UPDATE!
On Tuesday, January 11, 2020, the Attorney for the Plaintiffs asked the Court to dismiss the Appeal.
On Tuesday, January 11, 2020, their will be a motion hearing concerning the Appeal of the Electric Utility Class Action lawsuit. I am encouraging the named Plaintiffs in the lawsuit to request that the lawsuit be DISMISSED for the following reasons.
- If the Plaintiffs were to win (I believe that they would.), the City, as of this month, would owe approximately $34 million for the 6 years and eight months that the City collected power cost adjustment fees and economic compliance cost recovery fees not voted on by any Mayor and Council.
- On June 3, 2019, Mayor and Council adopted the FY2020 Budget that listed the Municipal Competitive Trust (MCT) fund balance at $31.4 million. In August 31, 2019, the Nottingham Statement for the MCT listed the fund balance at $17.8 million.
- The January 31, 2020 Nottingham Statement for the MCT listed the fund balance at $17.9 million.
- Mayor and Council have provided no leadership in protecting the City’s financial liability in the event that the Appeal is won by the Plaintiffs. Please review the previous article; “City’s Refund Debt Grows”.
If the Appeal is won by the Plaintiffs within this year, the City, meaning the residents, would have to come up with at a minimum of $31.4 million. The MCT fund balance is $17.9 million. That is a $16.1 million difference in what would be owed and what is in the MCT account. It should be clear to the residents that the City would have to increase the Electric Utility rate by adopting a power cost adjustment fee to generate the money needed to pay the difference of $16.1 million. Depending on how much time the Court would give the City to get the money would determine the increase in the electric rates. This would be an enormous expense and will totally be considerably more than the vast majority of residents’ refunds. The Court delays and the lack of leadership and greed by Mayor and Council leaves no other alternative than for the Plaintiffs to request a DISMISSAL of the lawsuit. I do not believe the majority of the residents, who have shown a marked lack of interest in the lawsuit, want to run the risk of funding their refund with higher electric utility bills because the Mayor and Council did not place the excess fees in an escrow account, poor leadership and greed.
CLICK HERE: Nottingham Statement – 01-01-20 to 01-31-20
