Editor’s Note: This article is now complete.
Three meetings. Three LIVE! articles. We’re still at Danville City Hall but we’ve moved across the hall for today’s Danville Utility Commission meeting. This meeting starts at 4 PM. After this, we’re heading to the Danville Pittsylvania County Chamber of Commerce’s Annual Awards Dinner. Only at SouthsideCentral, folks!
Mike Nicholas is quite relaxed while hearing the financial reports.
We’re underway. Dawn Witter and Bob Schasse are out today. That gets us a quorum. We start with the approval of the minutes. Jim Turpin wants a statement inserted about his viewpoint on an issue. Bob Schasse has submitted a written request to change something in the minutes. I ask City Attorney Clarke Whitfield to add least have that written statement read aloud so that I know what he’s changing. That never happens. Feh. Who cares? I guess I’ll read about it in 6 weeks then I’ll let you know about it.
Patricia Conner goes over the financial reports. Next, it’s a conference call with Mark Beauchamp from Utility Financial Services, the rate consulting firm. They’re talking about the potential writeoff on some of the $18.5 million deficit. Bill Donohue is throwing some good pushback, saying that Danville Utilities really doesn’t have the cash to do so.
Since they’re talking about millions of dollars, finance Director Michael Adkins is here to make sure everything is right. Notice that they’ve moved the speakerphone to the middle of the table so EVERYBODY DOESN’T HAVE TO YELL NOW and nobody will say “Huh?”. Except Jim Turpin.
AMP President and CEO Marc Gerken sits on the front row. Unsurprisingly, there are zero members of the public in today’s audience.
Small audience today. We’re not going to discuss the customer service policies of Danville Utilities today because there wasn’t enough time to legally advertise the public hearing. Today’s meeting was pushed two weeks early because of the Memorial Day holiday.
Next, we have a presentation about American Municipal Power from their president, Marc Gerken.
American Municipal Power CEO Marc Gerken explains what went wrong at the new power plants.
Everybody is riveted to hear yet again that Danville Utilities is locked into a 40-year contract with American Municipal Power with a $500,000,000 comittment.
Bill Donahue uses some recreational outrage time to blast the AMP president saying that they have been borderline incompetent at getting things working. This is about the same headline as “Old Man Yells At Clouds” because it will accomplish nothing. Danville Utilities is stuck in the AMP contract.
Our time’s up here. We’ll add more later tonight. On to the Danville Pittsylvania County Chamber of Commerce’s annual awards dinner. That article is coming up next on SouthsideCentral!
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