Electric Utility Advisory Board

Comment Up

Coming up on Tuesday's agenda--

Like we don't have enough Boards in this city, now we get another one. An Electric Utility Advisory Board has been formulated due to pressure from some very loud and vocal public who have jumped on the utility rate bandwagon, moaning and groaning about high electric rates. They believe that possible hanky panky has occurred at our Electric Utility or why then would we have the highest commercial rate in the State if that were not the case? One Neighborhood Association president actually screamed about it while at the lectern because one of his neighbors had an outrageous bill. The lack of civility gets you everywhere in this city.

Why do they want a volunteer board consisting of people who probably won't know anything about generation, voltage, what CROD means, etc? They believe that the entire operation is less than transparent and that we have had untold waste with constant lies coming from Staff. It is being formed to receive and gather information allowing the Board to give advice to the City Commission on various matters that affect the rate payers. It won't have any executive authority; it is only advisory. All five commissioners voted for this Board as the "visionaries" do not trust staff. You have to know when to "fold em." The majority wanted it.

We have seen other boards go by the way-side, i.e., the Finance Advisory Board, starting out with all good intentions only to discover they could not get any information they needed in order to analyze and then render an opinion. We also know that the Freedom of Information Act can be ignored or mitigated by simple statements by staff, "We do not have that information...it does not exist; it is too difficult to acquire or amass; it will cost you small fortunes." Volunteer board members wanting to do the right thing, can get waylaid and hours of research end up in a meaningless pile of uselessness. This Board will be allowed access to "reasonable" information, a subjective term.

The Board will consist of 7 members, 4 of whom are appointed by the commission (3 year terms). They are appointing members from their respective Districts. One At Large member will be appointed by the Mayor for a term of 2 years. These five members must be residents of Lake Worth. There will be one at large Lake Worth business owner (2 year term) and one member representing Palm Springs and the unincorporated area (1 year term). And no one has to be qualified although Staff threw in a few preferred professions into the mix.

Powers and Duties.

a) Serve as a channel of communications between the City Commission, utility department staff, and the citizens of the City of Lake Worth and the business owners of Lake Worth, in order to understand and solve the many complex problems relating to water, sewer and electric utilities;

(b) Promote public access to information on the city facilities, services, policies and programs concerning the future energy needs of the community with respect to the electric utilities;

(c) To review:

1. existing and proposed policies, plans and programs of the City of Lake Worth Utilities Department for electric utilities;
2. proposed capital improvement plans and programs of the Utilities Department for the electric utilities and electric power plant;
   
3. existing or proposed electric rate changes, electric rate structures, and the electric utilities portion of the annual budget of the Utilities Department;
   

(d) Assist utility staff by suggesting and reviewing policies affecting programs and services that affect acquisition, delivery or utilization of electric utility resources within the community;

(e) Perform any other duties which may be within the purview of the committee which may be assigned by the City Commission.

The Chair of this new Board will be chosen by the Commission. It will most likely be Mary Lindsey, community activist, Neighborhood Association President and a volunteer in our City Clerk's office, an advantageous position to learn what's up on many issues. I would be very surprised if she is not nominated for this Board or refuses to accept. Back in 2006 she became a hero to many of us when she studied and became very familiar with our electric utility and took a stand against waste.

And for all of you who bemoan and criticize people who sue for the rights of the people, Mary did just that. She sued the city over the bad decision to upgrade our electric to a 26.4kv that was not industry standard and where we eventually threw $6 million down the toilet. And we cheered her action. She eventually dropped the suit and dropped out of the discussion on our electric utility. Now she is back six years later.

It will be quite an endeavor to investigate our most important asset that contributes $9,582,667 to our general fund so that the City can operate. This very vocal group is now against out-sourcing the Utility customer service department for the sole reason of protecting union labor. It is ironic that their politics persuaded the majority commission to out-source the police and the fire just a few years ago.

Whether this is just another political Board using staff time and resources for the purpose of investigating and promoting the sale of our Electric Utility or for some other political purpose, eventually will be determined. Afterall, one priority of this Board as mentioned above is to promote public access to information on the city facilities, services, policies and programs concerning the future energy needs of the community with respect to the electric utilities. You have to go into this volunteer role with an open mind rather than for all the wrong reasons. You can make a case for or against anything.

We had a Utility Board 20 years ago that was an abject failure. It is the belief now by the Visionaries that the new city manager they hired will allow these volunteers access to information and give them the clout to develop their case. I would bet that Becky Mattey, Utility Director, will be glad to leave in two weeks.