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.
Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/1368157
4 UCW MAY 5-11, 2021 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM STAFF PUBLISHER Bill Bowman Bill@upandcomingweekly.com OPERATIONS DIRECTOR Paulette Naylor accounting@upandcomingweekly.com EDITOR April Olsen editor@upandcomingweekly.com GRAPHIC DESIGNER Dylan Hooker art@upandcomingweekly.com EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Keyuri Parab REPORTER Jeff Thompson news@upandcomingweekly.com MARKETING ASSOCIATE Linda McAlister Brown linda@upandcomingweekly.com DISTRIBUTION MANAGER/SALES ADMINISTRATOR Laurel Handforth laurel@upandcomingweekly.com CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Margaret Dickson, Pitt Dickey, D.G. Martin, John Hood, Jim Jones, Shanessa Fenner, Crissy Neville COVER Cover imagery courtesy Gates Four Summer Concert Series. ––––––––––– Up & Coming Weekly www.upandcomingweekly.com 208 Rowan St. P.O. Box 53461 Fayetteville, NC 28305 PHONE: 910-484-6200- FAX: 910-484-9218 Up & Coming Weekly is a "Quality of Life" publication with local features, news and information on what's happening in and around the Fayetteville/Cumberland County community. Up & Coming Weekly is published weekly on Wednesdays. Up & Coming Weekly welcomes manuscripts, photographs and artwork for publication consideration, but assumes no responsibility for them. We cannot accept responsibility for the return of unsolicited manuscripts or material. Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher. The publisher reserves the right to edit or reject copy submitted for publication. Up & Coming Weekly is free of charge and distributed at indoor and outdoor locations throughout Fayetteville, Fort Bragg, Pope Air Force Base, Hope Mills and Spring Lake. Readers are limited to one copy per person. © 2020 by F&B Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction or use of editorial or advertisements without permission is strictly prohibited. Various ads with art graphics designed with elements from: vecteezy.com and freepik.com. PUBLISHER'S PEN Show us the details, Fayetteville by TED MOHN 82 64 82 83 79 82 63 64 83 66 64 65 THU MAY 06 FRI MAY 07 SAT MAY 08 SUN MAY 09 MON MAY 10 TUE MAY 11 75 52 75 49 79 58 88 67 91 66 87 64 Mostly Sunny Mostly Sunny Mostly Sunny Partly Cloudy Partly Cloudy Partly Cloudy Association of Community Publishers Note from Publisher Bill Bowman: I am yielding my space this week to Fayetteville resident, PWC ratepayer, and former District 8 Fayetteville City Councilman Ted Mohn. He is known for his laid-back common-sense management style, keen insights into complex city issues, and his razor-sharp analysis of what constitutes fiscal responsibility and good mu- nicipal business practices. Below he raises 13 pertinent questions about the proposal made to our city by Bernhard Capital to manage our Hometown Utility. ese questions need to be answered before any further consideration is given to this proposal. Fayetteville PWC is correct to request being released from the non-disclosure agreement with Bernhard Capital LLC. Citizens of Fayetteville and FAYPWC rate- payers deserve answers on this proposal. Fayetteville City Council should join our FAYPWC in being released from the NDA. Our Hometown Utility belongs to us and we deserve answers in a reasonably timely manner. In June 2019, I attended a meeting at City Hall along with Mayor Mitch Colvin, Councilmember Tisha Waddell, FAYPWC Commissioner Darsweil Rogers, select Fayetteville senior staff and members from Bernhard Capital. Bernhard provided us a handout with background company information and the basic concept of how such an agreement might work. No specific financials were ever discussed. Everyone agreed much due diligence was needed for any further discussion for an initial financial proposal of this magni- tude. June 2019 was the last time I heard of Bernhard's idea until I noticed a closed joint-meeting between City Council, our FAYPWC Commission, Bernhard mem- bers and select city and FAYPWC senior staff. at meeting occurred on December 1, 2020, at Fayetteville State University. I thought it was odd at first but then I realized the extra space was most likely needed because of COVID-19 and social distancing requirements. Fayetteville taxpayers and FAYPWC rate- payers outside city limits deserve details of the Bernhard proposal. Below are some of my simple questions: 1. How much actual cash will the city be provided upfront from Bernhard? 2. Is Bernhard going to pay-off all cur- rent city debt in addition to the upfront cash? 3. Who will set the FAYPWC customer electric, water and sewer rates? 4. Who will negotiate with Duke Energy for long-term bulk electric rate purchases in the future? 5. Will Bernhard pay actual prop- erty taxes versus how FAYPWC now pays Fayetteville money from their electric fund as payments in leu of taxes (PIT) as speci- fied in the City/FAYPWC charter? 6. Will the potential new annual prop- erty tax payments from Bernhard be greater each year than the PIT money currently paid by FAYPWC to the city per the charter? 7. Will Bernhard actually build a satellite headquarters in Fayetteville and bring 200+ jobs like they told Lafayette, Louisi- ana, they were considering back in 2018 and never did? 8. Bernhard says they make their invest- ment back by being more efficient in run- ning business. During their due diligence what aspects of running FAYPWC will they make more efficient to save money which would go back to their investors? 9. Fayetteville PWC is a not-for-profit utility. Will the NC General Assembly have to update the charter to allow FAYPWC profits to be turned over to Bernhard and their investors? 10. Fayetteville PWC currently takes what could be considered profit and turns around and uses that money for infrastruc- ture upgrades, extensions and improve- ments. Will Bernhard take that money to repay their investors or will they continue to invest in infrastructure upgrades and replacements? 11. Will Bernhard want some type of revenue sharing agreement where they automatically get "x%" of the initial an- nual revenue from the electric, water and wastewater fund regardless of projected/ planned infrastructure needed upgrades identified by the FAYPWC? 12. Who will have regulatory oversight of Bernhard's management of our FAYPWC's electric, water and wastewater depart- ments and funds? 13. How many years does this proposal last and what happens at the end of this proposal to the city, FAYPWC ratepayers and Bernhard investors? Many questions still need to be an- swered and I've only scratched the surface. If Bernhard has done their due diligence to make this a win-win for the city of Fayetteville, FAYPWC ratepayers and their investors, I'd like to see their amortiza- tion tables on who is held harmless, who makes out and who gets the short end of the stick. I need to see these projections from Bernhard broken down by each util- ity fund to better understand what is being proposed and projected. I also want to see projections from our FAYPWC senior staff and whomever the city of Fayetteville might have hired to review all of this. Residents and FAYPWC ratepayers deserve transparency on this proposal and we need it before our City Council and FAYPWC Commissioners take public votes on the Bernhard proposal. TED MOHN, Former Fayetteville City Councilman, COMMENTS? BILL@upandcomingweekly.com. 910-484-6200.