Letter to the Editor

PB has third lowest electric rates in state City manager cites efficiency of Municipal Utilities, police, fire departments

Sunday, April 1, 2012

To the Editor:

I had an individual bring in the" Brannum Banner Press" and ask for my comments concerning utility rates, the City's peaking generation plant, and police and fire protection. I explained that those were simply campaign promises being put out by people who supported council candidate Johnny Brannum. The public is obviously in favor of lower utility rates and additional police and fire protection for their community. In my opinion the publication indicates the existing council and city staff doesn't have the knowledge or expertise to do their jobs. I've worked for the City 39-years and for almost 31 of those years I have been directly involved with the city council. Our current council has had to make some very difficult decisions as a result of EPA and DNR regulations. They represent their constituents for a salary of one dollar per year. It always amazes me that we are able to get qualified people that are willing to serve their neighbors in this capacity, but I'm certainly glad we do.

The publication talks about the "skyrocketing increases in our utility bills". The City's current electric rates are the 3rd lowest in Missouri. This data is from the American Public Power Association and includes Municipals, Coops and Investor Owned Utilities. Fossil fuel costs have been very volatile over the past several years and Municipal Utilities can only absorb so much in supply cost increases before they have to pass it on to consumers. They are no different than any other business in the fact that they are rate based and can't continue to operate at a loss indefinitely. The only difference is that MU doesn't have to make a profit like investor owned utilities do which is one of the reasons we have consistently lower rates. MU's staff works everyday to try and find ways to keep rates down while delivering the level of service their customers desire. The last thing they want to do is go to the Council and ask for a rate increase, but when supply costs continue to climb it is necessary to make sure they at least operate at a break-even point.

The peaking generation that is referred to in the "Banner Press" as "the generating plant that has been here since 2003 and has never made a dime" has actually made over $100,000 dollars since 2002 in market sales and helps us hedge our firm power supply because of the availability of our plant during peak summer and winter months. Our Southwestern Power Administration contract, which on average is our lowest cost provider, requires this generation be available, and that we prove it is available on an annual basis to back up their transmission system in case of an emergency. The generating plant not only allows us to do market sales on occasion, but also allows us to save thousands annually by allowing us to shave firm power supply costs.

During the ice storm of 2009, the generation plant was used in this emergency to get our customers back on line due to the damage of transmission lines coming into our area. MU's crews worked 24/7 for almost 3-weeks to restore service to our area and then a portion of our crews went to Kennett through our mutual aid agreement to help restore power to our neighbors that were hit even harder than we were. Our City is blessed with some of the most dedicated employees that seldom get the recognition they deserve.

The Police Department has not requested any additional employees that I'm aware of since I came to city hall in 2003. Chief Whiteley does an excellent job with the resources he is provided. He also has a dedicated group of officers that take the job of protecting our citizens very serious. Chief Whiteley is one of those rare individuals who thoroughly enjoys his work and before becoming Police Chief worked in law enforcement for many years on a voluntary basis. He has taken advantage of practically every training opportunity available to law enforcement most of which has been at no cost to the City.

The Fire Department has requested an additional position in this year's budget. We will continue to try and fund that position in either 2013 or 2014's budget. The position is a fire marshal that would do inspections and investigations. We currently have a fire marshal from the State that helps with investigations, but he covers all of southeast Missouri and Fire Chief Stucker feels the State may be cutting back on certain services that they provide to municipalities in the near future.

Over 68% of the City's current general fund budget is personnel cost, therefore, we take adding personnel very serious. Personnel is not a one-time expenditure. It has to be funded on an annual basis in increasing amounts. All city departments try to make sure we are at staffing levels we need to meet the requirements of city residents in an economical manner. It is easy to say with more personnel we could cut down on response time in both of these departments, but our current response time on emergency calls is two minutes. That number is factual and taken directly off our 911 information system. If we added another five employees each in the police and fire departments we might be able to cut that down to a one minute forty-five second response time at a cost to the taxpayers of around $500,000 annually. It is a balancing act and those two departments do an excellent job with it.

I have been hesitant to write this letter because I consider both candidates as personal friends of mine. I don't live in ward 4 so I won't be voting for either candidate, but I felt this was necessary in order to respond to numerous questions I've had concerning the comments made in the "Brannum Banner Press". Again, in my opinion the statements made in the "Brannum Banner Press" concerning the utilities, police and fire departments are inaccurate.