Up & Coming Weekly

March 20, 2018

Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.

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8 UCW MARCH 21-27, 2018 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM A n audit by TR P CPAs of Fayettev ille has found no indicat ion of double billing or a pattern of systemat ic overbilling by t he Fayettev ille Public Works Commission. TR P was asked in Janu- ar y by PWC to conduct an audit of A IT billing af ter A IT's chairman, Clarence Briggs, publicly accused PWC of double billing A IT. "The Com- mission was conf ident t hat t he TR P audit of t he A IT billing would conf irm fair billing for t his ac- count," said PWC Commission Chairman Wade Fowler. "We believe t hat TR P's repor t validates t hat PWC's informat ion was accurate and t he A IT claims were unfounded." Briggs disagrees, claiming t hat TRP "is not qualif ied to conduct utilit y auditing." AIT had a unique electricit y metering system t hat was requested by t he company in 2000. Because of t he arrangement, AIT's bills were prepared manually. Mont hly metering and billing data was collected and calculated for t he 10-year period from Januar y 2007 to November 2017, PWC said in a statement. TRP found several minor clerical errors that had been previously disclosed and credited to AIT. e errors occurred over 100 months of billing and totaled less than $150. TRP certified public accountant Jason Poole found there was no double billing or overbilling. Briggs explained that the unique metering system he once used included electric meters on each floor of his three-stor y building. And, he said, there was a fourth main meter. He claims that until it was brought to PWC's attention, all four meter readings were added up together when actually the total of the three separate meters should have equaled the total of the main meter. Briggs said as evidence of over billing, AIT's daily electricit y usage has declined from 6,000 to 3,000 kilowatt hours. Briggs has engaged an audit of his own. "I believe it is important to ... address AIT's public claims, including one that an independent auditor could not conduct an unbiased investigation," PWC general manager David Trego said. "is has no merit because a certified public accountant takes an oath to disclose the truth and can lose their license if they do not," he added. Trego explained that as a public authority, PWC answers to the U.S. Department of Energy and that customers interested in PWC's annual reports will be provided a link to them. City Attorney cites state law in dispute with mayor Rarely, if ever, in her 17 years has Fayetteville City Attorney Karen McDonald had her under- standing of municipal law questioned. Earlier this month, freshman Mayor Mitch Col- vin convinced cit y council, during an open meet- ing, that McDonald had not followed proper pro- cedure when awarding contracts to Fayetteville law yers Billy Richardson and Terr y Hutchens. Both attorneys had volunteered to represent the cit y at no cost in a nationwide lawsuit against opioid distributors. McDonald cited to Up & Coming Weekly that UNC-Chapel Hill School of Government guide- lines for cities states contracts for professional services, such as those with consultants, attorneys and auditors, fall outside the scope of competitive bidding statutes. Colvin "convinced cit y council to rescind a law- fully executed contract," Richardson said in an opinion piece in last week's Up & Coming Weekly. Old Street trash barrels gone It's been three months since downtown busi- ness owners and the cit y of Fayetteville got rid of the dozen or so garbage cans behind the Blue Moon Café. e trash cans obstructed sidewalk pedestrian traffic in violation of two cit y ordi- nances for years. ey remained on the sidewalk because "there was no apparent, viable solution to the problem," said Sam Dubose, general manager of the Cool Spring Downtown District. Officials identified the Arts Council across Hay Street as the best place to install a couple dump- sters. e cit y had a so-called trash corral built at a corner of the Arts Council's rear parking lot, and CSDD contracted with Waste Management for the installation of two dumpsters. "CSDD had assumed responsibilit y for the dumpsters," said Dubose. Now business own- ers walk across the street, roll the garbage carts around the corner, fill them up, and roll them back to the dumpster site. It took officials a year to figure it all out, but now the roll out carts no longer clutter Old Street. PWC adopts new electric rates Fayetteville's hometown utility buys most of the electricity it distributes from Duke Energy. And now, increased costs of doing business with Duke are partially to blame for a PWC residential rate hike. PWC electricity costs for the next two years will cover Duke increases over which Public Works has little authority. "Ninety percent of the increase … goes directly to our power supply costs from Duke, and those costs are projected to increase nearly $10 million in the next four years," said PWC Chairman Wade Fowler. PWC had to add a coal ash fee to customer bills because the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission allows Duke to recover the cost of cleaning up the multi-billion-dollar environmental disaster it caused when coal ash was dumped into the Dan River. PWC's portion of Duke Energy's $2 billion clean- up expense is estimated to be $60-$70 million. PWC is using reserve accounts to pay most of the money needed along with a $2 monthly charge for PWC residential customers, which will be collected through 2024. "PWC strives to provide safe and reliable services and maintain reasonable, competitive rates," said PWC CEO and general manager David Trego. e new rates and the coal ash fee will begin May 1, 2018. Audit clears PWC of double billing by JEFF THOMPSON NEWS DIGEST JEFF THOMPSON, Senior News Reporter. COMMENTS? news@upandcomingweekly. com. 910-484-6200. Fayetteville City Attorney Karen McDonald

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