City Pays Big Bucks To Be Left In The Dark
The City of Charlotte is plugged into a contract that requires paying hundreds of thousands of dollars a year for streetlights that don’t work, leaving taxpayers zapped with a high-voltage shock to the pocketbook.
On any given week up to 10 percent of the city’s 80,000 streetlights are inoperable, usually the result of something as simple as a burned-out bulb. Under a long-standing agreement with Duke Energy, which installs, maintains, and provides power for Charlotte’s public streetlights, the city is responsible for paying a monthly charge of $9.90 per light, whether it works or not. That tallies up a monthly bill of about $80,000 for streetlights that don’t. Paid out over a whole year, it totals nearly a million dollars for the privilege of being kept in the dark.
“I’m going to blow,” said Councilmember Andy Dulin, after learning details of the Duke contract at Monday’s council meeting during an agenda item that called for spending $258,000 to install 31 pedestrian lights (low-level fixtures that supplement taller streetlights) and eight streetlights along Kenilworth Avenue.
“We have been paying, for what might now be years and years and years, $9.90 a month for streetlights that don’t work,” Dulin said. “On my walk this morning, I passed at least 10.
“This has got to be fixed – quick,” he said. “This is nuts.”
And there was more craziness to come. As part of the city’s contract with Duke Energy, the monthly per-light charge covers the installation of new streetlights that are attached to wooden poles. But everybody knows Charlotte can’t have plain wooden poles marring the city’s world-class skyline. So in the case of Kenilworth Avenue, which winds into parts of uptown’s Metropolitan mixed-use development, taxpayers will be stuck with what city staff called a “one-time decorative upfit” of $6,500 per fixture for more style-conscious streetlights that better compliment the ones already in place.
That struck a sour note with Councilmember Michael Barnes.
“So a standard pole is ten bucks and a decorative pole is $6,500?” he asked incredulously. “We spend $6,500 on decorative streetlights?”
Short answer: yes.
In that, um, light, Barnes seconded a motion that Dulin had made to defer approving the streetlight contract until council could get additional information on why taxpayers are shelling out copious amounts of cash every year for streetlights that don’t work.
“I don’t have any problem paying Duke Energy for the power poles and the lights that work. They help keep neighborhoods safe,” Dulin said. “I have a big problem paying them for lights that don’t work.”
But the city doesn’t have a choice under the current contract, according to Phil Reiger, assistant director of Charlotte Department of Transportation. The streetlights are not metered, he said; the city pays a flat tariff rate that is approved by the N.C. Utilities Commission.
“We certainly empathize with your perspective, Mr. Dulin,” Reiger said. “We want those streetlights, too. We don’t want to be paying for things that are off. But you can appreciate that 80,000 lights is a lot of lights and it requires a community to keep them on.”
Reiger said a process is currently in place where citizens can use the city’s 311 call-center to report inoperable streetlights, which in turn are tagged and reported to Duke Energy for service. It’s harder to report some outages, Reiger said, because Duke requires a specific address for each light, making it particularly difficult to identify ones located along busy thoroughfares.
Dulin countered that Duke Energy, with its vast resources, should be able to develop a technology that allows the power titan to identify which streetlights are in need of service. But, Dulin opined, “there’s no incentive for them to use that technology if their customers aren’t going to speak up and say, ‘We’re not paying you for the lights that don’t work.’
“This council needs to speak up and say, ‘Duke Energy, you’re a great corporate citizen, and we love you, except we do not want to pay you for the lights that don’t work,’” Dulin said.
Instead, with Dulin and Barnes in dissent, the council voted to approve the $258,451 streetlight contract for Kenilworth Avenue.
“It’s the way we do business, and it’s the cost of doing business,” Councilmember Warren Turner said, explaining his vote to move forward despite the city’s ongoing practice of shelling out nearly a million dollars a year for streetlights that don’t work.
“Do like I do in my neighborhood,” Turner said. “Be a good citizen, call it in, put a yellow tape around it and Duke Energy will come out and replace the bulb.”
Councilmember Patrick Cannon offered similar advice for the taxpaying public.
“Residents, if you see something out, dial 311. It’s as simple as that,” Cannon said. “Just put it in the queue, that’s all you have to do.”
Cannon’s propensity to turn a catchy phrase, even a million-dollar a year one, found favor with Mayor Anthony Foxx.
“I like that, man,” the mayor grinned. “‘Put it in the queue, that’s all you have to do.’ That’s good.”
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