Author: Mary Rupert

About 100 people turned out at the Kansas City, Kansas, Board of Public Utilities meeting on Wednesday night to ask the board to vote no on its budget.

The community activist group is calling for an end to utility disconnects in Kansas City, Kansas, as well as calling for several other measures.

Several speakers addressed the board, and the board and staff members discussed some of the issues with them.

Curtis Martin urged the board to vote down the budget until it could be approved by the people. He said he would like the BPU’s donations to the United Way campaign fund to be turned down until the people could vote on it, also. The grassroots group has stated that it would save administrative fees if the funds would go directly to the needy instead of funneled through agencies.

Susan Stevens said when people suffering from shutoffs are overwhelmed with their bills, the BPU doesn’t need to be giving tremendous raises and donations to the United Way. She referred to the BPU general manager’s recent raise bringing his salary to $475,000. Federal funds should be secured to help the neediest, she said.

Bill Johnson, BPU general manager, said the BPU has a history of donating through United Way. Employees make contributions and then the dollars are sent to the United Way for the utility assistance program. The BPU board has matched that with utility funding for the utility assistance program.

Over 90 percent of the dollars sent to the United Way come back to Kansas City, Kansas, to help people pay utility bills, he said. He also discussed the hardship program, where dollars are spent only in Wyandotte County. The overwhelming majority of the dollars sent to the United Way are brought back to help Wyandotte County, he said.

While he’s not sure the BPU could do direct utility assistance without adding personnel, those leading the grassroots group said the UG could handle it without additional expenses and without administrative fees.

According to BPU officials, a 10 percent administrative fee would be about $1,050 of $105,000 that goes to United Way. The hardship program similarly would be $1,200 of the $120,000.

Beto Lugo Martinez of Clean Air Now told the BPU that he wanted to make sure the community, affected by environmental racism, had a seat at the table. He wanted to make sure the community had a voice.

He said he wanted to know why some of the BPU’s budget, such as the PILOT fee, was going to the Unified Government. He was in favor of fair and equitable budget, public input and an oversight committee.

He said current policies were showing “profits over people,” with residents disconnected and left out in the cold.

Johnson told Martinez that the BPU does not control the PILOT fee found on its bills. The UG is completely in control of the PILOT fee and its percentage, he said. By charter, the UG can put the PILOT fee on the BPU bills from 5 to 15 percent. Currently it is at 11.9 percent. BPU only collects the bill for the UG, he said. BPU has no control over it, he said.

Justine Green said her taxes are very high. “We pay enough taxes to be able to have this better than it is for us,” she said.

Jeff Bryant, a BPU board member, said the UG owns BPU and tells BPU to collect the bill for them. Stormwater, trash, PILOT fees are among the UG charges on the BPU bills. “They tell BPU we have to be their billing agency,” he said.

Another resident asked the board to vote down the budget. She said the community can be prepared, yet it is choosing to shut people off and put them at risk.

Thomas Gordon said the BPU general manager’s salary of $475,000 was close to what the president of the United States was making.

He said the public needs to be part of the decisions at the BPU..

If people don’t pay the entire BPU bill including the PILOT, and other fees, the BPU can disconnect services, causing medical issues, he said. He asked about the power BPU has in representing the people.

Bryant said they were elected by the people to be their voices. He goes to other community meetings and talks to people, and is accessible by phone and email. He asked people to call him if they have concerns.

Asked by Gordon if the BPU had authority to separate the bill between UG and BPU charges, Bryant said they did not have it and if they already did, it would already have been separated.

The UG charges on the BPU bill are largely opposed by most BPU board members.

David Haley, BPU member and state senator, said the question was how does the BPU separate itself from the UG bills, so that BPU bill payers would just pay for water and lights.

There is no authority for the BPU to do that itself, it needs the 10 UG commissioners and mayor to have that happen, he said. People are tired of having to pay taxes every month at the penalty of losing utility services as a pass-through from the UG, he said.

Community activist Ty Gorman asked the BPU board to vote no on the budget until there is a commitment not to shut off anyone unsafely.

He asked the board to work with the group to remove all regressive fees from the bill and work to lower the bill in 2023.

Gorman, who also works with the Sierra Club, said it is bad public policy to put the fees on utility bills, and bad public finance.

Gorman said shutting people’s electricity off in the cold, the heat, when they have medical issues, when they are old and young, was unacceptable and avoidable.

“There are dollars out there to pay for folks when they are not able to pay themselves,” he said. “BPU is shutting off immediately and not helping the customers get the dollars they need.”

There are other programs from the federal and state governments that BPU can use to pay bills and debt.

Gorman said BPU can lower bills in 2023 through federal grant dollars. He cited Department of Energy grants and other billions available to utilities. He mentioned clean energy programs, municipal loan guarantees, and other programs.

Reginald Jones asked the board to vote no on the budget.

Lisa Walker Yeager told the board, “You can’t be for the people if you’re not hearing what we’re saying.”

She said people are having to decide whether they pay utilities or have food in their house. “This is how serious it is,” she said.

Louise Lynch, one of the founders of the community grassroots group Community Conscience Action Network, asked the board to vote no on the budget. She cited the lack of community input on BPU decisions and talked about the lack of communications from staff in areas such as the life support program.

She pointed out that there could be a 10 percent administrative fee on money given to the United Way, and then the United Way gives the money to a local agency which has another administrative fee.

Sara Lynch also asked for a no vote on the budget. She said since the BPU is a municipal utility, part of the UG, it means it is a nonprofit. “Why do I keep hearing about the profit portion of the nonprofit when we are not seeing that come back to us?” she asked.

Bryant said the profit remarks meant it just costs the BPU to make electricity and water and deliver. Above that, the utility must maintain the system and make repairs.

BPU vice president Rose Mulvany Henry offered a solution. She said she has noticed that the BPU’s economic development fund of $500,000 has not been fully used in the past.

She suggested reallocating $250,000 from this fund for BPU utility assistance in 2022 and 2023.

“It’s not a lot of money but it can be a lot of money to our residents who are hurting and continue to have economic issues,” Mulvany Henry said. “That’s well within our authority to do.”

“I think this board can do more for this community, and going forward, we do just that,” she said.

Lynch, a leader of the grassroots group, said after the meeting they still wanted board members to vote no on the budget. The group wants disconnects to stop. She also said that she thought it would temporarily stop the general manager’s salary increase.