Column for July 17, 2008

Three items that made me go "Hhhhhmmmmmmm"

As scant as the news has been here in Selma the past month or so, I still find things over which to muse right here in this very newspaper. In reading the July 10th edition, I found three stories that made me go, "Hhhhhmmmmmmm." Maybe I am just one who ponders the great mysteries of life as well as employs critical thinking. Maybe I am just a bit pessimistic. Either way, I am able to find fodder for my column.

I had originally planned to be in another town with some friends for the 4th of July celebration. Unfortunately, those plans got canceled at almost the last minute, so I came to downtown Selma to enjoy the fireworks with some family members. For a small town, Selma does put on a great fireworks display each Independence Day. I actually consider July 2nd to be Independence Day, since that is when Lee's Resolution was passed calling for said independence, but that is another discussion for another day.

My method of counting must be very different from that of event organizers. It never fails that I see far fewer people at an event than gets reported in the media. Whether it be the .5 Million Man March, a political rally, or a small town fireworks display, the quoted number of people always exceeds what is readily obvious by two to three fold. I believe that in this case, ten fold. Somewhere, the decimal point was moved when it was reported that "approximately 4,000 to 5,000 people attended throughout the evening".

Shifting gears now, I pop the clutch and roll on to our pending increase in our utility bills. I have heard from some of my readers over the past two years (I am now beginning my third year of writing this column) that they are dismayed at the high electricity bills here in Selma. I read previously that we were going to look at approximately a 12% rate increase in our utility bills. We are also getting a trash collection rate hike and a property tax hike.

It is my understanding that Selma, by nature of its association with Electricities, is a wholesale customer of Progress Energy. What that means to us as customers is that we are prone to more capricious fluctuations in the price of electricity than normal Progress Energy (I still catch myself referring to them as CP&L) customers. Retail customers of Progress Energy are protected from wide price fluctuations by the state's regulatory commission. By regulation, wholesale customers are not subject to such wild market price protections. By the time that retail customers have been even notified that the regulatory agency has approved a price hike for them, we who buy our electricity from the town's monopoly have already been socked with the increases. I got this information directly from a former Selma town manager, so I figure that the description here is accurate.

I have no problem with the town using the electrical grid in town to make money provided that there are several things that will come along with the process. First, that we as a town can use the profits derived from the sale of electricity, water, and sewer services to offset property taxation as a regular, ongoing source of revenue. State regulatory agencies have a problem with that concept, so our budget often reflects that we have a deficiency in funding, and hence the tax increase we are getting. This is not the entire reason, I am sure, but it is certainly a contributing factor. What is the sense of making a profit from a venture if you can not use the revenue as you see fit? If we are not able to use the profits to go towards our general fund, then we need to price the utility rates so that we do not have any profit at all.

For that matter, we should ponder selling our electrical system to Progress Energy and let them provide 100% of the service. That will save us the expense of the employees, vehicles, materials, and operational burdens of having such a utility department in house. If we can get the same service from a private company, then we should seriously consider it. If we can sell the entire system to the power company and make a huge profit from the sale, we can roll back some property taxes and perhaps get a lot of other items taken care of that we could not previously afford as a town. Just food for thought.

The last item that tickled my fancy was the list of some 41 items that our illustrious mayor has given as successes and failures. For almost three years, I have simply said, "Where's the list?" We heard constantly that there was a list of things that the then candidate for mayor and later mayor elect had as his goals for Selma. When the Republican Party was in its "hay day" in 1994 and were elected in landslide elections, they came up with the "Contract for America". This was a list of the things they wanted to get accomplished and pledged to work towards. They made this list readily available and we could look over the list and measure results. We have not yet had this privilege as citizens here in Selma with the promised 50 item agenda. Even with this article in the paper, we still do not have this privilege.

There are only 41 items on this list, and many of them are simply a listing of what has been accomplished, not what was on the list from three years ago. Ergo, we can not as citizens measure the results of what we were promised. Some of the items on the list were obviously not on a list of goals, since they came about long after the envisioning of the original list. A couple had nothing to do with the mayor or town council, and a few were in the works before the mayor even took office.

Don't get me wrong, I am all for listing the achievements and progress made in town. I applaud progress in areas in which progress was needed. I am sure that some of the items so enumerated in the newspaper were originally planned as part of the infamous list of 50 that we kept hearing about but were never afforded the opportunity to read. I am all for adding to a list once it has been started. I am saying that in all fairness, since we as citizens were promised progress on an undisclosed list nearly three years ago, perhaps it is time to compare and evaluate. Had the list not been heralded by the mayor, I would not be so critical in my discernment. However, a promise made that is not known as to its content has no way of standing up to scrutiny or measurement. That is the way I look at it. Since the list was again brought up in the newspaper, I find it fair to bring up a demand for a metric and disclosure of said list. That way, we as citizens can say whether or not we were wise in our choice for mayor; that we can say "well done" or "we want more accomplished" and hold elected officials accountable. We citizens are, after all, the ones that are being represented, cast the votes, and the ones who foot the bill for the town.