Former BGE employees challenge proposed rate hikes in petition alleging mismanagement, fraud

Racquel Bazos, The Baltimore Sun on Dec 26, 2024

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Fourteen former Baltimore Gas and Electric employees are petitioning to intervene in the utility company’s case with the Maryland Public Service Commission over proposed rate hikes, contending the company wastes money and pushes the costs onto consumers.

BGE, owned by utility conglomerate Exelon, must demonstrate to the PSC it used “good management judgment” and “prudency” in its infrastructure projects to justify the multi-year rate plan increase, according to a November order from the commission.

Represented by Baltimore attorney David Manuel Baña, the petitioners believe an incident in 2023 specifically points to BGE not using good management judgment, as an employee on his boat in Rock Hall Landing Marina logged those hours as time spent on gas inspections.

They allege the employee “failed to conduct proper inspections of gas infrastructure work and submitted false inspection reports and timesheets on a daily basis for over four years,” according to the petition.

The former employees claim to have evidence showing the employee did fewer than 100 inspections during a timespan when he claimed to have completed thousands.

When the fraud was reported to BGE in 2023, the petition claims the employee was put on nine weeks of paid suspension during an internal investigation and received a week of unpaid suspension as discipline. Top HR officials at BGE later testified that he should have been fired, the petition states.

The petitioners are also pursuing a civil suit against BGE for racial harassment and disparate treatment in the workplace, saying white employees openly used racial slurs against Black employees and tied nooses in the workplace. That suit now has 17 plaintiffs, represented primarily by Baña’s wife, Tonya Baña, and former Deputy Attorney General of Maryland Thiru Vignarajah.

Other workers sued BGE for injuries sustained in a 2020 explosion. A BGE contractor also died on the job this year after a home exploded while he was working on electrical repairs during a gas leak.

“I urge any BGE employee with knowledge or evidence of compromised gas infrastructure inspections, coverups, or other irregularities to come forward,” said David Baña in a news release.

“No one wants a preventable gas explosion on their conscience. People with information can contact the Maryland Public Service Commission (PSC) and the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) or reach out to me directly.”

“Further, I challenge BGE and Exelon to publicly commit — in writing — to protect whistleblowers who report safety concerns to regulatory bodies or an attorney from retaliation,” he said.

BGE’s multiyear rate plan to increase energy costs is controversial and have been criticized by both consumer advocates and the top lawyers in the state, Attorney General Anthony G. Brown and People’s Counsel David S. Lapp.

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