Port Angeles' Problems with Smart Meters (cont'd)
Last night the Port Angeles City Council heard a 2-hour assessment of the problems with the smart meter rollout. The City has a dispute with Meuller Systems, the contractor hired to install the smart meters.
The City hired West Monroe Partners a few months ago to study the problems associated with Meuller Systems' installation. The report by West Monroe Partners said that, with changes, the smart meter rollout could still be completed; possibly with additional expenses involved.
The City hired West Monroe Partners a few months ago to study the problems associated with Meuller Systems' installation. The report by West Monroe Partners said that, with changes, the smart meter rollout could still be completed; possibly with additional expenses involved.
posted by Tom Harper at 8:25 PM
46 Comments:
Now that Max is gone...The only sensible grownup has left the building...Sigh...
Garnish Glenn Cutler's retirement checks to help pay for competent attorneys to sue Mueller systems and get the $1.6 million back.
The city hired West Monroe Partners last fall to study the Meuller Systems' effort to bring the advanced metering program to Port Angeles.
The dolts running this place want to be advanced but they should not have tried an advanced system without letting other cities work it out first to prove it was cost effective and efficient and worthy.
But I suspect they will keep shoving more of your money at it.
That is all, carry on…
Godfuckingdamnit…
Sorry, money gone, you get no money back.
You folks need to learn how to lay back and enjoy it.
So many unanimous votes now that Max Mania is gone. There is no one left to actually speak for the people. Even Sissi is a failure in this respect. Port Angeles is screwed, and then some.
Has somebody done a financial analysis of whether the utility budget is taking a beating because the city lacks the ability to charge customers according to the time of use? If the city is able to pay BPA for wholesale power purchases and still break-even using the old-style electric meters, then why strain to install highly sophisticated and controversial meters that we don't need?
No one should doubt that the city will continue with installing these so-called Smart Meters. Just like every other project the City forces down residents pocket books, this one will cost more than people were told, but there is nothing the public is not interested in what their constituents have to say.
Except at election time, when we all hear how much they care, and all the things THEY are going to do to make our lives better. If ONLY we'll vote for them.
So, where is the accountability? Is ANYHING going to happen to all those that told the public and council to go with this consultant? Or, as usual, they just go on, and get new contracts, and ever increasing bonuses.
Ooops. Sorry for the typos. Phone rang while I was writing, and I didn't catch the missing parts. It should have said:
"Just like every other project the City forces down residents pocket books, this one will cost more than people were told, but there is nothing the public *can do about it, because the City Council* is not interested in what their constituents have to say."
The smart meter system will keep sending you bills after humanity is history. har har har...
Win or lose, Port Angeles will always lose. It's a place that has absolutely perfected fuckedupness.
And yes, as pointed out here by others, it's all paid for by the "lucky" residents of Port Angeles.
Enjoy those inflated and unsustainable utility bills, suckers!
If Max were mayor he'd just cut this off now (like he had been advocating doing a year ago) and stop the financial bleeding. But mayors Kidd and DiGuilio will just continue to do whatever staff tells them to. Hell, the entire council now will do what staff tells them to...No dissent, no alternatives, and no end in sight for the disasters.
You know one of the selling points for the Smart Meters is that you can monitor your energy use, and change when you do laundry, heat your house, etc. to times during the day when electricity rates are cheaper.
Sounds great, right? But who really is going to get up a 3 am to do their laundry? Who is going to turn off the heat to their houses during "peak usage times", which in reality translates to when people get home from work, and are actually using their homes!
By "agreeing" to this concept, we all are actually saying " We agree to charging us the most for the electricity we actually need, and we agree you can charge us less during the times we don't actually need it."
Fantastic deal. Right?
And, since the City gets BPA electricity for a flat rate, who do you suppose is making out on this deal? You?
Enjoy those inflated and unsustainable utility bills, suckers!
That is why others and I will fight them when they try to annex us in the city again. We don't want those idiots out here on the east side having any control over us.
What a win/win/win for the local teabagger obstructionists! All this, to get rid of one meter reader job? That's sarcasm, but think about it. No big workload, no big ghetto to avoid here. What a clusterfuck.
Not to mention how shit like this, from CONCEPTION to EXECUTION, fucks up people minds, like putting FL in the H20, creating a smokescreen and occupying the time and further FUCKING UP the minds of the tin foil hat crowd. Otherwise useful and generally nice people, that we might lose forever!
Anyone see Maddow do the update on the teabaggers on youtube who are freaking out because snow in certain teabagger enclaves that shall remain nameless (the south) doesn't "melt", or "drip" when a match or similar device is held to a snowball? Must be the gubment! What's that black mark on the snowball? THE SHROUD OF OBAMA!!!!
Speaking of teabagger obstructionists, and the haters and tin foil hat folks that vote for them, Chris Christie's approval rating among hardcore republicans, or the "core voters" has gone UP ten percent, in the past few weeks.
If it's true that there isn't an openly progressive person in politics locally, and we were hoodwinked and blinded by a well groomed butt crack - GOOD. If they held a certain position, the teabaggers would gang up, and do the opposite. Ya think?
A lot of the city's discussion about "Smart" electric meters revolves around concerns over being able to charge customers different rates according to when they use power. But - what about the water meters? Water rates are based on total monthly use, rather than the time of day when taps are running. So - can we at least get Mueller to finish installing the new water meters? Even if they must be manually read, the newer meters will probably be more functional than the very old water meters in the city now.
11:31 - A little better! For a teabagger, you ALMOST have a sense of humor! Not so much of a "Debbie Downer" today!
I think you work for PA or the County. Because you never slam those entities, it's just PA... Too fucking obvious, teabagger.
Or, you are a bitter victim of their shenanigans, and can't figure out how to play the same game, and profit like they do. Good luck!
I remember the days when Tom didn't let us diss the city leaders here, not that they give a shit, even if they did visit this blog they still wouldn't give a shit.
The only thing a fucking meter has to do is report the fucking power you used, you already know when you used it, or are going to use it.
Even those fucking fools running the city aren't going to give a shit about when they cook dinner or dry the laundry, they will do it when they want to. And they will turn on their fucking A/C or heaters when they want to.
And they will hop on a plane and fly to a warm beach somewhere when they want to.
And they will go to a cafe or some such place for 'important meetings' and expect the place to be just right for the climate control and the food to be just the right amount of hot or cold.
Why don't you fuckwits set an example by cooking your meals and having your fucking important meetings at midnight?
Or are you fearful the reporters will be sleeping or screwing their mates?
PAy big bucks to one unqualified company to screw up a "service" they're supposed to provide, so you'll be enabled to PAy another consultant to tell you that you need to PAy even more money to fix the problem.
PAy, PAy, PAy - that's the PA way!
And they're just getting started. Wait until you have to PAy for the rest of Cutler's turd tank, the rest of the Nathan West Memorial Downtown Sidewalk, the new beach they wanna build, etc. Tens of millions of dollars to PAy, all for a town of 19,000 people, and shrinking. All that to PAy for on top of the tens of millions of dollars of debt already out there.
Is this city on a tear to do really stupid things right now, or what?
Reading the article about "PA United", we see the quote from Jim Haugewood saying the effort is "the process of creating or retaining wealth."
That the group both doesn't know if it will have another meeting, but at the same time has plans extending to 2020 and beyond.
Also in the article are plans for yet ANOTHER "economic summit" to be launched soon by Peninsula College President Luke Robins.
All this to be paid for by tax payers, of course.
In another article, the "marine center" on Oak Street is moving forward, but the particulars are so vague, it is hard to understand what actually is going on. The city is leasing the 3,000 sq ft conference space, but does not plan to operate it. Sounds like another tax payer-pays-for-it gift to the Chamber, who will be paid by the taxpayers to operate the thing.
The Fiero Center is to move into this new facility, leaving the old facility empty? The Marine Sanctuary headquarters is supposed to move into this new building, maybe. Leaving it's current location in the Landing Mall.
So, none of these are NEW businesses coming to town. None of this is job creation, or any real economic development. It's just moving existing things around, creating more vacant office/retail spaces.
At taxpayers expense.
Once again, a lot of blah blah, with PA residents paying for it.
Pitiful.
Anon 8:53 AM, February 07, 2014:
Well stated!
Those fuckwits all go to meetings and flatter each other, it’s just a fucking game to them, it isn’t like they go to each others home and have dinner with each other.
Why yes, Coast Guard, apparently we'd LOVE to have you do your exercises on our eroding and fragile bluff by the dump. After all, we're only spending millions of dollars (we don't have) to fix the problem, and are only worried about decades worth of our filth and garbage pouring into the strait. What could ever go wrong?
Doh! Duh! PA!
I went to the hospital yesterday to have some blood drawn, I think we have a fine hospital and staff but I don't like the fact that it is sitting on a bluff over the bay.
Tom, the heading of this thread could have been "Port Angeles' Problems with Everything (con'd)".
Interesting how it was Peninsula Colleges' Luke Robins who came up first with the "Big Tent" idea to get the various "economic development" groups together, but his efforts were quickly usurped by the usual folks in town, looking for a way to create publicly funded jobs for themselves. Before Robins could say "summit", Tim Smith quickly embarked on a highly publicized effort to get all the primary players committed to HIS version.
Not surprisingly, PA Uniteds' draft budget of $1.5 million a year includes 3 admin jobs at $75,000 each. Visitor Centers in Forks, PA and Sequim, to be funded at $30,000 a year (see what "family wage jobs" THAT turns out to be, after rent and utilities!)
From that budget, it seems they have decided (before the rest of the members had even met for the first time) that tourism is the where economic development efforts are to be made.
And, as was stated at last weeks meeting, Haugewood wants the participants to come up with "urgency statements". This translates into asking the members to come up with really really compelling reasons to tell the public for why it is important to provide the group with the $1.5 million they want from the tax payers.
What the hell? Why do we need another visitor center? There's already one down in front of the Landing.
"This translates into asking the members to come up with really really compelling reasons to tell the public for why it is important to provide the group with the $1.5 million they want from the tax payers."
Yeh, take a guess what that's going to be... "JOBS!!" Just like we had to develop the Rainier site for "JOBS!!" Because the only reason we don't have a flood of businesses coming in is because the city isn't taking millions of taxpayer dollars to clean up an old mill and develop it so their real estate buddies can make all the money.
"JOBS!!" Just like we had to develop the Rainier site for "JOBS!!"
Once again...... Move to where the jobs are, this area is limited as too how many jobs can be here and the city doesn't need more to lord over, they do a piss poor job of running what they have.
Actually, the reason that the City created HarborWorks was to get Cutler that 5 million gallon tank for his crazy project:
"Port Angeles city, Harbor-Works officials to travel to Florida to discuss old Rayonier water tank."
"Acquisition of the tank was one of the main reasons for the formation of Harbor-Works last May, Bloor has said."
http://www.peninsuladailynews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009301089993
"JOBS!!" is just political speak for "focus on what I say, not what I'm doing"... Like "GAYS!!" were a few years back. These local political yahoos seem stunned when people actually pay attention to what they're doing and object to this abuse of taxpayer money. That's when they start threatening to shut off people's water. Same old same old around here.
It'd be a nice place to live if it weren't for the local muckity mucks.
Correction: The three visitor centers are to be staffed at $45,000 each.
Total salaries proposed: $645,000.
Health benefits: $85,000. Payroll taxes: $125,000.
Administrative costs each year?
$855,000
Hey! It's just money.
Yeah, I LOVE all those jobs on the old Rayonier site. There's, uh, how many again?
Port Angeles will never succeed. It will, however, always suck.
2:26 - Yes, before US (the GAYS), it was women wearing pants. WTF? Talk about non-sequiturs.
Interesting that they want tourism to be the main focus of growth. I don't believe it. If we did we'd be the last remaining town in the NW of our size to do that. And the last town next to a National Park in the entire country to do that.
Perhaps we could just pinpoint the locations of the nasty old National Park HATERS and use the money to reeducate them and their families? Or what we really need is a really nice logging museum. We would surely be discovered, then. Plus, I'll volunteer to dust the exhibits! Heck, give the right people the right tax incentives, play our cards right, we could have the WORLD'S FIRST GAY OWNED LUMBERJACK MUSEUM!! Think about it!
Speaking of tourism, I saw an airplane fly over today! Yesterday too! Did they reopen the airport?
THIS IS A HOOT !!
Oh, come now! Go down to the old Rayonier site, and watch those guys fixing up that old water tank so that it will hold Port Angeles' crap.
Those are jobs, right?
"These local political yahoos seem stunned when people actually pay attention to what they're doing and object to this abuse of taxpayer money."
The sad reality is, these local political yahoos don't understand what they vote for. They just do what staff "recommends".
I've sat at enough of these city meetings, over the years, and heard them literally say they don't understand what they are voting on, and then watch them vote to approve the project, anyways.
We have the government we allow.
Only Max had the smarts and the guts to regularly vote against staff "recommendations." Everyone else is a gutless, brainless wonder. The only question is whether a particular councilmember is more gutless (Brad Collins) or more brainless (Kidd, Downie, Whetham, etc.).
They should all be forced to live in Cutler's Turd Tank for the rest of their lives - with Karen Rogers for company.
Breaking News! At PA Online! Good news! FINALLY! Whoo hooo!
http://video-monitoring.com/construction/olympic/pics/s6/jan2614s/f091132v.jpg
(it's not a video, just a picture of Glines CANYON)
Hum, maybe Kidd and Rogers could be whores in the third story of the turd tank. :-)
BBC - 1:59 - Your comment reminded me of an old joke about a long-time married couple who were facing financial ruin. They reluctantly decided that it would be necessary for the wife to become a prostitute to supplement the couple's meager resources. When the wife returned after her first night's work, she put earnings of $20.10 on the kitchen table. Her husband, mystified at the amount, asked: "Who gave you the ten cents?" Wife replied: "Everybody."
That's funny, Billy!
"Yes, before US (the GAYS), it was women wearing pants. WTF? Talk about non-sequiturs"
Not a non-sequitur at all. My point is that politicians are always using things to create a sense of urgency and distract the masses from whatever schemes they have going on. With Harborworks it was jobs, and I'm betting with this PA United nonsense it will also be jobs. Rather than fix any problems this country was facing, or even any of their own talking points, the Republicans burned a lot of political capital trying to convince everyone gay marriage was going to end civilization as we know it. A year past I-74 and Washington is doing quite well, thank you. The Republicans? Not so much. What's this about reduced deficits? Deficits don't matter. No, really, they... Look! Over there! Two guys are buying a house together!! Oh noes!
Speaking of the City doing really stupid things, has anybody seen how much the City is spending to make the Oak Street/Marine Center happen?
We've been fed the rah-rah about what great things are going to come of this, but maybe not so strangely, no actual numbers have been given to the public, even though the City has been talking with the developer for months.
Or am I wrong on this? Did I miss the explanation on how much the taxpayers are paying, directly and indirectly, for this effort to help sell what's-his-names property?
A third story turd tank brothel by the project twins would be another failure also. Rogers would have to pay for sex and Kidd would have her legs crossed so tight a norse warrior couldn’t get between them. But somehow they would manage to get public funding and some grant money and take a vacation in Hawaii.
BTW…… Wouldn’t be any profit in them exchanging tricks with each other either. LOL
The real money maker is all the people who would be willing to pay NOT to have sex with Karen Rogers. Hell, even the threat of seeing her naked would be worth plenty $$$.
If I wasn't stuck with a mortgage for a continuing devalued piece of property in a quagmire of a city with barnacle encrusted ways of thinking I would move. It is my fault too (my wife made the decision to move here), but it's my fault. I knew better growing up in Bremerton in the late 50's and 60's. The word was out about this place as being backwater, and run by inbred relatives of past land barons and inherited wealth from previous generations of timber whores. It still is. Downtown is a joke. No marketing strategy to attract tech business or REAL jobs that pay. ACTI is a joke as well in advertising $11/hr jobs for "skilled" labor. Nepotism at Nippon and Government. Unemployment at maybe 25% (real rate), Kenmore Air won't touch Vancouver, BC anymore due to lack of interest. I have sent numerous messages to the City Chamber, PADA and others without a response except from the Airport. (Thank you Fairchild). I was warned about this place and it is my fault. I regret the move to God's Waiting Room.
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