Naperville residents are feeling the pain every time they look at their electric bill. In fact, just about more pain than any other city in the state of Illinois, and in the country. And what’s causing this pain? Answer: over the top electric rates. And that begs the question….why? Answer: really bad decisions by Naperville city officials.
The Naperville city manager, Doug Krieger, along with the Naperville city council specialize in two types of decisions; bad decisions and really bad decisions. In this case, Naperville city officials ‘got taken to the cleaners’ and ‘played’, by paying for far-above-market electricity rates with a dreadful decision to finance the Prairie State Energy Campus in southern Illinois which is a coal-powered plant. The high cost of electricity in Naperville may account for the inky shadows in city hall corridors.
As bad as the rates are in Batavia, Geneva, St. Charles, and Winnetka, they look great compared to Naperville’s atrocious electric rates. On the other hand city officials in Chicago, Barrington, Bensenville, Downers Grove, Evanston, Glenview, Hinsdale, and Lake Forest look like geniuses compared to Napervillle city officials, because they didn’t invest in Prairie State. Chicago itself is paying 25% less than Naperville, and Naperville is paying the highest average rate of the five Chicago-area municipalities that buy electricity from Prairie State Coal.
The story was reported by Michael Hawthorne, a Chicago Tribune reporter in the Tribune Watchdog Update, Wednesday September 4.
Naperville city officials have kept residents in the dark (pun intended) about the outrageous cost of electric. City officials made no mention of their once-again poor judgment in decision making. However the ‘cover-up’ was uncovered, not only by Michael Hawthorne, but also when Naperville residents opened their electric bills.
Naperville city officials recently made the following comments:
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Council member Steve Chirico said, “When you have these kinds of things that happen, we look bad”
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City Manager Doug Krieger mentioned that the potential risk to the city’s image is “difficult to quantify”
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And councilman Paul Hinterlong said, “I don’t think it’s an image we want”
Those comments were actually made regarding their position on the always family-friendly ‘Cage Fighting’ events held in Naperville, but they could and should apply to their horrendous decision to invest in a deal that hurts Naperville residents. At least in ‘Cage Fighting’ the participants do-so by choice, whereas residents had no choice in the bogus Naperville electric rates deal.
Council members Chirico, McElroy and Wentz were not on the council when this awful deal was approved, however it’s about time that other council member’s are held accountable for what would be described as, “What were they thinking” when they voted ‘yes’ on this issue. Are we about to hear another loud chorus of resident disenchantment requesting and demanding that city manager Doug Krieger resign.
It might be far less expensive for Naperville residents if they simply sent him on a lengthy cruise around the world.
Compounding and exacerbating the cost problems is the wonderful, exciting and stimulating smart meters which cost 22 million and have at least 3 million in overruns, work partially and start fires while irradiating your house, neighborhood and the general environment with copious amounts of RF.
In some people it stimulates diseases and others like our council members and our city manager plus police chief it stimulates their erotic zones by getting off on beating up seniors and moms and forcing people to relinquish their constitutional rights through the use of thuggery.
You are right. Here in Davis,Ca PG&E did let those who wanted to OPT-Out , do so
but they make us pay and extra $10.00 a month on our bill because a guy comes by to read it. At first it was going to be $5.00 a month and then it went to $10.00 just to punish us more. PG&E did the same thing to other communities who wanted to OPT-out.
When we were told we could OPT-out, Naperville wanted to charge $25.00 per month. They also told us our electric bill will definitely go down, but instead went up to a ridiculous rate. I used to love our city but now I feel as if it’s being run by a dictatorship, not a democracy.