The State - News from Nov. 18, 1988

Eight managers who were forced to leave the Sacramento Municipal Utilities District, which runs the troubled Rancho Seco nuclear power plant, were secretly paid more than $970,000 in cash and benefits, the Sacramento Bee reported. The size of the cash payments ranged from $35,000 to $150,000 per person, according to documents obtained by the newspaper. Board member Ed Smeloff said all but one of the employees who received the payments resigned under pressure and controversy over job performance. “I’ve felt uncomfortable with these payments from the beginning,” Smeloff told the Bee. “When you add them all up, it is a monstrosity.” The documents also showed the nation’s fourth-largest publicly owned electrical utility attempted to keep the payments secret for fear of further embarrassing SMUD, which paid more than $2.2 million in severence payments, bonuses and other “perks” to employees during the last two years.