This outfit puts the con in your Con Ed bill.
New Yorkers facing a possible 12 percent boost in electricity costs next month are shouldering inflated salaries, first-class travel and lobster luncheons for the fat cats at the obscure nonprofit in charge of the state’s power grid.
The New York Independent Service Operator — which manages high-voltage lines and oversees the sale of electricity from power plants to utilities like Con Ed — has ballooned in size and overhead costs since it was formed in December 1999.
Its president and CEO, Stephen G. Whitley, pulled down $875,000 in salary and $489,000 in benefits in 2009, according to its most recent IRS filings. Board Chairwoman Karen Antion, a former Port Authority executive, raked in $377,700 in pay and perks.
Whitley and Antion regularly enjoy first-class plane travel on NYISO’s dime, the filings show.
Six of NYISO’s nine board members make more than $100,000 a year — for just 14 hours of work a week, the tax filings say.
“It’s a scandal,” said Richard Brodsky, a former state assemblyman who has long railed against NYISO. “The salaries are excessive. It’s the directors’ compensation that makes you nuts.”
At least 20 of NYISO’s 500 employees were paid more than $200,000 in 2009, up from 16 in 2007, the IRS filings show. The head secretary to the company and board, Diane Egan, got $221,000.
For years, NYISO has sponsored quarterly meetings for utility executives at golf courses, complete with lobster and steak lunches. It has also held boozy Christmas parties with live music and food galore in Saratoga Springs, a former employee said.
An efficiency expert said he quit in disgust over NYISO’s wasteful ways.
“They were spending money like water,” he said. “It was the most poorly run organization that I’ve ever worked for . . . Executives were basically stealing the company blind.”
Executives also received generous bonuses for making sure employees went through professional training and completed improvement projects. NYISO’s 22 highest-paid employees together pulled in $1.1 million in this incentive pay in 2009.
NYISO took in $139 million in fees in 2009 from power companies such as Con Ed — more than double the $62 million it took in 2000. Con Ed is stuck passing along these charges to renters and homeowners.
New York’s 19 million residents pay an average of $7.16 per person per year for NYISO services, compared to the $5.24 paid by the 51 million people served by PJM, the power grid that serves New Jersey, Pennsylvania and 11 other states, 2010 federal filings show.
NYISO spokesman Thomas Rumsey said that the organization’s work requires top-notch employees with energy expertise, and their pay must compete with private corporations.
“NYISO operations are transparent, accountable and subject to rigorous oversight by federal and state government regulators,” Rumsey said.