At the end of more than six hours of grilling by attorneys of Florida Power & Light's director of compensation, Public Service Commissioners Nancy Argenziano and Nathan Skop said they had doubts about whether the company has justified how much it spends on employee compensation.
Skop went line by line over the confidential document, saying he was constrained to ask specific questions because the company has sued to keep the document secret. He concluded that the company's support staff, such as vice presidents and directors in the FPL's corporate communications office, human resources office, external affairs and regulatory affairs offices, appeared to be more heavily compensated with bonuses and salaries than other areas.
"My concern is not the operational number but the support group numbers,'' he said. "It raises a question in my mind how much is redundancy and how much of that is not more streamlined." He suggested that if the company wasn't a regulated monopoly it might have "a more practical result.''
Commissioner Nancy Argenziano wondered what would happen to those salaries if they company didn't have electric customers to pay for it and instead had to rely on shareholders.
"If the shareholders had more responsibility, I think there would be more of an incentive to keep the tabs down,'' she said. "I'm not sure they're reasonable…It still gives me some heartburn.''
Kathleen Slattery defended the compensation numbers. "If we do not pay market competitive pay and bonus packages, we will not be able to attract and retain our workforce,'' she said. "I believe our shareholders do have a voice'' because they appoint the compensation committee of the board of directors."
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