Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Picayunish - with Ricky Ragsdale, Publisher

Can you keep your utilities turned on after not paying your bill for several months? I'm not sure, but you can certainly ask. You may have certain political pull that will keep your services on for several months without having to pay on your bill. You may attend the right church. You could smile just that certain way. You could have an honest face. You could . . . well I'm not sure what you could do to keep from having services cut off, except to pay your bill.

Exactly what criteria exists for deciding who can keep their services turned on and which residents or businesses will have services turned off has not been clearly defined by city officials over the past few weeks as the Nevada County Picayune looks at the records of the city-owned utility company. When the records provided us were examined, after a freedom of information (FOI) request, it appears that specific criteria does not exist and nobody can clearly answer why. In fact just who is responsible for making a decision of leaving on and/or turning off services has been answered several different ways.

If no set of established, in-writing, firmly adhered to, council-adopted rules and regulations exist which establish specific policy on the taxpayer supported and owned utility company, they should.

No business operates successfully without a policy on past due customers. My business does not, the banks do not, the gas stations do not, the grocery store does not and neither should our utility company.

We encourage the Prescott City Council to work closely with Mayor Taylor, Manager Larry Stockton and city attorney Glenn Vasser to draw up an ordinance firmly establishing rules for keeping utilities turned on and for turning them off. Then when this is completed, follow them.

We do not have a bug up our backside about Prescott Water and Light. We don't have a vendetta against the city of Prescott. We don't harbor any ill feelings toward anybody sitting on the council or anybody employed by the city. We don't want to embarrass anybody who is current or past due on their accounts. We do realize the public has the right to know and this newspaper has failed to inform the public for several years concerning how much has been written off by the city on past due accounts.

A one-time look into past due accounts was not planned. A monthly look into past due accounts will be done. I have the right to know as a taxpayer. You have the right to know. Now you will know.