Summary of Petition

Greenlining/LIF asserts that the disclosure of a utility's philanthropy is important because philanthropy functions as a significant way in which a utility serves low-income, minority, recent immigrant, limited-English speaking and other underserved communities. Greenlining/LIF states that the information should separate out the totals for each group, including each major minority group including, but not limited to: Black, Asian or Asian American, Latino and Native American.

According to Greenlining/LIF, the Commission should also require each utility to disclose its pre-tax income as well as the total compensation of its top 10 executive officers and the compensation of the top five executive officers of its holding company, to put in perspective and compare these amounts with the utility's philanthropy. Greenlining/LIF states that the two major vehicles through which utilities currently disclose executive compensation do not provide the public or the Commission with useful information. For example, Greenlining/LIF points to the annual 10-K filing required by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), stating that the value of the compensation packages awarded a company's executives in the 10-K is indecipherable to the public, or even to the executives themselves.¹ Greenlining/LIF asserts that the information required by the Commission should differ from the information filed at the SEC in that each utility should be required to present the data in a form that permits a layperson to determine the total value of the officer's compensation package.

In addition to the SEC's requirements, which apply to all major corporations, GO 77-K also requires each public utility having gross annual operating revenues of $1 billion or more to annually file a 77-K report listing all employee salaries and bonuses that totaled over $75,000 for the prior year. According to Greenlining/LIF this is an antiquated form, given that the most significant form of compensation-stock options, which can represent 75% or more of employees' compensation-is not included. Greenlining/LIF also points out that in addition to containing significant deficiencies, the 77-K form is also unnecessarily cumbersome in that it requires the reporting information on lower and middle management employees earning less than $200,000 annually. Greenlining/LIF recommends that GO 77-K be modified to raise the ceiling for reporting.

Finally, Greenlining/LIF states that given the lowered penetration rates that currently exist in communities of color, it is important for a utility to have a diverse and experienced management group. Therefore, without including their names, each utility should be required to disclose the ethnicity and gender of its upper and middle management-specifically, the utility's top 100, 500 and 1,000 employees (using salary as a basis of such ranking). Greenlining/LIF recommends the following modifications to GO 77-K for each public utility having gross annual operating revenues of $1 billion or more to report the following information:

1. Without including names, the total compensation of each employee who received total compensation valued at $200,000 or more in the prior year (including, but not limited to salary, bonuses, stock options, performance shares, retention incentive stock units and cash, executive retirement benefits, executive survivor benefits and any and all other compensation);

2. Without including names, but including titles, the total compensation of the top five officers, using salary for the basis of such ranking regardless of the value of the compensation (including but not limited to salary, bonuses, stock options, performance shares, retention incentive stock units and cash, executive retirement benefits, executive survivor benefits and any and all other compensation); and

3. Without including names, the gender, race and ethnicity of each employee whose compensation is reported in order to enable the Commission to compile data on the racial diversity of the top management at each major utility.

Greenlining/LIF indicates that the amendments will involve no additional work for each utility, and that in all likelihood, it will significantly decrease the amount of information each utility currently reports.