TMC: Thirty Miles of Corruption

The above video was from the November 28, 2017, Riverside City Council Meeting regarding increasing utility rates.  During public comment, former RPU employee Jason Hunter presents what is discernibly incriminating evidence that the General Manager and staff of Riverside Public Utilities was attempting to deceive the public with reference to rate increases.  Is this part of the reason why Drunk Daddy was just shown the door of their shiny $40 million dollar building (purchased with ratepayer money)?

                        

CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE, THE FIRST IMAGE IS THE DRAFT REPORT WITH BALACHANDRAN’S NOTES,  THE SECOND IMAGE IS THE FINAL REPORT WITH THE ALTERED NUMBERS SUBMITTED TO THE RIVERSIDE CITY COUNCIL.  HIT THE HIGHLIGHTED LINKS TO VIEW THE FULL REPORT FOR BEFORE AND AFTER.

The markups and corresponding changes to the report display two items of concern.  One, RPU had significant input towards how this “independent” report was presented to City Council and the Board of Public Utilities earlier this year.  Secondly, the UCR consultant had no problem changing their “independent” report to coincide with RPU’s narrative…. the desire to raise customer rates.

Here’s the lowdown: RPU commissioned at a cost of $72,000 of ratepayer dough a research team at UCR, to determine the financial and social impact of RPU on the Riverside community.  It’s a little-known-fact that UCR procures it electricity and water at special lower rates from RPU than what the rest of us suckers, the community pays, leading some to wonder if tit-for-tat was in play.  Shockingly (sic), the crack team at UCR determined that RPU was the greatest thing since adding that third taco to the combination plate.  How uncanny that this report was timed to come out right before RPU was to call upon a rate increase!  Remarkable was a hand-written comment from General RPU Manager Girish Balachandran (a.k.a. Drunk Daddy) made while reviewing a draft of this UCR report. The note was in reference to numbers the UCR team gave comparing RPU with another utility company known as SoCal Edison. We will get to that Drunk Daddy chicken scratch in a moment.

First, you really cannot compare the two companies: RPU is publicly owned, Edison is not.  Secondly, the UCR team states that Edison customers pay 16.51 cents per kwh compared to RPU customers 16.08 cents. The difference between the two numbers in the draft report submitted by UCR are not wide enough to justify a rate increase for residential electricity customers. But the final report submitted a few months later tells a different story. In the same comparison between RPU and Edison, the numbers magically transform so Edison customers pay 19.00 cents while RPU customers pay 15.70 cents – a very significant difference we’d say!

Drunk Daddy’s handwritten notation states, in blue above in first image, “Check this, we cannot justify a rate increases for residential for next 5 years with this set of numbers, especially residential.”   Voilà! The numbers change in the final report to display a larger compelling disparity, hence, sets precedence and validates RPU’s argument of a badly needed rate increase!

Remember, we the ratepayers own our utility, and it sure looks as if your management team that you employ a very generous salaries and bennies to oversee the best interest of your company, is attempting to hoodwink you for an ulterior motive. What should you do to these employees who are handling your company and your money? I know what I would do.

THE GODFATHER OF RATE INCREASES..

THE GODFATHER OF THE GODFATHER, GREAT GODFATHER, CITY MANAGER JOHN RUSSO…WE’LL UPDATE AND FIND A PIC WITHOUT MAKEUP….DID YOU KNOW THEY BOTH WORKED TOGETHER FOR THE CITY OF ALAMEDA?  AS WE CALL IT, MORE RECYCLED TRASH!

So why does RPU need a rate increase?  Well this is what they are telling the public.  It is gloom and doom, it’s all about the infrastructure, and if we don’t get are antiquated infrastructure upgraded, trouble lies on the road ahead.  With this in mind, the public has asked why the ratepayers are paying for bad management decisions and certain projects which have no benefit to the ratepayer, such as gold plated conference rooms, a $40 million administrative building, excessive dispatcher overtime to the tune of $257,219.00, overcharges to the rate payer which resulted in $325 Million in stockpiled reserves, $72,000 paid to UCR to figure out how to convince the ratepayer of higher rates, $45,000 to Earthquake Lady to go out to the community and scare you into believing that higher rates are somehow a good thing, the fiber optic network and purple pipe being built with ratepayer monies only a handful of big guys will benefit from.  The list is unending.

Did we mention that Drunk Daddy hired a polling firm at a cost to us of $42,000, to determine key words that would help convince the ratepayers of higher rates. This is significant because Balachandran’s signature authorization is maxed at $25,000, so he had to go to City Manager John Russo for authorization.  Russo’s signature authorization is maxed at $50,000 (anything above $50,000 must go to City Council …and the bright lights of a Council meeting for approval).  Russo had knowledge of what was going on at RPU.

What we have here folks is obscene mismanagement with no accountability.  We have an executive management problem.  A problem that began with former Utilities General Manager Dave Wright, and continues now under Girish Balachandran, a.k.a. Drunk Daddy.

Another narrative line RPU is using toward the public, is that they didn’t increase the rates during the recession as to give relief to the taxpayer.  The truth of the matter is that they were increasing the amount of the reserves to the tune of $325 million by overcharging their customers.  But maybe the truth of the matter is that it is all about pensions.  Perhaps it’s all about the unsustainable pension contracts made without the best interest of the taxpayer in mind.  You the taxpayer were not lined with goldplated rewards, you were just simply given the bill.  My position: file for bankruptcy, as many cities in California have done, and renegotiate those unsustainable pension contracts.

GIRISH GRADES $72K UCR REPORT WITH B-, ARE WE IN CLASS?

FLASH FROM THE NOT SO PAST: GRAND JURY COMPLAINT AGAINST RPU:  Back in 2015 we filed a Grand Jury Complaint on the very subject of excessive reserves with the argument that it actually violated fiscal policy, which was passed by City Council.  In other words, the City and RPU actually violated there own policy that they agreed upon by collecting excessive reserves.

CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE

I believe RPU needs to get out of the “engineer” mindset when it comes to explaining just why our utility needs more money in order to stay out of the red.  – Councilman Mike Soubirous

TMC, RATED RIVERSIDE’S REGIONAL COUNTIES MOST, “NEGATIVE,” “RAUNCHY,” “LOW CLASS,” “VISIONS OF GRANDEUR,” “FULL OF B.S.,” “REPREHENSIBLE,” “IGNORANT,” “MISGUIDED,” “BULLYISH,” “FILTHY,” “VILE,” “SICK,” “PERVERTED,” “DEFAMATORY,” “STUPID,” “PATHETIC,” “DESPICABLE,” “DISAPPOINTING,” “BELOW THE BELT,” “A NEW LOW,” “SHOCKING,” “OFFENSIVE,” “OBNOXIOUS,” “INAPPROPRIATE,” “HURTFUL,” “MEAN SPIRITED,” “DISTASTEFUL,” “EMBARRASSING,” HORIFFIC,” “SLANDEROUS” “FIT TO BE VIEWED FROM THE REAR” AND MEZZSPELLED, “MISSPELLED” AND “OPINIONATED” BLOG SITE! YES WE ADMIT WE OUR ALL OF THAT AND MORE, WHICH IN CURRENT TERMS, “UNPOLITICALLY CORRECT.” TEMPORARILY BLOCKED BY THE CITY OF RIVERSIDE AT PUBLIC ACCESS SITES WITHIN THE CITY, THEN UNBLOCKED.  I GUESS YOU CANNOT DO THAT ACCORDING TO THE ACLU. RATED ONE STAR OUT OF FIVE IN TERMS OF COMMUNITY APPROVAL RATINGS.. … AGAIN, THANK YOU COMMUNITY OF RIVERSIDE AND THE CITY OF RIVERSIDE EMPLOYEE’S FOR YOUR SUPPORT! CONTACT US: thirtymilescorruption@hotmail.com