Better Clarksdale Foundation chair Marvin Reddix promised to have 100 citizens at the Feb. 26 Clarksdale Public Utilities meeting after being denied the opportunity to speak two weeks earlier.
Reddix and other members of the organization attended the Feb. 12 meeting on the agenda. They arrived late and were moved to the agenda of the most recent meeting, but just one of the four Better Clarksdale Foundation representatives showed up and he was once again late.
At large member Stanley Clark, after coming late and being permitted to speak, provided members of the media a letter explaining his position outside the board room.
The opening paragraph of the letter reads, “It has been made abundantly clear to us that we will not achieve a fair and equitable understanding between the people of Clarksdale and Clarksdale Public Utilities through reasonable process. It is air and apparent that changes need to be made for the good of the citizens of Clarksdale. Exorbitant utility costs are sinking citizens deeper into an insurmountable debt. By the end of the year the average Clarksdale citizen could be several hundred dollars in arrearage on just their utilities.”
The letter goes on to discuss how the Better Clarksdale Foundation members were unable to speak at the previous meetings when they are the “stakeholders” in CPU, not the managers or board. It says the end goal of the foundation is to create an “entrustment agreement” that allows CPU to operate efficiently based on the needs of citizens with a ratepayer’s bill of rights.
In the very near future, the organization will be asking the governor’s office to direct the state’s PEER organization to conduct a full investigation into the operations of CPU. The letter says the organization began a video recording testimony of senior residents and calls for other citizens to tell their stories.
The letter concludes, “I challenge each and every citizen to write a personal letter on your own to hand to your commissioner, Supervisor, Mayor, State Representative and your governor. All of these individuals work for you and should be speaking up on your behalf. Also noticeably silent on this issue is the NAACP!?”
CPU general manager Curtis Boschert had read the letter prior to the meeting.
Clark and the organization’s chairperson Marvin Reddix were on the agenda. On their request form, it said they had spoken to Boschert, CPU board chairperson James Hicks and board member Adrian Allen.
Clark arrived after 4:20 p.m. when the meeting started at 4:15. Customer service representative Maxine Palmer came into the board room and whispered to Hicks that Clark was present.
When discussing whether or not to let Clark speak, board member Jimmy Humber said of his late arrival, “In his defense, the traffic is kind of crazy.”
Following the decision to let Clark speak, Hicks went to notify him. Hicks came back in the room and said he wanted to see the media, not address the board.
Clark had the organization’s letter to provide.
Boschert, Hicks and board member George Miller responded to the letter following the meeting.
“We’re doing everything that we can legally,” Miller said. “They have some stuff on there (ratepayer’s bill of rights) that you legally can’t do.”
Hicks provided a personal example to show board members do not receive any special treatment.
“I had a bill that I lost,” he said. “I guess I put it in my truck and it fell under the seat. I had to come in on the cutoff day and I had to pay the $10 late fee and the $15 fee. It could happen to anybody. I didn’t feel good, but I did it and I did come in to pay it. Even the board members, we follow the policy and we try to do everything.”
It is a $15 fee to pay the utility bill on the cutoff date.
“A lot of times, people come up here and they try to make us feel like we don’t respect the customer,” Hicks said. “We’ve got good customer respect and we try to do the best job that we can. I think things are going pretty good.”
Miller said, as of 2016, customers are able to receive a text message or email reminding them when a due date it coming up.
“They can send a text letting you know when your bill is due three days before it’s due,” he said. “That’s been going on ever since we got the new software and people aren’t taking advantage of it.”
Anyone interested in having those reminders may speak with someone in customer service.
“People don’t realize the changes we’ve made around here,” Miller said. “We’ve got a kiosk out here that you can pay after hours. You can pay online, which you couldn’t do five years ago. There are a lot of changes we’ve made around here that are an advantage to our customers and we’re not getting the publicity for it. We’ve made some good changes. They just don’t appreciate it.”
Miller said he personally pays his bill with a draft from his bank account on the due date, but he still signed up for notices to make sure customers are receiving them as they should.
“We’re going to try to get that out so that more people will know,” said Boschert speaking of the different payment options customers have. “That’s one of the things we’re working on is probably trying to put together something that will be in the mail to the customers that are going to tell them about these things. We can get it directly to the people. We’ve got a little bit of work to do on getting that information out so the people will know.”
Boschert, just as he noted after the Feb. 12 meeting, said CPU already does most of the things the ratepayer’s bill of rights is asking for.
“We do provide extensions,” Boschert said. “We don’t cut people off on holidays or weekends. We do cut them back on anytime day or night. If they can come and pay in the kiosk, we will make sure they come back on.
“We do everything we can legally for our customers to make it where they can pay their bills in a timely fashion and work with them when they’re having problems paying them in a timely fashion. We’re going to continue to do that. I’ve seen the ratepayers’ bill of rights.”
Boschert also responded to the line in the letter from the Better Clarksdale Foundation saying the NAACP was noticeably silent on this issue.
“I have no idea what that means,” Boschert said. “All I can say is that we treat all of our customers fairly and the same way across the board. It doesn’t matter who they are or how they were born or where they came from or what their status in life is right now. We treat everybody with dignity and respect.”
The letter says Reddix may be reached at 404-281-6347 or jabarimuata@yahoo.com and Clark may be reached at 662-313-7821 or stanleyclark55@yahoo.com.
