Danville Utility Commission – LIVE! (6/22/15)

We were LIVE! at Danville City Hall for today’s Danville Utility Commission meeting. This article is now complete, so enjoy the recap.

Lots of empty commissioner seats today.

Bill Donohue, Jim Turpin and Dawn Witter are out today, so we’re just over the quorum hurdle. Mike Nicholas has to leave at 4:45 PM. Once he leaves, the quorum is lost and no votes can be taken.

Assistant finance Director Patricia Conner goes over the financial reports.

Danville Utilities’ Key Accounts Representative Meagan Baker goes over the energy efficiency programs. She doesn’t look happy, does she?

There’s a long discussion on the energy efficiency program for industry. Bob Schasse repeats his dislike for the program. The long discussion focuses on the partial reimbursement for commercial & industrial customers for using an energy efficiency consultant to help manage their power use.

Side Note: I’m not closely following this discussion because the issue that I’m about to speak on is coming up. They’re going to discuss changes to the customer policies and procedures for Danville Utilities. Since the proposed changes were not included in the meeting agenda, I’m having to read them over and noting my talking points as the energy efficiency program discussion is going on.

After about 20 minutes of discussion, no agreement is reached on this program. Mike Nicholas is running out of time so he makes a motion to reject the proposed changes without prejudice (bonus points for the legal term, counselor) and to consider them at another meeting. That motion passes and that explains Meagan Baker’s face in the photo above.

Now it’s time for the Danville Utilities Service Policies and Procedures public hearing and discussion. Director of Customer Service Carolyn Evans takes the podium. Chairman Phillip Smith opens the public hearing and well, I’m the only non-Utilities person in the room…

Good seats are still available. Quite available.

Understand this is solely about Danville Utilities’ policies and procedures and not the customer service issues that have been brought up about Central Collections. That’s not under this commission’s authority to handle.

I get up to speak and I mention objections to some policies. Here’s a summary list of what I thought should be changed.

1. In the policy book, it says new service deposits can be billed in installments under extenuating circumstances with the approval of the Director of Utilities. Customer Service Director Carolyn Evans said that they usually break the deposits into installments, but that’s not what the policy book says. I asked that the policy book be updated to reflect that installment procedure to make it clear and not discretionary.
2. If you have a deposit in place with Danville Utilities, you get a (very small) market-based rate of interest on your deposit. However, the policy reads that if you are late with one payment, all of your accrued interest is zeroed out and you won’t start earning interest again until you meet the “good pay record” standard. That means 12 more months of on-time payments because one late payment starts that clock back over. In her remarks, Evans said what actually happened was that you don’t get that specific month’s small interest accrual. Mike Nicholas said “That’s not what the policy says at all”. They’re going to review that along with Nicholas’ suggestion to just eliminate the interest accrual penalty completely.
3. You only have 15 days from the bill generation date to pay your bill or it’s considered “in arrears” and you get a 1.5% late payment charge. I said that 15 days was too short of a time period, considering mailing delays. I got nods of agreement from almost everybody at the table on that. I expect that to be changed to something like 25 days at the next meeting.
4. If you haven’t paid your bill 36 days after your payment is due, you’re charged a $50 “delinquent fee” and are subject to disconnection. That’s a ridiculous amount and is punitive. Again, I get nods of agreement from the board. I understand that Danville Utilities is entitled to recoup their costs incurred, but they shouldn’t punish customers with excess fees that have little basis in real costs. If a customer doesn’t have the money to pay their bill, adding $50 to it makes it that much tougher to pay. I also expect that fee to be significantly reduced at next month’s meeting.
5. If you’re disconnected for non-payment, you will be billed a $50 reconnection fee. You don’t have to pay that immediately, but you will on next month’s bill. Again, that fee is extremely excessive as most residential reconnections can be done from the office using the Advanced Meter Infrastructure technology (the smart meters). If Danville Utilities doesn’t have to roll a truck out to the meter location and have a technician manually turn the power back on, there’s absolutely no justification for the $50 charge. When you combine the current $50 “delinquent fee” and the $50 reconnect fee, you’re ultimately adding $100 to a customer’s bill. That’s simply punitive and not a way to do fair business. This fee will be changed soon, too.
6. Disconnection of electric service during extreme weather conditions can cause injuries and even deaths. The current policy is not to disconnects if the temperature falls below 32 degrees the next day or above 100 degrees. I told the commission that a house without electricity at 90 degrees is just as hazardous as one at 100 degrees. Carolyn Evans said the current policy is a 90 degree threshold. The policy needs to be rewritten to reflect that if it’s going to be a written policy.
7. I also asked about Danville Utilities starting a payment plan process for people who have gotten over their heads, giving them one final chance to get their bill caught up. There was no discussion nor progress on that, but I was able to put the idea on the table.

The public hearing is closed and the wonderful Carolyn Evans takes the podium. There’s a good back-and-forth about the points I’ve raised. I’m going to give special thanks to Mike Nicholas for doing the best he can to reschedule his commitment and staying to keep a quorum.

Carolyn Evans has control of the board after I finish my comments.

The Utility Commission decides to send this back to Evans’ office for changes and fee adjustments. They’ll work on this issue at the July meeting, and I look forward to see how much is changed due to my comments.

I’m going to talk about this in detail in a future article but I wanted to touch on it now. I got a complaint comment on the website last week that as a reporter, I shouldn’t participate in meetings. That’s not the way SouthsideCentral works, folks. If I didn’t get up and make my opinions known, there was nobody else around to do it. SouthsideCentral is a fusion of news and opinion, and I’m also a citizen and city resident. If you don’t like this new concept in media, you’re free to read other sources. Well, not for this meeting because I’m the only media source that showed up to cover it. I think that makes my point rather well.

Mike Nicholas finally has to leave, and the quorum is lost. That means no more votes or business can be conducted. We get a quick briefing on the water taste and odor issue and Alan Johnson says that the water treatment plant is adding high amounts of activated carbon. The plant is pushing out non-stinky water and whatever water went into the system will work its way out again.

We’re done here, folks. I hope you’ve enjoyed the most comprehensive coverage ever of a Danville Utility Commission meeting. SouthsideCentral is glad to keep you informed. Thanks for visiting daily. It really means a lot.