Thanks to a reader for sending in this tip – I had missed this story. Here we have Thomas Bottorff, Senior Vice President of Regulatory Affairs for Pacific Gas and Electric. This is the genius who came up with the recent “rate changes” that have higher PG&E users paying lower rates, passing higher rates onto lower users and even CARE recipients. Here he explains the logic behind robbing the poor to pay for air conditioning the rich:
But Mr. Bottorff got caught red-handed in the e-mail scandal and was forced to resign. With a $1.1 million severance package? That’s how we punish the rich here in sunny California.
http://www.mercurynews.com/crime-courts/ci_26870345/pg-e-executive-who-lost-job-over-emails
PG&E spokesman Keith Stephens said today, “The benefits that were provided were in accordance with the company’s officer separation policy and are based on individual compensation levels and years of service.
“The agreements are in line with what other officers have received who have left the company with commensurate years of service,” Stephens said.
The emails were announced by PG&E on Sept. 15. They were written in January by former Vice President for Regulatory Relations Brian Cherry, whom Bottorff supervised, to a PUC staff member and Commissioner Mike Florio.
The messages concerned apparent attempts to influence the selection of a PUC administrative law judge for a PG&E gas transmission and storage rate case. PG&E said when disclosing the messages that it believed they violated the PUC’s rules barring private communications to commissioners and staff on regulatory matters.
An administrative law judge who held a hearing on the messages ruled on Oct. 16 that the “PG&E’s actions severely harmed the integrity of the regulatory process.” The commission is scheduled to consider a penalty at a Nov. 20 meeting.
Cherry and Vice President of Regulatory Proceedings and Rates Trina Horner were also terminated from PG&E employment in September. The Oct. 28 SEC filing did not provide any information on the terms of their separations.
On Oct. 6, PG&E released a second batch of emails written by Cherry in 2010 and 2013 and said those messages also appeared to violate the rules.
In an email report sent to Bottorff on May 31, 2010, Cherry described a private dinner with PUC President Michael Peevey at which, according to Cherry’s letter, they discussed several regulatory proceedings and Peevey allegedly asked PG&E to contribute $1.1 million to an anniversary dinner and a campaign against a ballot initiative.
“The evening was social but we did delve into some work matters,” Cherry reported to Bottorff at the start of the message.
The 2013 emails were exchanged between Cherry and Florio and concerned whether the pressure in a disputed natural gas line in San Carlos could be restored to normal operating level.
Chico Taxpayers Association 
It’s like our previous City Attorney helped thwart civilian oversight of budget matters and was instrumental in driving Chico to the brink of bankruptcy. She got a gigantic pension and a special goodbye ceremony at City Council. What is this Stockholm Syndrome!?!
I get that – Sweet Hostage! – but I would actually call it “the STOCKTON Syndrome,” or maybe, “the VALLEJO Syndrome”. Both of those towns have gone through bankruptcy but still spend the majority of their budget on public safety pensions. And crime is going through the roof in both of those towns. And here we are rewarding Racketeers, yeah, we got some kind of syndrome alright.
Or Snooze and Review. Is it laziness or something else? It seems the media these days does little investigative reporting but justs regurgitates the talking points of the powers that be.
I don’t know what the problem is, but our local media is really poor. Even when compared to newspapers in small, nearby towns, our newspapers do come off as lazy and uninspired. Our tv station too – ever notice how Ch 7 has more Chico stories than Ch 12? When we got Bay Area news in the old analog days, we were often surprised that they would send reporters to Chico to cover stories like forest fires, college issues, or other events that Ch 12 didn’t even bother to pick up.
It is a very opportune time to start a newspaper or other news source, but I don’t know the business end, and I’m not a philanthropist.
1/21/15
There’s another of Thomas Elias’ columns regarding corruption in the PUC at the bottom of the E-R’s editorial/letters page this morning. It reads like he’s pushing the state’s attorney to investigate & pursue charges against the PUC. Now, wouldn’t that be refreshing?!
thanks jb – I didn’t have much time to talk about it but went ahead and posted it so it will be available for people to read. Unfortunately he does not give us any names or suggestions to whom we should write letters – I’ll check into that asap.