Town of Braintree

Five BELD managers got bonuses


By Robert Aicardi
Wednesday, 1/12/05

In recognition of their performances last year, five Braintree Electric Light Department managers have received a total of $15,750 in bonuses (or $3,150 apiece).
General Manager William Bottiggi awarded these one-time, non-pensionable bonuses before Christmas to BELD's operations manager, engineering manager, energy services manager, support services manager, and human resources manager.
''I notified the light board about this, but they didn't have to vote on it,'' Bottiggi said in a Monday interview with the Forum.
Of the $15,750 in bonuses, $4,750 would have been provided in longevity pay for the managers had Bottiggi not eliminated it.
''What I did was match it (the bonus) at the maximum amount of the former longevity pay,'' Bottiggi said.
Bottiggi explained why he got rid of longevity pay for the managers and replaced it with a performance-based bonus.
''We had a very good year in 2004,'' Bottiggi said. ''We had a good year in terms of safety, and we were able to keep our costs down. We have some of the lowest electric rates in the state. We're in the bottom five when it comes to electric rates. A good part of the reason for this is because of the hard work of the managers. Bonuses are paid to reward people for results, and we achieved those results in 2004. Other utilities are announcing rate increases while BELD doesn't anticipate raising rates in 2005.''
He added, ''As part of the good year we had, we're able to give an additional 15 percent discount to our residential customers this month, based on December usage. That's on top of the 10 percent discount that residential customers normally get for paying their bill on time and the 15 percent discount that senior citizens get.''
Bottiggi said that he could not comment about Braintree's financial situation because he doesn't have ''any specific involvement'' in its finances.

He emphasized, however, what BELD will be doing for the town this year.

''BELD is making an in lieu of tax payment of $840,000 in 2005,'' Bottiggi said. ''In addition to that, we'll do approximately another $400,000 of service in kind-that is, work for the town that we don't charge it for.''



By one of the smith brothers

Bottiggi is Part of the Problem

BELD is a municipal entity and should turn back all extra money to the town. Other managers and workers have done a good job this year, where is there bonus? The rest of them are scrambling for raises. BELD is so arrogant they disgust me. We gave you discounts, well you should, the rate payers contributed to your good year. Bottiggi must take the citizens for fools if he thinks we swollow his line. Well maybe the BOS is for not cracking the whip.

Beating a dead horse,

We can't keep going back over things in the past, but if the water and sewer commishs had waited until the fall, and I'm sorry I can't remember what year the Celano hearings were held, they could have just not renewed his contract. But they were in such a hurry to wack him, they had to pay him while he was on suspension. The only thing about Sweeney is look what we've had since he left. When Hank Joyce proposed zero funding the selectman's budget, Sweeney had no choice but to sue. His contract was found to be, valid, so the town had to pay him. Then we got Hector, the director, and now we have Wacky Ackerman. The same people take the blame for the Sweeney situation, but who takes the the blame for the Hector fiasco or Ms.Ackerman? Fingers should also be pointed at the selectman who gave us those two ''GEMS''. There's plenty of blame to go around for everybody.

Qualifications

Well we hired a man for president
who has no clue where Iraq is,
can't add 2+ 2 and get four and is the
most incompetent president ever to hold
the office.

By Unqualified