PAULA GOLD WILLIAMS

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 has now spent over $7 million on outside attorneys and consultants to fight natural gas bills it racked up during February’s winter storm, records obtained by the KSAT 12 Defenders show.

CPS Energy officials have dismissed at least three lawsuits against natural gas suppliers it accused of price gouging and charging exorbitant rates for fuel during February’s winter blast, court records obtained by the KSAT 12 Defenders show.

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.

Officials with CPS Energy this month were forced to release a copy of a 2020 complaint that alleges its president and CEO, Paula Gold Williams, repeatedly mistreated members of the utility’s senior leadership team.

Two more San Antonio families joined a growing list of people who have filed wrongful death lawsuits against CPS Energy, claiming the utility contributed to the deaths of their loved ones in February, court records obtained by the KSAT 12 Defenders show.