Cliptoons by S&S

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Getting It Right- A Dog and Pony Show Comes To Town

May 2, 2007



By: Sid Riley




This column presents a non-partisan, conservative viewpoint about items of interest in our community and our lives. Focus is on items that are impacting your pocket book, your personal freedoms, and your rights. I hope that you will read the column regularly and that it occasionally influences your opinions and actions. Now, on to the subject of the week:

"The Florida Public Services Commission Brings It’s Annual Dog and Pony Show To Marianna"

On Tuesday evening the Public Services Commission conducted a public hearing regarding a proposed 8.5% rate hike that has been requested by the Florida Public Utilities, the utility company that provides electric service to Marianna and the immediate area around the city.

The justification that the utility is using for the sizable increase is a new requirement imposed by the Public Services Commission that the utility begin to "harden" critical components of the electrical system, so as to reduce the cost of repairs and frequency of power outages during hurricanes.

You may remember that another hefty rate increase was awarded to this utility company two years ago. This is the same utility company that recently created a public uproar when they suddenly doubled the security deposit requirements for a major portion of their existing customers. There are rumors floating around that after January 1, 2008 the public will be faced with a rate hike of over 20%, due to the termination of the utility’s existing energy procurement contract.

I attended this meeting, and as usual could not keep my big mouth shut….so here is the script of the arguments that I presented to the illustrious commissioners from Tallahassee:

"Thank you for the opportunity to speak regarding this matter. My name is Sid Riley. I am semi-retired from a career as an international management consultant, and I am currently a regular writer of a column for one of the local newspapers, the Jackson County Times. I have evolved into being an activist against the continuing growth in the size and cost of government and the resultant loss of our personal and property rights.

I recognize the Florida Public Services Commission as being an element of the state bureaucracy, and consider Florida Public Utilities to be a quasi-bureaucratic organization due to its government sponsored and protected position as a monopoly. Thus I stand against any increases in the scope or cost of either of these entities.

I have seen several of these public hearings, and consider them to be little more than a "dog and pony show" that is put on to complying with your regulations and to give the public opportunity to vent its anger prior to your actions. Once this rather boring and time consuming requirement has been met, you will state that you appreciate all of the comments and these will be taken into consideration prior to your final decision which will be announced in a few weeks. Then, as is the case in the majority of such requests, you will approve the hike that the company has requested. In my opinion, a better name for your organization would be the "Florida Public Disservice Commission".

I consider your organization to be another costly bureaucratic function of questionable value. The original intent and concept might have been valid, but procedures seem to have evolved through abuse and misuse, into a system that does little for the public. The position of Public Service Commissioner has been used to repay political obligations by appointment to the position to enjoy lucrative salaries and benefits.

I feel that Florida Public Utilities has already demonstrated the greedy nature of it’s management through the public recent uproar it created when it doubled the security deposit requirements on a major percentage of it’s customers. It was awarded a significant rate hike a fairly short time ago, and is now back at the table begging for more.

Relative to their current request for a hike exceeding 8.5%, I pose two questions. First, what assurance is there that the money taken from the Marianna customers will be spent on the Marianna system, and not be instead used to pay for more extensive modifications in south Florida? … And secondly, since this is a capital improvement expenditure, why is it being paid for by imposing a rate hike instead of using long term financing? In business, a capital improvement would be paid for on some sort of long term financing strategy, usually thirty years, such as a bond issue or long term notes. This is done so as to spread the cost out over a long period in order to minimize the impact on current annual costs.

In a competitive situation this approach enables the company to accomplish the change with a minimum requirement for price increases to their customers. They are worried about another company beating their price and taking the customer’s business from them. Of course, a utility doesn’t have to worry about competition, or costs, or profits, ---or customers!

It seems to me that with the situation that the struggling poor and those living on fixed incomes from social security and pensions are facing with soaring taxes, being raped by insurance companies, being sucked dry by petroleum costs, and being ravaged by the medical and pharmaceutical components, that hopefully the utilities would seek to solve their problems with a minimum of added impact on the public.

But alas, in all probability what will happen will be your usual rubber stamping of their request, and another, deeper dig into the pocket books of a helpless public. Thank you…….."

BUREAUCRATIC FUNGUS OF THE WEEK:
As previously discussed, the bureaucracy is filled with many species of fungi that choke productivity, create waste, and make government less and less effective. This week’s species is "Abusus Monopolitis" (English Translation= Abusive Monopolies) I need not say more!

The system of bureaucracies that is now in place has become so large and unresponsive that it seems almost impossible for concerned citizens to have any impact. However, if we combine our efforts and organize effectively, we can create changes. If you will help in this effort, you will be "Getting It Right".

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