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Top DC Mayoral Aide Stands To Cash In HUGE On A Deal Made By Her Boss

REUTERS/Jim Bourg

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District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser’s top aide is set to receive a large payday if a deal to merge the city’s electric provider with a larger Chicago-based company gets approval.

Beverly Perry used to be a senior vice-president at Pepco, D.C.’s electric provider. Now she is Bowser’s top adviser, and stands to make almost $400,000 if her boss approves a merger between Pepco and the Chicago-based Exelon company, The Washington Post reports.

When Perry left Pepco in 2012, she owned 47,600 shares of stock in the company. Those stock shares are worth around $1.2 million today, more than $300,000 more than they were before the announcement of the merger. If the deal goes through, the price of that stock could rise another $75,000.

Originally, Bowser opposed the deal between Pepco and Exelon, but flip-flopped on that stance in October. Bowser said she met with representatives from the companies and convinced them to dump $78 million into social programs for the city, including job training and electricity subsidies for low-income residents.

In return, she threw her support behind the merger.

The new agreement still must pass through a board of D.C. regulators who, during the last round of negotiations, unanimously rejected a previous version of the proposal. When the initial deal met rejection in 2014, the commission said that the deal between the two utilities companies would hurt D.C. residents, but according to Bowser, the new deal is in their favor.

“My team negotiated a deal that puts District residents and ratepayers first – by delivering a public utility that is cost-effective, dependable and environmentally sound,” Bowser said at the time.

Perry told the Post she “had absolutely nothing to do with” the dealings between the city and the power companies, and she had no real financial incentive to be involved.

“Anything that I would receive at this point from a merger, I would receive no matter if I worked for the mayor or for Wal-Mart,” she said.

If Perry worked for Wal-Mart, though, she wouldn’t have the access to the mayor she currently enjoys.(RELATED: DC Residents Have Little Faith In Mayor To Address Corruption Problems)

The D.C. Public Service Commission will begin deliberating the merger again Wednesday and expects to announce a decision in early 2016.

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