Charter revision
As you'll see in the below post (BOE energy meeting), there was a lot discussed at tonight's meeting. But one thing really caught me... if we are to spend tens of millions of dollars on energy improvements, how do we pay for it?
Well, there is one way to pay for much (although not all) of that expense relatively easily. It's called "performance contracting."
What is performance contracting?
Basically, it means that some energy company gives us new, energy-efficient equipment (such as boilers) for free and makes its profit off of the money we save due to the new found efficiency. For example, if our current energy budget is $10 for 10kWh of electricity, and with this new equipment, we spend $6 for 6kWh of electricity, THEN the company makes its operating profit of $1 and pays for its equipment with $2. And the town still saves $1.
OK... that's probably simplistic, but it's something like that.
Anyway, while other towns are taking advantage of this, Cheshire is not. The Town Attorney, John Knott concluded a few years ago that our Charter did not permit such an arrangement.
BUT if we revise the Charter, we may be able to have such an arrangement and avoid asking the voters for millions of dollars. In turn, we could conserve electricity, protect the environment, make a small dent in our consumption of Mideast oil, etc.
A Charter revision may be worthwhile for this reason alone.
Tim White
Town Council, Energy Commission liaison
p.s. Or our new Town Attorney, Dwight Johnson, may have a different opinion than John Knott. And that may make this all a lot simpler!
9 comments:
Tim..I hope that wasnt a shot at Matt Hall....i think he does a good job of moving the meetings along. You do need a govt where people who have everyday needs have time to take care of them.
No. Definitely not. Family first. That was just poor wording on my part. I apologize.
I appreciate whatever time anyone gives to the town, particularly Matt because he does have little ones who need a lot of time.
Tim White
9:58... that was completely unintentional, so I just deleted it.
TW
btw, thanks for asking.
TW
Do it NOW!!!!
I'd be fine with doing a charter revision. I've already called the town atty to see if we can do performance contracting without a charter revision.
and a couple relevant, if random, comments...
I think you need six (of nine) votes to revise the Charter and a revision can take up to two years.
We need to do this now. ASAP!
Chater revision is a good thing. The first issue that requires change is the ability to hire professional services without bid. We continue to hire the same engineering firms, same architects same contractors to fix the daily broken stuff. Competitive bid is the way to go. Too many firms have become entrenched and comfortable as regular contractos and suppliers of goods and services to the Town and BOE.
9:12... VERY good point.
Metcalfe and Eddy (sp??) may do a great job. But I'd like to see the WPCA put their jobs out to bid before simply giving them to M&E. I'm pretty sure those contracts rarely go out to bid and that's a problem.
The thing is that our sewers are fairly complex. So it stands to reason to go with someone who knows the system... others may have to spend hours researching something that could be answered by M&E in less than five minutes.
But after years (if not decades) of seeming to give everything to M&E, we should bid some of that stuff.
M&E may very well win all the bids. I don't know. But we should at least test the water.
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