TN Public Utility Dispensed $300K in Unauthorized Bonuses

Nice work, if you don't have to do it

Board members who are supposed to make $125 for every meeting they attend in fact make $173, according to a recently released report from the Tennessee Comptroller's Office. This way, they can still earn $125 after payroll deductions.

Auditors, though, have crazy ideas about how this custom goes against sound fiscal guidelines. Auditors said the utilities board lost more than $12,000 in ratepayer money by doing things differently than, well, everybody else.

Auditors also took issue with former utility Superintendent Billy Joe Wiley and the way he rewarded employees with nearly $300,000 in bonus money from 2008 to 2011, all coming from ratepayers.