CPS Energy customers can expect higher bills this month as the first of several planned rate increases goes into effect.

A majority of that money, more than $751,000, came in the form of a “restoration payment.” An attorney representing the utility described the payment late Tuesday as a distribution of benefits from a non-qualified retirement plan that is taxable when earned.

While February’s deadly winter storm not only left hundreds of thousands of San Antonio residents without power in subfreezing temperatures, some for days on end, it also exposed a large number of organizational issues within CPS Energy, the largest public power company in the nation.

Ex-CPS Energy executive Fred Bonewell was a prolific spender of public money, expense reports and receipts obtained by KSAT 12 Defenders show.

CPS Energy President and CEO Paula Gold-Williams plans to leave the public utility in early 2022, according to a news release.

Fred Bonewell departs the embattled public utility just months after being promoted to its number two position.

The ethnically insensitive comment, made in front of four fellow employees, led to a complaint being filed against Bonewell with the utility’s Ethics and Compliance Hotline a week later, internal CPS records obtained by the KSAT 12 Defenders show.

Before Fred Bonewell was promoted in June to be CPS Energy’s new chief operating officer, his signature appeared on a March 2017 agreement that laid out the working conditions for the utility’s wage-scale employees.