Omaha’s home heating prices are going up, and some employee perks at the gas company are coming back.

Just two weeks after eliminating over $200,000 in fringe benefits, the Metropolitan Utilities District (MUD) Board of Directors voted Friday to re-instate nearly $85,000 worth of employee extras.

That decision coming just minutes after the board voted to increase the average residential price of natural gas by 1.2% next year. The increase amounts to one dollar a month. At a meeting on December 2nd, 2009 the board rejected a possible 3.3% rate hike for 2010.

Exclusive investigations by Nebraska Watchdog have uncovered over a million dollars in annual employee perks at the city’s two utilities. The Omaha Public Power District (OPPD) hands out over $960,000 in fringe benefits ranging from sports leagues to free food while MUD was spending over $265,000.

Following Nebraska Watchdog’s investigation the MUD board voted to eliminate nearly a dozen perks including an employee picnic which costs $32,445 a year.

But on Friday the board voted to bring back three of the perks that were voted out at the December 2nd meeting. Those three are $32,000 for free coffee, $39,350 for service awards, and $13,200 for a service award recognition dinner.

The coffee and service awards were re-instated following a legal opinion from MUD’s lawyer which said the two items are part of the company’s contract with its union employees.

The dinner, which was eliminated earlier on a 3-3 vote, was re-instated Friday on a 4-3 vote. Board member Mary Kay Begley who was absent two weeks ago cast the deciding vote in favor of the dinner.

After Friday’s meeting board member Dave Friend who has complained about the perks and what he calls “MUD’s culture of raising rates” told Nebraska Watchdog, “The culture had been changed a little bit, but not enough.”

Editor’s note: to read Nebraska Watchdog’s investigation of perks at OPPD click here. To read Nebraska Watchdog’s initial investigation of perks at MUD click here.

Reported by Joe Jordan, joe@nebraskawatchdog.org