Archive for November, 2007
To hear Steve Gaw tell it, consumers have little influence these days in the halls of government. Legislators, even the good ones, don’t understand the arcane issues in regulating big electric, natural gas, telephone and water companies. For the full story, click here.
excerpt from an article by . . .
By Michael D. Sorkin
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Where can consumers turn for help?
There’s the Office of the Missouri Public Counsel, a small state agency which represents consumers and has been flexing its muscles lately. And there’s the Consumers Council of Missouri, a tiny group with big ambitions.
Membership in the consumers council costs $10 a year. The group’s second annual meeting is at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 28, at the Brentwood Community Center, 2505 South Brentwood Boulevard in Brentwood. Guest speaker is Steve Gaw, former speaker of the Missouri House and until recently, a commissioner on the Public Service Commission.
For the full article, click here.
Please attend the Consumers Council Annual Meeting on Wednesday, November 28th at 7 p.m.
Brentwood Community Center – 2505 S. Brentwood Blvd.
Guest Speaker will be Steve Gaw, former member of the Missouri Public Service Commission. Come hear Steve, who the Post Dispatch said was credited with saving consumers millions of dollars in electric, gas and water bills (PD 9-18-07).
Plus an update on the past year and election of new Board Members. The public is invited and encouraged to come.
Know someone you think would be good for our Board of Directors? Give us the information on this website by clicking on “Having your Say”.
Dozens of consumers filled the hearing room last night at the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District Board meeting, protesting the plan to increase sewer rates by 64% without giving the voters a chance to approve the issuance of bonds that could reduce the increase by more than half.
Before the meeting, it was announced that the vote would be delayed in order to receive more public input. However, Chair David Rosenberg made statements that did not sound very promising to the many ratepayers and community groups in attendance. Click here to read an excerpt from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Consumers have gained support for their position on the financing of the rate increase from the Mayor’s office and from the St. Louis County Executive. There are rumors of a meeting being scheduled between groups representing large customers and MSD officials. Hopefully, representatives of residential customers will also be invited and something positive will be worked out.
Pressure is mounting and the rumors are flying about what Mayor Slay and St. Louis County Executive Dooley are going to do about the controversy over the financing plan for the proposed MSD sewer rate increase.
Each day more people become aware that the increase doesn’t need to be 64%, if only MSD would reconsider its decision not to utilize any public debt financing and trust the voters to approve the issuance of bonds.
The St. Louis Post Dispatch ran the following story in its Savvy Consumer column:
Consumers fight 64 percent MSD rate hike
By Michael D. Sorkin
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Friday, Nov. 02 2007
Consumer groups are ramping up a last-ditch fight in the Metropolitan St. Louis
Sewer District’s plan to raise residential rates 64 percent.
The groups are AARP, ACORN and the Consumers Council of Missouri.
At week’s end, MSD’s six trustees were scheduled to vote on approving the rate
increase at 5 p.m. Thursday at district headquarters.
Lance LeComb, a sewer district spokesman, said, “It is very difficult to change
course on such short notice and so late in the rate setting process.”
He said, “There has been ample opportunity for the public to participate in the
rate setting process.”
He was referring to ads in 15 area newspapers, and 18 public meetings, between
March and August.
Consumer advocates say hardly anyone knew of the meetings and even fewer
attended.
If the trustees approve, rates will increase over four years, starting in
January.
A typical residential customer now paying $22.38 per month would pay pay $36.79
per month in 2012, according to MSD.
John Coffman, an attorney for AARP and the Consumers Council, called the
increase “totally unnecessary.”
Coffman and others agree that MSD must spend hundreds of millions of dollars on
sewer repairs to comply with federal standards. That isn’t the issue, they say.
What they oppose is the district’s plan to pay for repairs entirely with rate
increases.
If half the improvements were financed with a bond issue instead, the increase
would be cut in half, figures compiled by the consumer groups show.
LeComb says the district wants to keep a bond issue in reserve because
“unknowns” could run costs up billions of dollars.
Says Coffman: “I never heard of any utility of this size going forward without
public debt.”
A bond issue requires voter approval. Consumer advocates say the district has
never lost a bond issue.
Large industrial users agree with the consumer groups. They include the
Missouri Industrial Energy Consumers (Anheuser-Busch, Boeing, Monsanto and
Pfizer among others) and the Missouri Energy Group (including SSM Health Care,
BJC and the Archdiocese of St. Louis.)
Lisa Langeneckert, representing the Missouri Energy Group, said at a public
hearing that even the consultant for MSD’s rate commission agreed that bond
financing is the better option.
Jeff Ordower, of ACORN, said, “Homeowners need relief, not additional costs.”
Coffman urged consumers to contact St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay and St. Louis
County Executive Charles A. Dooley. They appoint MSD’s trustees.
Consumer advocates said Thursday that the mayor and the county executive
appeared to be urging the trustees to work out a compromise with the consumer
groups.
MSD is a public agency serving 1.4 million residents in St. Louis and St. Louis
County.
