We’re LIVE! at Danville City Hall for today’s Utility Commission meeting. Be sure to refresh the page often for the latest photos, happenings and commentary. We’ll clean this article up in the editing process when we get home and add bonus coverage. The meeting starts at 4 PM, and the only LIVE! coverage is here on SouthsideCentral.
We’re underway. Bill Donohue (out of town) and Mike Nicholas (birth of a child) are out today.
Patricia Conner goes over the financial reports.
Good crowd today, but most are city employees. Jim Turpin asks why bad debts are up. Finance Director Michael Adkins says that’s because the new collection agency policy shows a lot of months of bad debt in this period.
We now move to discussion of the next year’s budget.
Bob Schasse still doesn’t understand why the Utilities fund pays money to the city’s general fund for things like IT, HR services and legal. This was covered in the Steering Committee meetings and has been this way for a long time. Sigh. It’s explained to him.
I’m not fussing too much at Schasse because he’s asking good questions, it’s just that utility commissioners should already know these things. They’re not trained on these things like they should be.
Barry Dunkley answers questions on the wastewater plant.
Pittsylvania County Service Authority pays around $80K a month for water and wastewater treatment services. They pay the same rate as any other industrial customer would.
Jennifer Holley goes over the proposed budget.
Jim Turpin is questioning a lot of line items in the proposed budget. Fred Shanks challenges the claim that private contractors are more expensive than city employees when it comes to working on gas mains.
This is getting painful as Jim Turpin tries to understand that the $4 million in income used to knock down the $18 million deficit will bring down this year’s net income.
This is now getting idiotic when Schasse & Turpin start wondering how much people who are getting rebates on energy-efficient appliances are actually saving. One friggin’ dishwasher isn’t going to do that much, plus there are so many other variables (like climate). Argh. Two hours into this meeting. Fred Shanks asks about tree trimming. Interim Director Jason Grey says the city is using 7 tree trimming crews now instead of 5.
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