Last week’s article by Eddie Burkhalter regarding Piedmont’s utility rates raises many questions and deserves further review.

Mayor Young basically states in the article that he and the City Council are not capable of managing the utilities in the same manner that an “independent board” can. Why not? The business strategies should be no different and the board would be comprised of citizens appointed by the Mayor and Council.

In addition the utilities still have the same manager they had when governed by an “independent board.”

If, as Mayor Young says, all the utility revenue is transferred into the general fund why doesn’t he stop that from happening?

He and the City Council are the ones with the authority to approve and adopt the budgets for the general fund and the utilities so why not just budget for reserves if that’s the problem?

If an “independent board” can do that why can’t the City? If, in fact, the city needs the utility funds to operate how does the Mayor intend to replace those funds when an “independent board” takes the money away? Raise sales tax or property tax? Cut services? What would he propose to cut out?

The electrical utility alone provides nearly one million dollars a year in revenue after expenses.

It would require the removal of the Fire Department, Parks and Recreation Department, Senior Citizens Center, Library, Maintenance Department and Animal Control to reduce the budget enough to make up for that loss without increasing revenue by some other means such as taxes.

The Mayor says that with an independent board “there’s not as many hands in the pot.” Who controls “the hands?” He does, or he’s supposed to.

The Mayor says “we have not raised the rates.” That is true, what he doesn’t mention is that when the costs of power and natural gas were lowered by the City’s suppliers he didn’t pass on that savings to the consumers like everyone else did.

Mayor Young would have you believe that an “independent board” equals lower rates and that’s just not the truth. It’s not “who” governs the utilities that makes a difference, it’s “how” the utilities are governed.

Utilities are no different than any other business in that there are highs and lows in the economics that affect them, that happens everywhere not just in Piedmont.

Mayor Young just needs to do the job he was elected to do instead of trying to pass off the more difficult tasks and decisions to someone else. And the City Council should be displeased that the Mayor thinks they’re not competent enough to do as good a job as three other citizens that would occupy an independent board.

What happened to all those campaign promises about lowering utility rates Mayor Young made before the election? I guess “hedging” electrical power like he promised in the candidate forum didn’t pan out after all.

Charlie Fagan

Former Piedmont Mayor