Mayor Bill White on Wednesday threatened litigation against CenterPoint Energy if the utility does not drop $22 million in Hurricane Ike-related costs it is attempting to pass along to ratepayers.
The dispute, which will be considered Friday at a hearing before the Public Utility Commission of Texas, is not likely to change the $1.83 monthly increase on Houston-area bills to pay for the $677 million cost of restoring power after Ike.
But White said the city has taken on CenterPoint out of principle because the company is attempting to be repaid for paying employees who would have been working even if Ike hadn't hit.
The city will not “pay someone's salary who was going to show up anyway ... CenterPoint needs to back off,” White said.
CenterPoint spokesman Floyd LeBlanc said the $22 million figure in question is to cover pay for non-hourly employees who put in particularly long hours in support of the hourly line workers who had the hands-on tasks of restoring power. This included delivering meals to the crews in the field so they didn't need to leave work sites, serving as spokespeople for the crews in neighborhoods and helping them with lodging arrangements.
For 14 years, per KHOU-TV broadcast.
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