SouthsideCentral will be LIVE! at Danville City Hall for the third Utilities Steering Committee meeting today at 4 PM. We’ve had coverage of Meeting #1 and Meeting #2 as we covered them LIVE! Today’s meeting will feature a presentation from American Municipal Power. Be sure to refresh the page for the latest happenings, photos and commentary. We’ll clean the article up later tonight and add some bonus information.
We’re here. Waiting on Fred Shanks. Jim Turpin has replaced Mike Nicholas on the Utility Commission side of this committee.
Fred Shanks arrives as the meeting starts. Jason Grey starts the meeting by answering questions from the last meeting.
Danville Utilities residential rate per 1000 kilowatt hours is $124.17. Other American Municipal Power cities rates are Martinsville ($110.95), Bedford ($111.26) & Richlands ($96.78). Richlands does not contribute to their town’s general fund.
After all expenses were paid out including the transfer of $9.9 million last fiscal year, Danville Utilities made a “profit” of $5.1 million.
If the utility didn’t transfer money to the city’s general fund, you’d be looking at around a 60% increased property tax rate. Ugh.
Jolene Thompson from AMP makes her presentation. American Municipal Power operates the mutual aid program for disaster restorations. 95% of AMP members are on the PJM transmission grid like Danville is.
There’s a PowerPoint presentation from AMP that will explain more, and I’ll try to get it for you.
Slight hostile back and forth between the committee and Thompson, but nothing much. Bob Bennett for US Green Energy and Brett Vassey from the Virginia Manufacturers Association are in the audience today.
Time’s running out on this meeting for SouthsideCentral, as we’re heading to a Coal Ash Forum at the Institute. We’ll add more to this article when we can get more information for you..
So excited to hear there discussion. Can’t you feel it?
I hate phones that type your words for ya! I do know “their”i is what I tried to post in my previous comment. I do know the difference
Sheila, I do know how you feel.
So many things are wrong with this, but I’m sure the bright bulbs on the Committee will recommend retaining the electric company. Anyone with a rudimentary knowledge of economics understands that the larger the corporation, the greater the use of economies of scale to provide a cheaper service/good. And what do we see…the largest utility of the AMP group cited has the highest rate for power. That makes zero sense from an economy of scale perspective. Danville should have the lowest rate.
Second, I love the argument that “those jobs will disappear.” Does the gov’t work for the people or do the people work to retain jobs for gov’t employees? If the City can provide a rate comparable to the private sector, that’s fine. But it’s beyond ignorant to say, “But if we privatize, those jobs will be gone.” The point of a power company is to deliver power, not be a jobs agency.
Third, do you notice that the most prosperous parts of Virginia (Northern Virginia, Tidewater, Richmond) don’t have municipal electric companies? Only small cities in Western Virginia do. There’s a reason. Those prosperous jurisdictions realized what a drain it was on their gov’ts to run electric companies.
Finally, the tax argument is a red herring. I’ll guarantee the analysis doesn’t take into account the shrinkage in city fiscal expenditures from removing hundreds of utility staff from the city payroll.
Jerry, I agree with ” Does the gov’t work for the people or do the people work to retain jobs for gov’t employees?” Therein is the dilemma. The loss of jobs, which also means loss of revenue from the people with those jobs, who may then need food stamps, and/or will have to look to leave, etc. etc. etc. Yet again, we are in the reactive mode instead of the proactive mode. Councils have taken the easy way to raise funds. Councils did not prepare for the eventual loss of textile industry (which all knew was coming) and then did nothing to prepare once companies started going overseas. Council also did nothing as it became apparent that people were stopping smoking. Always reacting instead of making preparations for what is likely to come. Councils have let business receive funds that we have to repay because no one made sure they were legit or were even doing what they claimed to be doing. Did not even know that taxpayers would have to repay money given to these companies. We have to stop letting them do this. Checks and balances….do make a difference.
Sheila,
I agree. This is a very strange place for the City to find itself in. Sure, it would be bad for those who lost their jobs. I have sympathy for them. But…there are a lot of poor people in the area that are paying very high rates compared to what they would be paying to keep those people employed. Is it right to charge the higher rate to those poor folks just to keep the employees in Danville?