting them.
Board members, on the other hand, received these incentive bonuses illegally up until this year, when four board members paid back $28,800 in bonuses that violated the maximum compensation amount for Franklin County utility board members as stated in the Code of Alabama.
Our concern (and that of many ratepayers) is the continued shroud of secrecy and complete refusal by REB General Manager Charles Canida and the board to be open and transparent about their business.
The incentive bonuses were approved at the April 19, 2022 business meeting of the Russellville Electric Board. Board member Bill Jackson made the motion to “approve the Performance and Incentive as we have done in the past.”
The motion was seconded and unanimously approved by the board with no discussion.
Through an Open Records Request, the FFP reviewed minutes from all Russellville Electric Board meetings for 2019-2021. For the past two years, the REB has approved a motion to pay Performance and Incentive bonuses in the amount of 80 hours, payable in May and October, for a total of 160 hours per employee. In previous years, the bonus was 60 hours, payable twice a year, for a total of 120 hours per employee. These specific hours were made part of the motions approved by the board. The FFP confirmed this with a review of the REB's 2020 and 2021 meeting minutes.
The FFP later learned that REB employees received the same 80 hour bonus again this month, and they will receive it again later this year. But Jackson's motion said nothing about 80 hours. In fact, it said nothing about how much the incentive bonuses would be at all.
How does a board approve an incentive bonus without quantifying how much the bonus will be? Why not make the motion to approve an 80-hour bonus as was done the past two years?
Of course the local newspaper wasn't present at those meetings.
Immediately after the April 19 meeting, the FFP asked Jackson how much each employee's bonus would be under the motion he made. Jackson responded that he wasn't sure and directed us to ask Canida, even though Jackson made the motion to start with.
Canida was asked if the bonus would be 1.5 or two weeks' pay, but his response indicated he either didn't know, or didn't want to disclose to the public, how much the bonuses would be.
“I'm not sure. It's based on a formula,” Canida said.
A follow up question asking him to detail the formula was met with a similarly evasive response.
“I don't know. It's just based on the formula,” he responded.
Canida is the highest-paid REB employee. His 2021 W2 shows his gross income topped $177,000. He also receives this twice-a-year incentive bonus. Yet he's the one who calculates this mysterious 'formula' that determines how much the incentive bonuses will be. So he either didn't know, or refused to state, how the bonuses would be calculated.
It's the financial equivalent of the fox guarding the hen house.
The incentive has been 80 hours' pay, twice a year, for the past two years. And Jackson's motion was to approve the bonus “as we have done in the past.”
And in the end, the incentive bonuses were the same as they've been for 2020 and 2021. But Canida referred only to some 'formula' that has never been provided to the public.
That's wrong on several levels.
Based on Canida's base salary of $165,000, two 80-hour bonuses will put an additional $12,692 in his pocket. That's a lot of money, particularly for a local power company that's supposedly dealing with 'declining' revenue, as Canida said in January.
There should be accountability and openness when a public board deals with public funds. Transparency is the best way for a board to avoid allegations of impropriety.
When a board approves an incentive bonus, each board member should know, prior to voting on the motion, how much that bonus will be.
That's information that shouldn't be limited to the one person who will receive the largest bonus, with that person also being the one who calculates the bonus.
Unfortunately, with Canida and the Russellville Electric Board, this is often the rule, rather than the exception.
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