Lawsuit alleges utility wrongly fired executive

Source: The Fayetteville Observer, N.迷你倉C.Dec. 27--A former executive at a local utility company has filed a lawsuit alleging he was fired after uncovering illegal practices there.Keith Allen Reid of Fayetteville was a vice president at South River Electric Membership Corp. in Dunn until he was fired in July. Reid is suing the corporation and its CEO, Buddy Creed, for wrongful termination, slander and loss of future earnings. The suit, filed in Cumberland County Superior Court on Dec. 16, seeks damages in excess of $15million.Neither Creed nor other South River officials could be reached Thursday to comment on the allegations.South River EMC is a cooperative that provides power to about 42,000 homes, farms and businesses in Cumberland, Harnett, Sampson, Bladen and Johnston counties. The suit alleges South River acted in a way that illegally favored some customers at the expense of all the others.After 18 years as an electrical engineer for the Fayetteville Public Works Commission, Reid was hired to be South River's vice president of engineering and operations in 2010, the suit says.Reid was twice sent to college management programs designed to groom future CEOs, and Creed discussed Reid's ascension to the top job upon Creed's retirement, according to the suit. But it alleges Reid was demoted wmini storagethout explanation in January, a month after he alerted Creed to illegal activity at the corporation.The suit says Reid found South River was allowing 13 owners of a total of 40 accounts to pay their bills once a year, meaning they paid only one facility fee and one demand charge a year. Collectively, those customers were under-billed about $1 million a year as a result, the suit says.The corporation also was allowing certain customers to cut off service for part of the year, then return to service without paying monthly minimums in the meantime, costing the utility thousands; and was incorrectly computing customer demand in a way that benefited select commercial customers, according to the suit.Reid was fired in July and according to the suit, Creed said it was because he bribed or attempted to bribe one of the corporation's board members, which Reid denies. The suit said the basis for the termination was "false and bogus."Reid is represented by the law firm of Kennedy, Kennedy, Kennedy & Kennedy in Winston-Salem.___Staff writer Gregory Phillips can be reached at phillipsg@fayobserver.com or 486-3596.Copyright: ___ (c)2013 The Fayetteville Observer (Fayetteville, N.C.) Visit The Fayetteville Observer (Fayetteville, N.C.) at .fayobserver.com Distributed by MCT Information Services儲存