Shame On The City & Danville Utilities!

Pay your utility bill. If you can’t pay your utility bill, get help to pay it. In fact, I’m going to tell you about a good payment plan that’s available to help you out (not that Danville Utilities is talking about it). But with that being said…

The City of Danville & Danville Utilities were bluffing about over 2000 non-pay service disconnections that would have started on September 1st. And the city and Danville Utilities are also barely talking about a payment plan option to get anybody out of disconnect danger. I’m going to talk directly about it. That’s shameful, wrong and disgusting behavior. I’m calling it out right now.

If you’re able to pay your utility bill, you should. Nothing in this article justifies the lack of personal responsibility to pay your utility bills. There. That’s out of the way.

Above, I listed two problems that I’m going to address here. The first was the ham-handed threats of doom that Danville Utilities was going to start executing non-pay service disconnection orders on September 1st.

They weren’t. It was a bluff. And here’s why. I need a Big Board for this…

• Yeah, Danville Utilities isn’t subject to the jurisdiction and orders of the State Corporation Commission. Only investor-owned utilities (Dominion & AEP) have to do what the SCC says. But this autonomy comes with intense pressure from the SCC and the legislature that municipal-owned utilities & cooperatives had better not go out on their own and do Bad Things. After the SCC said that Dominion & AEP couldn’t cut people off until September 15th, Danville Utilities starting to cut off 2000 customers would be a Bad Thing.
• To top that off, the General Assembly is actually in session now. And with the current political control in the legislature, it’s not a giant leap to believe that the House & Senate would ram through some kind of bill making the SCC the king over all utilities. 5 to 7 years ago, Intertape was mad at the city over industrial rates and policies and they got the Virginia Manufacturing Alliance to get a bill introduced to put all utilities under SCC control as a warning shot. The city quickly had to get Whitt Clement to do his lobbying thing to get that bill killed. So yeah, there’s precedent for that move.
• Cutting off 2000 customers at the beginning of the school year while a pandemic is going on would be a Very Bad Thing when it comes to public relations. There’s absolutely no way to turn that situation into anything positive. The city & Danville Utilities knew that too.

Put all three of those things together and you’ll quickly figure out that Danville Utilities & the City of Danville were bluffing with all of this tough talk. And it’s not a coincidence that Danville Utilities & the City of Danville backed off pulling that trigger at 1 PM today. Now let’s move on to my second problem… the severe lack of communication about a policy change that opens up a form of payment plan to most everybody. Here comes another Big Board…

• Danville Utilities offers something called the Equal Pay Plan. Dominion does as well and they call it Budget Billing. You pay the same amount each month, and that payment is based on your total usage for the last 12 months. If you use more energy than what you’re paying for, you owe that money. If you use less than what you’re paying for, you end up with a overpayment credit.
• Let me make it clear. The Equal Pay Plan DOES NOT SAVE YOU MONEY ON ELECTRICITY. Your payment is based on your previous 12 months of usage, so it’s just probably going to be what you use for the next months. It’s on you to monitor your usage.
• So anyway, they’ll give you an fixed amount and you have to pay that every month directly on time. But here’s how Danville Utilities changed their policy on the Equal Pay Plan to help people catch up on arrears… It used to be that you had to have a zero balance to jump on Equal Pay, but they changed that and now you can have arrears and still go on the Equal Pay Plan.
• Why is that a big deal? I’m glad you asked that question. Let’s say you have $600 in arrears. When we split that $600 over the next 12 months, that’s $50 a month. Let’s say your average bill is $200. That $200 forced payment along with the $50 arrears piece means you’ll pay $250 for the next 12 months. If your usage doesn’t go wacky, you’ll have paid off your arrears over the next 12 month period. You should be (or close to be) caught up this time next year, and you only paid that extra $50 a month. There’s no interest, you’re not subject to late fees and you’re at NO RISK OF DISCONNECTION because you have signed a document and gone on a payment plan. Let’s be real, miss one payment by one day, and your payment plan is broken. You’re on your own if that happens.
• That’s huge. Really huge. But here’s the thing. Danville Utilities and the City of Danville have barely mentioned this policy change, and that is disgusting to me. You’ve changed your policies to give people a way out of an imminent non-pay shut off, yet it’s this giant secret. It’s so much of a giant secret that some of the people in Danville Utilities’ customer service department have no idea it’s even a thing. Seriously.

That needs to change, and that’s why I’m writing this article to let you know about this policy change and opportunity. Unless you’ve screwed up the Equal Pay plan before, this option is available to you and your friends. Tell them about it. Have anybody with an unpaid balance march down to the Light Bill Place and tell them that they want to go on the Equal Pay Plan with a previous balance because of this policy change. That’s the rules. Make them live up to their new policy. Get yourself out of disconnection danger. You’ll have to make those payments on time for at least until your arrears are caught up, but at least there’s a good opportunity to help you out.

Yeah. The City of Danville was bluffing. On September 15th, it might be real this time. Don’t take that chance. Do what I said above and get you or somebody else out of danger of disconnection. There’s absolutely no excuse for not telling people about the policy change and explaining how it can help people. Shame on Danville Utilities and the City of Danville for these actions.