Thousands of residents in Kansas City, Kansas, were disconnected from power in the months preceding the heat advisory on Thursday, activists said at the Board of Public Utilities meeting.
At a Zoom meeting Wednesday night of the BPU, activists with Build Power MoKan called for a new moratorium on utility disconnections.
The board, however, did not act on their request, but did pass another resolution to provide free connections to some properties east of I-635 as part of an infill program. The utility has already been doing that, and it is a codification of the practice, according to BPU officials.
While utilities do not cut off electricity in extreme heat, many residents already have been disconnected earlier because of nonpayment of their bills and will not be reconnected until they pay, according to the activists. The BPU’s previous moratorium on cutoffs ended March 31. Activists have appeared at several BPU meetings in the past few months.
A resident of the Armourdale area of Kansas City, Kansas, also requested the moratorium on shutoffs and said vital medical devices used by her family had not been added to the BPU list, as she requested. She and her family have long-term medical effects from COVID-19.
Since April, there have been 5,619 disconnections of households in Wyandotte County, and people are struggling, she said.
The Kansas Emergency Rental Assistance program, at the state level, is handling rent assistance and utility assistance from federal funds. Individuals may send applications to a state website at https://kera.kshousingcorp.org/kera, but activists say many people are unable to finish the application or to get it to work. The program was designed to help renters.
Dustin Hare, an activist, said 6,682 applications had been submitted to the Kansas Emergency Rental Assistance program statewide, with only 287 of them approved as of last week, around 90 days after the program began. About $1.1 million of the $200 million had gone out, he said.
“So clearly, the people in Kansas City, Kansas, aren’t getting the money.”
Dustin Hare, activist
“So clearly, the people in Kansas City, Kansas, aren’t getting the money,” Hare said. He works daily with people struggling to pay their BPU bills, he said.
Since the KERA program isn’t working, he thinks the BPU should reinstate the moratorium on utility cutoffs, he said.
Almost all area nonprofits are out of funds for utility assistance, according to the activists.
Emily Wolfe, a Kansas City, Kansas, resident, said it would cost the community much more in the long run not to provide the moratorium. Ambulances would have to be sent to homes, and people would not be able to work, she said.
She urged the BPU to put time and energy into getting KERA dollars to the people who need them, and to promote the program as much as possible in the community.
Sarah Brown of Kansas City, Kansas, told the board, “It is my hope that everyone on the board is actually listening to what we’re saying and taking it to heart. It is your job to do so. BPU is responsible to the people here.”
“You have a duty to help the people,” she said.
Christina Ostmeyer also supported a moratorium on cutoffs.
“Eviction rates are skyrocketing, utility rates are skyrocketing. BPU has the ability to do something about it.”
Christina Ostmeyer, KCK resident
“Eviction rates are skyrocketing, utility rates are skyrocketing,” she said. “BPU has the ability to do something about it.”
Ostmeyer said if the power is shut off at some residences, some of the people do not have transportation to get to another place with air conditioning.
“It’s life and death,” she said, citing a case where some residents died after the air-conditioning was not working in an apartment building in Kansas City, Missouri.
Ty Gorman, with Build Power MoKan, said he has been working with people who were unable to get through the KERA program, for whatever reason. He continued to call for a moratorium on shutoffs until federal assistance reached those who are unable to submit a KERA request. Plus there are thousands who may be eligible for assistance who haven’t applied for it, he said.
He said administrators of the programs told him they needed more time, a couple of months.
Gorman also supported efforts to add other medical devices to the BPU’s list.
Bill Johnson, BPU general manager, said BPU staff members have been contacting the state to talk about the KERA program, and letting them know about needs. The BPU let the state know how difficult it was for some customers to apply for the KERA assistance. There are nonprofit groups in Wyandotte County who are now assisting residents who are applying for KERA funding.
Johnson said it might help if Kansas could adjust the budget to allow more financial support for nonprofit groups so they can help residents with their applications.
He also said the BPU’s advice is that if customers need assistance, they should reach out to nonprofit groups or to the state to determine the status of their application.
The BPU is receiving a list from KERA of people who have completed applications. However, they’re not sure how many people have been turned down, according to BPU officials. If the application is approved, the state agency will send funds to the BPU directly or to the landlord.
If it’s confirmed that anyone has completed a KERA application and submitted it, that person’s utility bill then will be placed on hold and they will not be disconnected, Johnson said. If their application is rejected, the BPU will work with them on other arrangements, he said.
Johnson said he is really concerned about customers not making partial payments. If their application is not approved, they could end up owing a lot of money on their utility bills.
The BPU still wants to work with customers, he said, and requests anyone having trouble paying their bill to call the BPU’s customer service department.
Johnson said about 434 BPU customers have made applications to KERA for assistance, and only seven payments have been sent to the utility. He is hoping that processing will go more quickly.
A 90-day moratorium last year cost the utility about a million dollars. The utility would lose another $600,000 to $700,000 in fees.
Bill Johnson, BPU general manager
Asked about the cost to implement a moratorium, Johnson said a 90-day moratorium last year cost the utility about a million dollars. The utility would lose another $600,000 to $700,000 in fees, he said.
“That money is not free,” he said. It would either cost the BPU in operations or be pushed back to the public.
Revenue would not come in, he said. Customers would still owe money, adding up in their accounts. It could be tougher to pay the bills in the future.
“We have a long history of making payment arrangements,” Johnson said, adding that there are flexible plans for people to pay their bills.
Rose Mulvany Henry, a board member, said these are really tough issues to deal with. She said she was not sure what the answer is. She also said she didn’t know if they had gone to the Unified Government to ask the UG to do more, because at least 50 percent of the BPU bills are for UG services such as trash pickup, sewer charges and the PILOT fee.
Jeff Bryant, a board member, said the UG still expects the BPU to forward the fees for PILOT, trash, sewer and other charges.
A certain level of revenue is needed for both the UG and BPU in order to keep the city running and BPU running, according to Bryant.
“There is and always has been and will be an overwhelming need in Wyandotte County,” he said.
There are large numbers of people on the curve who are able to make their payments now, but if the cost gets shifted to them because of others not paying, it may put them into the same category.
Jeff Bryant, BPU board member
There are large numbers of people on the curve who are able to make their payments now, but if the cost gets shifted to them because of others not paying, it may put them into the same category, Bryant said. He said assistance programs have to be run by the state and federal government, and the utility is not in a position to run them and give free utilities.
“This is a very difficult time and we have to do what we can to plead with the state to get the KERA program up and running at a better pace,” he said.
“There is no magic wand,” Bob Milan, board president, said. He said income comes in daily or weekly and part of it has to go directly to the UG.
The BPU needs to encourage people who need additional help, to seek it in other programs, according to Milan.
“It’s not lost on me that we’re willing to invest in buildings and we’re not willing to invest in people.”
Rose Mulvany Henry, BPU board member
“It’s not lost on me that a good portion of our discussion tonight was the public asking us to invest in people in Wyandotte County,” Mulvany Henry said. “I understand the difficulties and policy considerations, the competing policy interests we have as a public utility. But it’s not lost on me that we’re willing to invest in buildings and we’re not willing to invest in people, whether that is extending a moratorium, somehow revisiting disconnection policies or something. I would encourage this board to think about that and listen to what the public has been saying at to us these past couple meetings.”
She encouraged the board to think about this and where it wants to make investments in the community in the future.
Milan said the board had a far-reaching responsibility to the community, and a lot of the time does not have the answers, but he was confident it was going in the right direction.
Several of the same issues, including the moratorium, were brought up at the June 2 BPU meeting.
The moratorium issue could become a campaign issue for some BPU candidates this year.
One of the persons who has filed for a BPU seat is State Sen. David Haley, D-4th Dist. Sen. Haley said he had listened to the June 2 BPU meeting and said he was “incredibily saddened.” He called it a “tale of two cities.”
Many board members do not live in the poorer neighborhoods, he said.
“They don’t understand, they don’t get it, they don’t live the day in and day out of the average Wyandotte Countian.”
State Sen. David Haley, a candidate for the BPU
“They don’t understand, they don’t get it, they don’t live the day in and day out of the average Wyandotte Countian,” Sen. Haley said.
“It’s business as usual to hear others on the board seemingly be in a complete fog as to real-world circumstances,” Sen. Haley said.
He said the community should seek national models from other utilities that are similarly situated and have dealt with similar problems. He also would look to the Kansas Corporation Commission for ideas on how utility issues could be handled.
An older list of cooling centers in Wyandotte County is online at https://www.wycokck.org/WycoKCK/media/Emergency-Management/Documents/Cooling-Centers-2019.pdf. Call first to see if any details have changed in availability or hours.
To see earlier stories on this topic, visit https://wyandotteonline.com/activists-ask-bpu-to-end-electricity-shutoffs/