Tag: Jerry Collins

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News The Fly-By

Illumination Altercation

The battle to have streetlight fees reduced for homeowners isn’t going the way some Memphis City Council members thought it would.

The council wants monthly fees lowered from the current $4.32 per household per month, but it looks like those will remain the same for now. The fees are tacked onto the utility bills of Memphis Light, Gas, and Water customers.

Last week, members of the council’s MLGW committee passed a resolution that would have consolidated residential customers’ streetlight fees with that of apartment dwellers, meaning both would pay $3.17 each month. However, the MLGW board of directors rejected the proposal.

“I felt like I got hit in the stomach when I heard the decision,” said Councilman Lee Harris. “We’ve been working on trying to get a fair system for streetlight fees, so it’ll be as low as possible for as many Memphians. We sent that fee structure over to MLGW, and they rejected it.”

Last Thursday, the MLGW board approved a resolution that maintains the current fees being paid by both single-family homes ($4.32) and apartment dwellers ($1.08) but equalizes a fee for all commercial establishments.

Small commercial customers currently pay $6.48 each month and large commercial customers pay $19.07 per month for each individual billboard they operate. The new fee, if passed by the city council, would require all commercial establishments to pay $8.65 monthly instead.

The number would provide some relief to larger commercial businesses, but smaller businesses, such as the Memphis branch of outdoor advertising company CBS Outdoor, would see its current fees increase. Dave Hogue, real estate manager for CBS Outdoor, said the company currently pays more than $600 monthly in streetlight fees. He said their billboards have their own lights, so they don’t utilize the streetlights.

“If it’s done, it should be done equitably and fairly to all citizens,” Hogue said. “It’s unfortunate that something like that can be passed without looking at the impact is has on individual businesses before it’s done.”

Controversy began to surround streetlight fees after some residents in private developments, areas that pay fees to homeowner associations for amenities and services such as streetlights, complained about making additional payments to MLGW for the city’s streetlight fees. Some residents in private developments don’t even have streetlights in their neighborhoods.

George Kessler resides in the city’s newly annexed South Cordova area. He thinks people living in private developments should be exempt from paying streetlight servicing fees.

“We live in a little, private community where we maintain our own streetlights as far as maintenance and the cost of electricity, so I don’t think it’s fair what Memphis and MLGW have done,” Kessler said. “The fees should be eliminated.”

Initially, streetlight fees were included in property taxes. However, an ordinance was passed that altered the way streetlight billing would work. Fees are now incorporated into utility bills. The fees raise approximately $12.9 million annually. Half of that money is used to pay for electricity usage of the streetlights and the other half is used to maintain them.

MLGW President Jerry Collins Jr. said now that people are aware that some of their money goes to servicing streetlights, some have decided to voice their opposition to the fees.

“When streetlight fees were paid for by the property taxes, it was out of sight, out of mind. No one paid any attention to it,” Collins said. “The difference is, now it’s an item on your utility bill that says ‘streetlight fee,’ which calls attention to the fact that streetlights cost money to maintain.”

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News The Fly-By

Meter Management

Despite having paid their utility bills, some local residents have still had their water cut off thanks to bills for master water meters at their apartments or condos not being paid by homeowner associations and property managers.

In an effort to end this practice, Memphis City Councilman Myron Lowery has proposed an ordinance that, if passed, would require individual water meters to be installed in all newly constructed apartments and condominiums. 

Lowery was inspired to create the ordinance after the tenants of Garden Walk Condominiums in Raleigh were forced to evacuate their homes due to the homeowner association failing to pay the property’s $30,000 water bill.

“Some people lost everything,” Lowery said. “If they owned their condominium, they lost it, because people were not allowed to move back in. People broke into the apartments, stole the copper wiring, folks’ clothes, all because the water bill wasn’t paid. My ordinance would require that any new construction would have individual water meters, so that this will never happen again.”

Tenants of apartment complexes and condos with master water meters typically have their monthly water usage combined with other tenants’ usage and allocated into their monthly rent.

Memphis Light, Gas and Water President Jerry Collins said about two-thirds of all apartment complexes in the city have master meters. Collins supports Lowery’s proposal, and he said certain apartment complexes are already installing individual water meters at newly built residences.

“Since we have apartments that are now putting in individual water meters voluntarily rather than using master meters, obviously this [ordinance] is not a terrible burden on the developer of the apartments or the condominiums,” Collins said. “It certainly has advantages for everybody. This really puts everybody in control of their own destiny rather than large numbers of tenants being dependent on a landlord to pay the water bill.”

Collins said there are several existing properties that operate on master meters, and the tenants pay extensive water bills. Collins said this is because the complexes are suffering from water leaks. Instead of the landlord or homeowner association having the leaks repaired, they take the total amount of the water bill, including the leaks, and distribute them among the tenants.

“I know of one case where I’ve been told that the landlord charges the tenants $150 a month for water when they probably use about $15 or $20 worth of water,” Collins said. “The difference between $20 and $150 is those renters paying for the common-area water leaks that are the responsibility of the landlord, not the tenant.”

Lowery’s proposed ordinance would provide new tenants with the security of paying their own water bills, but it won’t impact people who currently reside in areas that operate on master meters. Lowery is seeking ideas from the public on how residents at those apartment complexes and condos can avoid having their water cut off or paying hefty water bills.

The ordinance must go through three readings by the city council before it can be approved, and Lowery said he’s confident that the proposal will be passed.

“What reason would any council member have to vote against this?,” Lowery inquired. “Why would they not want to protect individual citizens from being foreclosed on or losing their property, because they’re not paying their water bills? I can’t see any reason to vote against this.”

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News The Fly-By

Q&A: Jerry Collins

Willie W. Herenton kicked off his fifth term as mayor with a surprise, announcing his decision to forego a national search for a new Memphis Light, Gas, and Water division president and to nominate interim MLGW head and director of public works Jerry Collins instead. The City Council approved Collins, 53, a longtime city employee, November 6th.

Collins was born and raised in Memphis, graduating from White Station High School and the University of Memphis. An engineer by training, Collins began his service to the city 28 years ago.

At the time, the city’s “two wastewater treatment plants were fairly new,” Collins says, “but on many days, the effluent leaving the plants was dirtier than the influent coming into the plants. EPA was having a fit. They threatened to put Mayor Wyeth Chandler in jail.” Public works hired the then-25-year-old Collins to run the facilities.

— Preston Lauterbach

Flyer: Do you see similarities between your start at public works and at mlgw?

Jerry Collins: The public perception [of the utility company] may not be what we want it to be. Finishing last or next to last in the J.D. Power [2007 electric utility residential customer satisfaction] poll is not good. In a sense, there may be a parallel.

How do you restore public confidence in MLGW?

We have to take care of problems on the first call. We have to make sure that MLGW is not the subject of headlines and TV news pieces. We’re preaching that we want to be dull and boring. If we’re doing what we’re supposed to be doing, there’s no reason that MLGW should be in the limelight.

What have you learned in going from public works to MLGW?

It’s more similar than you might think. The same factors that affect wastewater rates affect electric rates, gas rates, and water rates. … They’re all basic public services that rely on a web of in-place infrastructure and charge a dedicated fee for those services.

What lessons can you take from your predecessors?

We want to enlarge our role in the community, and build our relationship with the union that represents MLGW employees, which Joseph Lee did. Cost control was important during Herman Morris’ tenure, and cost control is something I value at public works and will continue to value at MLGW.

Will you maintain a VIP list?

There is no list. I have no intention for there to be a list. Every customer is of equal value to MLGW.

One last thing: knowing what you know, would you purchase gas or electric appliances for your home?

I would probably purchase electric. It’s more likely that, long-term, the price of gas will escalate faster than the price of electricity.