Commissioner Scott Maxwell coined the phrase which he attributes to some local politicians who, in his opinion, concentrate on the non-essentials. Is he right or is this just more cute but catchy political mumbo jumbo?
If we want to do the right thing in Lake Worth, this Commission should start immediately by cutting waste and stopping all unnecessary spending. End the creation of more shiny Boards and sunset some that we now have. If we can't trust our highly paid employees to make the right decisions, then hire some that we can trust who have the qualifications and the integrity necessary for Lake Worth who can think independently. We don't need people grabbing the cash, many times in the millions, without detailed line item explanations on the Financials, which we never get. Cut out the free lunch. The Commission would all do this IF they were all sincere about eliminating shiny objects and such. They would scrutinize those monthly Financials like there was no tomorrow and demand a Budget that is easy to navigate.
They can start with our Utility that obviously charges us way more than necessary otherwise we would not be able to get $10,000,000 (that's MILLION folks) transferred from it to the operating account to run the City. This is no shiny object matter. Service and efficiency should matter here but as Randy Schultz said this morning while writing on another matter, "Profit is the worst possible motive when it comes to public policy." According to experts, there are many unneeded millions in the Electric Plan that do not and should not be spent. Get to the bottom of those.
The electric rate calculator that was circulated by the Utility Department is just not computing for me. Now that IS something that they can correct without spending shiny objects.
9 comments:
Lake Worth Utilities makes the most money and spends the most money. There is no one qualified to be a watchdog on this department. That is unfortunate. Instead, we have repeated commissions that continue to pass every one of their requests that is put on the Consent Agenda. Commissions depend on staff to give them the right direction. That's where the problem is.
You can't screw around with millions of dollars unless commissions allow them the money in the first place. They get the cash and then move it around or waste it or whatever. No one can say whether or not something is truly needed. It is at the point that few people believe anything coming out of the Utility.
And I ask, "Why is that?"
Becky is now saying that the first 500 kwhr is $0.1130 and for the second 500 kwhr is $0.1330. Anything over 1,000 is $0.1530 kwhr. But the 6th of August presentation says that the rate is $0.1250 for everything under 1,000 kwhr and $0.1510 for everything over 1,000 kwhr. Who the hell knows what these people are charging and how long it is before they change it again.
I dunno. Nothing is the same. It appears that they cannot even add the bill up correctly. The kWhr charge has changed, the customer charge has changed, the conservation tax has changed, they have both a public utility tax and a customer charge and the worst part about this is that they have locked their spreadsheet so that the formula's are not shown.
They've had several meetings on rates since August 6th. And the charges that you refer to didn't just change, they went DOWN. Why are you still so unhappy?
Get up to date. The budget numbers you posted under a previous blog were two iterations from the FINAL budget, which is perfectly accessible to any dope who can click on a link.
Well, then, provide the link. Why does the city have to make everything difficult to discern other than highly intelligent people such as yourself who seem to have no problem. Did you write the damn budget and all of the changes? Send out a CORRECT calculator. Also, while you are at it, provide an UP TO DATE BUDGET WITH ALL OF THE CORRECTIONS. Let's get a little transparency here.
Is going from a "Customer Charge" of $9.90 to $12.65 a reduction in rate?
How about the <1,000 kwhr charge of $0.1250 to $0.1330? Is that a reduction in rate?
Or how about the >1,000 kwhr charge going from $0.15100 to $0.15300? I suppose that is a rate reduction also?
Maybe these are both reductions in your world, but, then again, you may possibly be on Representative Clemens medicinal medication and see the world in the inverse.
But here in the real world, these are all rate increases, but that is not the true problem here. The real problem is the deceit and the inability of the Utility to produce a calculation that is accurate.
The utilities spreadsheet, which they use to process the bills, is inaccurate from the giddy-up. Lynn is attempting to get to the bottom of these discrepancies, but until she does, you can count on your bill being inaccurate.
FYI:
http://www.lakeworth.org/index.asp?Type=B_BASIC&SEC={4D0ED784-3334-42AB-8E17-B0DB896F4DDE}
To the commenter who just tried to post here under anonymous--
Use your own real name, first, last and I will be happy to post your spiel.
The calculator is NOT working for my own personal bill--does not compute. I am asking for the city to unlock the spreadsheet so that I can verify the numbers.
So, the only credibility in question is the city for sending out a spreadsheet that can not be verified.
As far as garbage fees going up, if it were not for the public outcry and this blog blasting it, it would have passed. Luckily the commission voted NO. See my blog of Sep 14. so, you were probably on vacation or something when I wrote that one.
One more thing-I guess you were there that night when I called out Joe Kroll on his lie on the dumping fees. Kroll was caught in ANOTHER LIE and it took a member of the public to do it.
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