The Alexandria City Council this week got an earful from folks who say their utility bills have gotten out of hand, leading to more people getting cut off.  As ABC 31 News Reporter Joel Massey shows us, the problem has become so wide-spread, it’s got people organizing to demand action.

Reverand Clifford Person is the pastor at New Hope Missionary Baptist Church on Houston Street in Alexandria.  He says that many in his congregation and the community are struggling to pay their bills.

“There is some emotion involved nobody wants to go without utilities, nobody wants to move out of a house and become homeless.”

He’s a member of a group called Interfaith Ministries made up of many different congregations around Central Louisiana of many different faiths.  Since July of 2022 they have partnered with Cenla Community Action and the city to provide emergency assistance to Alexandria ratepayers.

“As far as Interfaith goes we want to try to be a mediator, a third person or third party neutral.  We have no stake in the game other than trying to make it better for the citizens and for those who are a part of my congregation as well.”

Person said his group wants answers to four questions:

• How many residents have had their utilities cut off in 2023?
• How many residents have no service?
• How much is owed to the city in past-due payments?
• And how much money was budgeted for project RESTOR, a program launched under Mayor Jacques Roy’s administration to assist customers with high past-due balances?

Following the utility system security breach under the Hall administration, customers received no bills for two to three months.  As the city tried to catch up, some bills jumped from $300 dollars to $1,200 or more each month.

Now, many say bills have not come back down to normal despite the payback of outstanding balances since the ransomware attack in early June of 2022.

The survey went out October 9, and within a few days, Interfaith received more than 1,000 responses.

It found:

• 70% of respondents they struggled with basic needs because of high utility bills
• 86% said their monthly bills are around $250
• 67% have an overdue balance greater than $100
• 15% had a standing balance of more than 1000
• 6% said their average bill is more than $1000

A third of the people surveyed said that their power had been cut off at least once during the past three months.

Council President Lee Rubin wants to clear up misconceptions about the program.

“Assuming a person owed a thousand dollars they may have gotten a grant for two or three hundred dollars that would be applied to the thousand dollars they owed. And then the balance of that under RESTOR would have to be paid out over a period of months that was agreed upon with the individual when this was done.”

Many customers say they were not aware of the payment plan.  The believed that they had received a grant that they did not have to pay back.

District 3 Councilwoman Cynthia Perry said she did not understand the program either when she voted for it and apologized for her vote at the meeting.

Shicola Jones, who has about half of the signatures she needs to recall Mayor Roy and the two at-large-councilmen, said that she has RESTOR charges on her bill but never applied for the program.

Jones said, “Restore means to replace something that was damaged. Right? So when they did project RESTOR they were supposed to be replacing something that was lacking. How does project RESTOR for these people that went and got a grant they’re late on their utility bill they now have to pay back the money that you took from the citizens.” 

But Rubin says the program was implemented in good faith as a way to help ratepayers. 

“A lot of people think it was a conspiracy and that they were charging people for things they didn’t owe, not true in any way. They were only charged for utilities that they had used and not paid for. A lot of effort went into devising this thing and designing it by the administration and approved by the council as a way to help the citizens make their payments more affordable.” 

This week’s meeting was the second time that Interfaith has gone before the council, and Person says the first meeting did not go well. 

“It was contentious.  And it ended abruptly.  However, the second meeting with the utility committee, it was better.  I was encouraged and I think that moving forward that the members of the utility committee are willing to work with us.”  

District 2 Councilman Gary Johnson says this week’s meeting won’t be the last one where the council will hear about utility customers and their bills.

KLAX reached out to the mayor’s office and City Utilities Director Michael Marcotte for a statement about utilities and the same information that Interfaith Ministries is seeking, but so far they have not responded.

Story by Joel Massey

Read more from KLAX here.