WAPA CEO Andrew Smith By. V.I. LEGISLATURE
In the midst of receiving testimony on the Water and Power Authority’s dire financial straits, lawmakers were surprised to learn that departing WAPA CEO Andrew Smith has received a hefty bonus for his services over the past two and a half years.
“I’ve heard little rumblings that individuals in the C-suite at WAPA have received $50,000 bonuses,” said Senator Donna Frett-Gregory during Monday’s Committee of the Whole meeting. “If it is accurate, who are these individuals?”
Chair of WAPA’s governing board Kyle Fleming indicated that the only individual who received the bonus was Mr. Smith. He said the payment “was baked off of the criteria that was set from the board from the onset of the contract.”
According to Mr. Fleming, one of the criteria that had to be met was the development of a leadership team. “That was when it was building out the CEO, COO, Chief Financial Officer as well,” he noted, telling lawmakers that he would be “happy to share” the other milestones that qualified Mr. Smith to receive the parting bonus.
Senate President Novelle Francis welcomed the disclosure, noting that “obviously we’ve been providing a stimulus of almost close to $100 million and we continue to be in our energy crisis.” While noting that he did not wish to dwell on the issue too much, he lamented that “we continue to find ourselves in these predicaments.” Pointing out that an entire management superstructure – the indecent command team – had to be created “to get a lot of these things that we expected the board and the CEO to have addressed,” Mr. Francis expressed disappointment that “still we’re talking about rewarding inadequacies. In my opinion – unacceptable.”
Mr. Smith, who announced his resignation at the beginning of the month, will spend his last day as WAPA’s CEO on June 30.
