Demand To Take Action

As a result of a recent string of comments to a Ledger story about about the concerns of the Lakeland Electric rates and customer service issues, I have created a letter that can be copied and pasted into an email. I have included all of the city contacts' email addresses, making it as simple as signing your name and sending.

The letter is below, feel free to edit it in any way. Just copy and paste into an email and sign.
I hope this helps.

Mayor Buddy Fletcher ralph.fletcher@lakelandgov.net
Justin Troller justin.troller@lakelandgov.net
Gow Fields gow.fields@lakelandgov.net
Glenn Higgins glenn.higgins@lakelandgov.net
Edith Yates edith.yates@lakelandgov.net
James Verplanck james.verplanck@lakelandgov.net
Howard Wiggs howard.wiggs@lakelandgov.net
Doug Thomas DouglasThomas@lakelandgov.net
Tony Delgado TonyDelgado@lakelandgov.net
Stanley Hawthorne Stanley.Hawthorne@lakelandgov.net

Dear City Commissioners:

It’s time you take a serious look at the issue of rising utility bills for your Lakeland citizens. According to the City Commission meeting where you voted to increase the rates effective July 1, City Manager Doug Thomas said Lakeland Electric had the money necessary to prevent an increase. But instead, you voted to keep that money invested.

You also voted to stop providing direct customer service to your customers. It would be understandable if the utility and city were doing everything in their power to save the citizens money by covering rising costs you created by spending the money you have invested. But instead, you are making the citizens pay for your mistakes. When you entered into contracts wherein the utility receives less money than it takes to produce the electricity, this was your mistake, not ours. Why then, should we pay for your mistakes?

Whether you choose to believe it or not, we, the Lakeland Electric customers, are suffering miserably for having to find creative ways to pay our electric bills. It really is like a game of Russian roulette when we open our bills. We’re cutting back on all of the extras, including some necessities, just to keep our electric on.

What can you do to help?

• Pull out your hedge fund and pay for your own increasing costs. We did not cause your costs to increase and we should not be made to suffer.
• Allow a grace period for late payments. We struggle from paycheck to paycheck, so when our payday does not coincide with your due date, it is out of our hands...yet the L.E. employees whose job it is to cut-off the power on overdue accounts don’t miss a beat. They must have the best job security there is in Lakeland right now.
• Allow payment arrangements. When you see a customer’s bill jump by 30% in one month, you must realize it is going to be difficult for the customer to pay it on time. Have a heart, work with us here.
• Create workshops and materials to educate the citizens how to save energy. Show them where the money is going and how to cut back. If we’re doing our part to be conservative, you can do your part by working with us on our payments.

As a monopoly you must realize you have all the power. We, the citizens of Lakeland, can not continue to pay our electric bills and are being forced to take drastic measures. We are asking you to please examine the mess you have gotten yourselves into, which is not affecting you, but is affecting us. The people who vote for you. The people who pay your salaries. The people who pay your bills.

Concerned and Outraged Lakeland Resident,