After Tuesday’s election the headline of the Gasconade County Republican said “Owensville residents have spoken and their message was clear…they want different thinking in city government.”
Voters elected Sam Britton and John Kamler to the Board of Aldermen. Both are members of “Concerned Citizens” the citizens group that opposes Owensville’s MoPEP “connection.” Voters also overwhelmingly approved a non-binding referendum on the city ballot which gave the Board of Aldermen direction to seek bids and pursue selling off the city’s electric generation system with the object of finding an exit from the MoPEP contract. Residents cast a resounding 506 “yes” votes and just 68 “no” votes.
The City of Hermann elected a new mayor and two new aldermen, all of whom, I am told, are open-minded and focused on resolving their MoPEP issue. The new mayor, Larry Miskel was a seated alderman, so someone will be appointed to finish his term.
The City of Hermann is involved in litigation to resolve another city utility issue, whether a city can inflate their electric rates to subsidize other non utility city services. The details are in the Friday, January 11, 2008 post. Headline: “The Hermann Class Action Suit – Part 1 of our utility rate problem.” The deposition and discovery process has been slow going up to now but with the election changes perhaps the pace will pick up. The lawsuit challenges a long established practice by most small towns with their own utility departments. Municipally-owned utilities are exempt from regulation by the Missouri Public Service which is not only a weakness that has fostered this illegal use of utility fees but the lack of oversight and control of these small town cash cows made them a prime target for MoPEP.
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