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jbf
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Many of you will be familiar with Pat Stith's 2001 stories that unveiled extravagant spending at ElectriCities and their ability to cover it up using the public records laws. You will also remember the absolute arrogance of the CEO Jesse Tilton in responding to the press. He is responsible for BILLIONS of dollars of debt and is spending money in outrageous ways.
I am part of a large group of ratepayers in electric cities in the eastern part of the state where we cannot afford the electric rates - sometimes our electric bills are more than rent. ElectriCities needs to go. It is a "middle man" which costs us in our electric bills.
1) The CEO of ElectriCities - Jesse Tilton - makes $500,000 a year - more than UNC and NCSU Chancellors and Erskine Bowles. His salary is like that of the mental health administrator - and should be cut.
2) The CEO has run up astronomical legal fees - $500,000 + a year for who knows what and for negotiating settlements. We have been told he settled with Alice Garland in 2003 for illegal behavior and then Jeannie Bonds in 2007, same thing - illegal behavior. We are paying for settlements for a man who obviously has an issue with women and appropriate behavior. Two women in four years. The legal fees are really adding up. How can a public entity keep settling for huge amounts and no one does anything?? This is our taxpayer money.
3) The CEO gave huge raises to people there - there are 15 people making more than $100,000. Five people making more than $200,000. One person got a 20% raise in one year. For the past three years, top staff were getting 10, 15 and 20% pay raises in one year and BONUSES. They should get what cities get - 4-5%.
4) Health Care costs are exorbitant there because the CEO used it for his own personal health needs.
5) The CEO takes staff and board on retreats and spends $1000s on drinks at Fearrington, Myrtle Beach, Orlando, California, Texas.
6) The board makes $1000 a month for two hours of meeting. Dub Dickson is a former legislator and chair and he retired from legislature, was hired as a lobbyist for Electricities making $25,000 a year, then got on the board, made $12,000 a year for 5 years and now as chairman makes $1500 a meeting. He has made more than $100,000 of our money. This is MORE than legislators. Why do they get paid on this board??? Fourteen board members making $12,000 a year!!! Dub Dickson is beholden to his money not the taxpayers and cannot make a decision earning this much money. Sam Noble has been on 6 years and now 6 more, chairman twice, making $150,000+. This board is made up of people paid by cities and should receive no additional pay. The legislature could appoint a responsible business board to make good decisions. The current board uses this as slush money and there are no ETHICS reporting.
7) There are no checks and balances on board, CEO and spending has gone amuck. The board has approved them buying TRANSMISSION even when the other debt is not paid. That will mean more debt and higher rates.
8) Secretaries there make $50,000 or more a year. Out of market and out of bounds.
We are considering a class action law suit.
Taxpayers Against ElectriCities (TAEC)
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taec24
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well said. we will get the legislature involved in this issue. they need to take over the board and appoint people. i am sure sherwood smith and others would volunteer their time to clean the place up. there are business leaders in cities that understand these issues and could restore trust and credibility to the place.
write your legislator. tell them this is outrageous and ElectriCities is hiding behind public records laws and their budget needs to be OPEN and sent out to their rate payers.
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alman
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Governor Jim Hunt lives in Wilson and is a ratepayer and would be an excellent choice to CLEAN the place up. He has a vested interest, is an attorney, understands the issue.
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payingtoomuch
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The legislators are all over this issue as are others including newspapers. Jim Hunt would be great though. Clayton, Rocky Mount, Wilson have this all over their blogs. Check it out. Stage a protest when this arrogant BIG SPENDER goes to Benvenue Country Club for some more ole boy wining and dining with taxpayer money.
I hear TAEC is scheduling its meeting. It has been on the air in Rocky Mount so if you are in one of the cities stay tuned for details. A lwayer has been retained and a lobbyist will soon be hired.
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payingtoomuch
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AND we hear there is a court case with a woman in play and another to be filed so he will be up to four women and more legal bills mounting!
Plus, we hear there is to be an EEOC investigation due to complaints filed by employees about the HR person, CEO and at least one other person there. We have met with legislators and they are aware and on it.
If you live in one of the cities, raise heck. If you have a board member in your city, let them hear from you. Go to www.electricities.com for the list. Dub Dickson is corrupt to have been a legislator, lobbyist and board member. He is in it for the money but some who served with him said they are not surprised.
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southportsailor
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This is all unbelievable. I have read the blogs in Southport, Wilson, Rocky Mount. Thank Goodness this word is spreading. The outrage among taxpayers is apparent. Many of us small business people are outraged. I was about to become like the Butcher Shoppe in Rocky Mount with my business but now I will fight with you. Glad there is a group forming. Talked to some folks in Clayton and they said their council members HATE electricities and its leadership. I am taking this to Paul Fisher who is from Southport, chairs the power agency and is running for Mayor. Southport does not like electricities and thank goodness, we have the co-ops taking care of the system so we do not have ill-trained people fixing lines. I have heard electricities skimps on training and has poorly trained people training other people. An accident waiting to happen.
Here, we would prefer the co-ops or Progress Energy. Will talk to legislators this weekend at events about these issues.
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scotlandneckrocks
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On board in Scotland Neck. There are some powerful business and political people interested in this issue. I heard the salary stuff from Progress Energy employees cause someone from electricities told their salary to someone with progress and you know how that goes ... so the salary stuff is accurate. Apparently there are a ton of staff who got canned at progress and electricities snapped them up and paid them a lot more. brilliant. then they run their mouths and the word spreads. I also heard there is a quiet rebellion taking place internally.
Progress is laughing their heads off about this because they have said it would happen some time. Sounds like the CEO has bit off a bit too much with women. What is his problem? My legislator told me he is arrogant, talks too much and no one wants to be around him. During deregulation discussions apparently legislators wanted to find an "off" switch to turn off his electricity. Where did he come from? The cities should have sold. The state should take this over. The treasurer needs to put an end to this transmission garbage. the transmission is in disrepair so of course progress will sell it to them. what a bargain.
if these people had brains, it would be scary. Put me on the list for TAEC and I will spread the word. The elderly have plenty of time to work this issue so let's enlist their help.
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ncsugrad
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There are many of us in Apex who despise this place called ElectriCities of NC. We need James Carville and Joe Sinsheimer on this issue. They would be great. So I am shooting this information to them for advice and counsel. Reporters are eager to cover and have before. Get the information to them and we will get some SUNSHINE on this issue. Heck, most of the council members in cities despise the place as well.
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ncdems
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I suggest you all talk to Alice Garland and Jeanne Bonds or one of their close political friends in the legislature or retired. They are both well-connected. They are both very active statewide and held in high esteem so someone pushing these two around certainly picked on the wrong two women. People respect them both and they are both successful and accomplished. Either of them could run for office with their brains and saavy. So talk to them and see if you can get more insight or talk to their friends.
just my two cents.
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AntiCreepyCEO
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They were paid to be quiet. Not that they need to since "quiet" is not the word for the blabber mouth CEO Jesse Tilton at ElectriCities. I am sure they could team up and really take him dooooown. Employees there are scared and no one helps them. The corruption and culture is AWFUL. People are looking new jobs. But as you can see they get caught up in being paid ABOVE market. He will leave though. There is a massive effort to rid the state of him. Everyone knows so these two women do not need to say anything. Cannot think of a legislator or city official who really likes this guy. Women he meets on line spread the word quickly about him. The issue is what he is trying to do to the poor people in these cities. He is just a money monger taking advantage of people for his big fat paycheck. Truth and Justice will prevail.
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Anonymous
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here is the reason one staff person gets some many big raises
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=109&STORY=/www/story/05-09-2007/0004584807&EDATE=
ahhh the masterminded nut behind more debt for the cities.
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Anonymous
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Take this to the press and get the budget. I am sure there is some "creative" budget person there who spends time trying to hide all of these things. Kinston and Belhaven have said they ask questions and the numbers will not add up.
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Anonymous
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This is why we need former Governor Jim Hunt on this issue!
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Anonymous
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Here is what you folks need to assess - the commissioners can take back powers from the board. You could get NCGS 159 B-10 repealed and let the commissioners in the east and west take it all back over.
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Anonymous
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Rock on Activists. The place has been screwed up for years. Excessive spending, poor management, a failed experiment. During deregulation, the reports out of the place were INCREDIBLE so I see nothing has changed.
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Anonymous
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Re: That bulldog ain't Hunt
Submitted by Proctor on October 19, 2007 - 11:11pm.
Then there's the story about the convention of office dogs in downtown Raleigh who got together to take a straw--er, make that a bone poll--on their favorite former or present elected official in North Carolina. Hoping to howl down the oft-used expression, "that dog won't hunt," they proudly barked out the results of their poll: "These dogs want Hunt."
Looks like you dogs want Hunt too. Hope you get him.
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Anonymous
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What we need is to demonopolize the sale of electricity. Electricities gets away with bad decisions and outright ripoffs because it has monopoly power and is not accountable to anyone. Its member cities do not have to have their rates approved by the Utilities Commission.
Germany did demonopolization right. They simply set a date on which any customer could buy electricity from anyone they wanted. It worked. Rates went down dramatically. Read the story on that a few years ago in The Economist magazine.
Great Stuff.
Anonter option would be to make both the individual cities who engage in the socialized monopoly of selling electricity and Electrcities itself accountable to the Utilities Commission, just like private electric comanies are.
Why get Jim Hunt involved. He probably has too many political buddies tied up in this scam on ratepayers called Electricities.
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Anonymous
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Our State Auditor, Les Merritt, is a real bulldog. Has anyone approached him about getting his jaws around this scandal?
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Anonymous
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I guess the suggestion about Jim Hunt is that he is a rate payer and some have said he is against ElectriCities and never has liked it and felt it was up to no good. I agree with the NCUC getting involved so the cities are treated like every other company.
Les Merritt and Richard Moore should be involved. Richard Moore has responsibility for the debt and refinancing and any new debt.
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Anonymous
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I think some of the legislators are getting their jaws around it.
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Anonymous
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get the right ones on it. get some reporters on it as well.
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Anonymous
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By Contrast - NOTE: Fayetteville pays $30,000 a year in dues and the board members make $12,000 a year. Rocky Mount, Wilson, Greenville pay $55,000-65,000 a year in dues. A lot more. The Board Members are paid from the power agency budget. That means cities with debt like Rocky Mount pay for board members from Fayetteville and Concord. This from a city official in the east who explained it. Fayetteville is not paying its fair share. Are we shocked about anything we hear about this place? I am not. What next?
Published on Saturday, October 13, 2007
Fayetteville Observer
Mayor picks ElectriCities representative
By Andrew Barksdale
Staff writer
ADVERTISEMENT
Lacy
Wilson Lacy, a businessman on the Public Works Commission, is the compromise choice to represent Fayetteville on statewide utility issues.
Mayor Tony Chavonne made the appointment to the board of directors of ElectriCities on Friday. The PWC had split 2-2 on two other nominees.
“That board was split evenly, and I wanted to find someone that could pull them together, and Wilson had demonstrated the ability to do just that,” Chavonne said.
In January, Lacy will join the board of the municipal lobbying organization. He will replace former Fayetteville Mayor Marshall Pitts Jr.
Chavonne’s decision ensures that the otherwise all-white state utility board will continue to have a minority member. Wilson is black.
Pitts became the first black person on the ElectriCities board when he appointed himself three years ago. Pitts opted against seeking another term.
This month, the four-member PWC deadlocked on recommending who should replace Pitts.
Wilson and PWC member Luis Olivera wanted to nominate Olivera.
PWC Chairman Mike Lallier and member Terri Union supported Steve Blanchard, the utility’s general manager.
Wilson, 59, said his main goal while on the state board will be “making sure we are getting our money’s worth.”
PWC pays about $30,000 in dues to ElectriCities, he said.
On Friday, Olivera said Wilson, with his long ties to the community, was a good choice.
Olivera said the controversy over the appointment surprised him and had become “a little personal and out of hand.”
Under current city policy, the mayor makes the appointment — not the City Council.
Chavonne wants to change that. Until three years ago, the PWC made the appointment. That power was given to the mayor under Pitts’ tenure. Chavonne wants the council to change the policy and return the appointment authority to the PWC.
Staff writer Andrew Barksdale can be reached at barksdalea@fayobserver.com or 486-3565.
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Anonymous
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http://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/stories/2000/05/08/story3.html
Does anyone remember this old tune?
Friday, May 5, 2000
ElectriCities' plan blasted
Triangle Business Journal - by Karine Michael
?
RALEIGH ¬ A controversial $500,000 compensation plan for the top executive of the ElectriCities of North Carolina Inc. is throwing another wrench in the complicated fight over resolving the state's $5.6 billion municipal debt crisis.
Chief Executive Jesse Tilton III renegotiated his employment contract with ElectriCities' board in January, but legislators only learned of it in the past week.
The contract calls for two payments of $62,500 upon resolution of the group's outstanding indebtedness with Duke Power Co. and Carolina Power & Light Co. He will receive another $125,000 upon approval of a deal by the Legislative Utility Review Commission and another $250,000 upon passage of legislation for providing payment and discharge of all debts.
In each case, the board must agree with the decisions. Tilton's incentives contract is good through September 2002.
ElectriCities is a not-for-profit organization that represents 51 municipalities that operate their own power distribution and generation systems. Most of the debt stems from nuclear generation facilities that the group's municipal power agencies helped finance in deals brokered with Duke Power and Carolina Power & Light Co. in the late 1970s.
At the time, the utilities needed financial backing from the cities, which believed they were tapping a low cost source of power in expectation of sharply rising demand. But demand slowed, the cost of the plants mushroomed, and the debt has risen sharply over the years and now represents two-thirds of North Carolina's overall public indebtedness.
Legislators have argued for years how to resolve the matter and formed a study commission two years ago to come up with a plan by this spring. No resolution has been found, however, and it remains unclear if all North Carolinians will wind up bailing out the 51 cities, which include Wake Forest, Apex and several eastern N.C. towns.
Tilton, 52, joined ElectriCities in 1995 with an annual salary of about $255,000, which has now risen to about $303,000. He also has a severance plan that would pay him about $764,000 if forced out of a job ¬ which is unrelated to the incentives.
Tilton is an electrical engineer who worked for rural electric co-ops in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Indiana before coming to North Carolina.
He says the revised contract is necessary because he is working himself out of a job and deserves financial security.
"It's legal," says Samuel Noble, the town manager of Tarboro and an ElectriCities director. "The board approved the incentive plan and our attorneys looked the contract over. He's representing our best interest here and we believe he deserves an incentive for his work."
North Carolina law prohibits public employees from receiving incentives based on passing legislation. But Tilton, as chief executive of a trade organization-type nonprofit, is technically not a public employee and therefore not subject to that law, says State Treasurer Harlan Boyles.
But Boyles says some members of the General Assembly are upset over Tilton's contract and he predicts it will be another obstacle for ElectriCities as it seeks resolution of the debt. "The contract is not in their best interest," he says.
Boyles also notes that Tilton's contract is with ElectriCities rather than the two municipal power agencies, which may call into question the contract's validity. Because the assets and liabilities are the responsibility of the agencies, the contract "may not be worth the paper it's written on," Boyles says.
But ElectriCities' board may see the incentive plan as a way to protect the individual cities' distribution systems, including jobs of meter readers and others, says a study commission member, who asked to remain anonymous.
What to do with those systems is one of the toughest political issues in the controversy.
If ElectriCities' members held on to their distribution assets, they would have the money to pay Tilton.
But the cities would probably again have to borrow funds to stay in business, some observers says.
The contract throws a new dynamic into the difficult issue, says Norma Mills, legal counsel to Marc Basnight, president pro tempore of the state senate.
"Everyone on this committee has worked so hard thus far and I hope that these incentives don't compromise Tilton's agenda in acting in the best interest of the industry and citizens he represents," she says.
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Anonymous
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I remember this little ditty as well ... courtesy of the News and Observer Archives and Pat Stith stealth reporting in 2001
ElectriCities of North Carolina sent 16 board members and executives -
and 15 of their spouses - to a Marriott hotel in Orlando in June 2000
for a three-day conference of the American Public Power Association.
The trip cost ElectriCities $43,889.
Board chairman John T. Walser Jr. defended ElectriCities' long-standing
practice of paying for spouses to attend the conference, saying some
board members wouldn't go otherwise.
"This is a capitalist operation," he said. "If you're gonna play in the
enterprise game, you gotta act like an enterprise. You've gotta be able
to play like Duke and CP&L."
For all its capitalist ambitions, however, ElectriCities is a
government agency - and a financially troubled one at that. The debts
of the municipal power agencies it represents far exceed their assets.
But at times ElectriCities acts like a profitable private company.
The board of directors spends freely on travel, meets often behind
closed doors and pays its members generously. And when ElectriCities
needed someone to handle a half-million-dollar advertising contract, it
hired a firm headed by the husband of one of its top executives.
Five or six years ago, ElectriCities' board meetings were almost always
open to the public.
But when the organization began looking for a way to shift billions of
dollars of debt to customers of Duke Power and CP&L, the board started
meeting more frequently in closed sessions.
Now it goes into executive session so often - several times per meeting
is typical - that the board has adopted a policy of starting each
meeting with an executive session.
Board members who are not directly employed by one of the electric
cities receive $500 a meeting for up to two meetings a month.
By comparison, members of the State Board of Transportation, which
oversees the state's road-building program, get $15 a day.
Longtime board member William H. Batchelor said the $500-per-meeting
payment is a pittance, considering all the hours he works.
"This is a public entity," Batchelor said. "But it's unlike any other
government board you're gonna find anywhere. In the magnitude of what
they manage in terms of the investments, the revenues and the staff."
Franz F. Holscher, another board member and a former chairman, said the
$500 payments help assure attendance.
"We used to have to fight to get a quorum," Holscher said. Now, he
said, attendance is 100 percent at just about every meeting.
###
Hiring a husband:
Top officials at ElectriCities do not agree on how the organization
hired Mike Davis Public Relations Inc. to run a series of advertising
campaigns costing $496,842 in 1999 and 2000. Mike Davis, president of
the firm, is the husband of Alice D. Garland, director of public
affairs at ElectriCities.
Garland said her division hired her husband's firm.
"Well, actually, I mean, to be technical, Maureen Shields hired Mike
Davis PR, but Maureen worked for me so, yeah, my division hired Mike
Davis PR," said Garland, who is paid $127,957 a year by ElectriCities.
"I just have always just been very aware that there would be folks who
would view having my company, my husband's company, working for us as
being a conflict of interest."
But she added, "I absolutely believe he was hired because he was very
good at what he does and he was absolutely not hired because he's any
relationship."
ElectriCities CEO Jesse C. Tilton III gave conflicting explanations on
how Davis was hired.
When asked if he saw anything wrong with Garland's division giving the
contract to Davis, he replied: "No, because she didn't award it. Her
division did not award it. That was a board decision. ... I have a
crystal clear recollection."
After Tilton was unable to produce minutes showing when the board voted
to award the contract to Davis or any discussion about hiring the firm,
he offered a new explanation.
In a memo to The News & Observer, Tilton said the board approved the
"concept of the campaign" in a closed meeting on June 10, 1999.
"They were not asked to approve engaging Mike Davis PR because that
consulting firm was already engaged by the organization," Tilton said.
Minutes of the June 10 executive session say nothing about spending a
half-million dollars on an image advertising contract.
ElectriCities also hired a company and directed it to hire Davis to
give his wife public relations advice.
Garland said ElectriCities hired McCorkle Policy Consulting of Durham,
and McCorkle hired Garland's husband. That arrangement was approved by
the board of directors, according to the minutes of a meeting on Jan.
22, 1999.
"We actually had McCorkle engage Mike, basically, so that I hadn't
engaged Mike," Garland said.
Garland said ElectriCities paid McCorkle $122,000 in 1999 and 2000. Of
that amount, she said, McCorkle paid $26,000 to her husband.
She said she talked with the McCorkle team every week or two about how
to handle legislators and how that was going to play in the press.
"When we're talking about, you know, tweaking our position, or changing
our position, you know, they are saying, don't do that, or if you do
it, say it like this," Garland said. "And they're constantly gauging
how we're doing within political circles and telling us what we ought
to be doing. Mike Davis was in on all those calls."
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Anonymous
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Old Sayings
Never get in a pissing contest with a person who buys ink by the barrel. Never get in a pissin contest with a skunk.
Anglico on BlueNC has added one worth mentioning
"Never get in a pissing contest with a bunch of bloggers who have nothing to lose."
One crackpot elected official from an electric city told one of our members
"I don't respond to unsigned messages" when the messenger's name was on his email. Now we will blog him to smitherins in his city with his own words coming right back at him. And we wonder why we are in the state we are in when we elect people like that.
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