A word from Joe: My personal thoughts about KUB:

Five or six years ago, I was talking to a friend in one of our neighbor city governments, and he told me that three of them (Maryville, Alcoa and Oak Ridge) had all dissolved their utility boards and merged them into their respective city governments as utility departments. I had grown up in Maryville, and we had always had the Maryville Utility Board (MUB), so it was a bit hard to think of it no longer existing.

I asked my friend (a city manager) what had prompted such an action. He said the reasons were as basic as how they function as a government. They have to have a government that works well across every department and every part of the governmental organization – as seamlessly as possible. By merging the utilities into the primary governmental structure, he explained, they became as accountable as every other part of the city – accountable to the other parts of the governmental “body”, and accountable to the voters through their elected officials.

My friend went on to explain that the merger created a team that didn’t exist before. There wasn’t any of more the “us vs. them” conflict between the utility board and the rest of government. He also pointed out a very important specific benefit of that team approach: When the city is working on an economic development initiative, such as trying to recruit a major employer, the utilities are “at the table” (and sometimes on the table) when those negotiations take place. That wasn’t possible (or even legal, as KUB would argue) when the utility was an independent organization.

If we look at the possibility of doing with KUB what our neighbors have done with their utility boards, it may be challenging from a political standpoint. In fact, the mayor of one of those neighboring towns told me the only time it presented any real difficulty was during the political phase of actually making the merger happen. Not doing something just because it’s challenging politically is never the right reason for refusing to act. We should undertake this effort with a sober and thorough assessment of the long term impacts and benefits. If we do that, the political obstacles are temporary and surmountable.

Looking back at the performance of KUB over the last few decades, there are many reasons to consider this kind of reassessment and potential restructuring. The agency took over the sanitary sewer system from the city government with the understanding that it would be fully responsible for any system improvements that were needed. KUB went for many years pretending the system did not need any major renovations, and bragging on how rates were not increased. During that extended period of time, the system continued to deteriorate, dumping untold millions of gallons of raw sewage into our streams and rivers.

KUB stubbornly refused to address the problem in any meaningful way, fighting any efforts to push the agency in the direction of responsible action. Finally, the US Environmental Protection Agency concluded there was only one way to get the recalcitrant monoply to respond, and they took KUB into federal court. The result was federal court consent agreement (settlement) in which KUB agreed to rehab the system over a decade. That project, named Pace Ten by KUB, is costing the ratepayers hundreds of millions of dollars, undoubtedly far more than if they had addressed the problem much earlier and at a more reasonable pace.

Other examples of KUB’s insularity and insensitivity include the tree trimming program and the water tower in South Knoxville. In the case of the tree pruning program, strong arguments are being made by Larry Silverstein and others that KUB is doing far more damage to trees than is necessary for power outage reduction. It also looks like the wholesale butchering of trees may not be having much of an effect on reducing power outages.

Over the last few months, KUB has had major power outages during storms, with the one in June setting a record for the most outages ever in the KUB system. Over a hundred and twenty thousand customers lost power during that one event, and it in turn combined with another event right on the heels of the first one that resulted in over a hundred and fifty thousand customers being without power.

All of this has happened while KUB has created an atmosphere of insensitivity at best, and arrogance at worst, for many customers. One customer in West Hills had her maple trees dramatically disfigured (“butchered” is the term she used), and fourteen months later a crew returned with no prior notification. This time, they were accompanied by a sheriff’s deputy, who told the lady if she made any attempt to stop them from cutting her trees, he would arrest her and take her to jail. If this were Syria or China, that kind of heavy-handed behavior by a public agency wouldn’t come as a surprise. In Knoxville, it’s unacceptable.

It’s time for Knoxvillians to end monopolistic abuses and put the utilities portion of government in the proper place of accountability that should encompass every part of our city. I’m putting this on the table as the only real action proposal in the current mayoral debate. If you agree, I hope you’ll join me by signing the petition and saying yes to accountable, efficient government.

 

Job Creation will be my top priority!

Goodmorning! I have as my top targeted plan of action, should I have the honor to be elected Mayor, City of Knoxville, JOB CREATION and ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT.

I have been around town, talking to small business owners, and I understand the concern for economic development. I admire the people who have the faith and the ambition to be small business owners. It takes a lot of work and determination to take that ‘risk’.

I will work on helping to bring more resources and support to these small business owners should I be elected.

Visit http://www.joehultquist.com for more about my “The Hultquist Plan” for the exact steps to support and encourage Economic Development.

 

I will be LIVE on Market Square at 12:30 TODAY 8/4 ….

Please watch as I interview small business owners and hear what the community wants!

Visit my official WebTV Broadcasting Channel covering me http://www.TheTotalPackageShow.com Click Watch Live!

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We are passionate about making a change in the City of Knoxville, but we can’t do it without your help. We are the underestimated party in this race, and we want to bring to the City of Knoxville WHAT THE PEOPLE WANT, instead of just a bunch of ‘politics’!

Visit http://www.joehultquist.com to see “The Hultquis” and pass it on… and share and tweet, to your hearts desire!

Thank you so much for the support and WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU… Don’t forget to request ‘The Bus’!

Meeting with my Team

And having a wonderful time talking about the issues and the things that may bring a new quality of life to Knoxville. There are many action steps and a plan to help generate economic growth and job development in the community. This is just one of my issues to see all visit http://www.fortheloveofknoxville.com