Dear Voice and concerned citizens

Mr. Canfield,

While I am a fairly new resident to Lowell, I come with an extensive background in both Management and Union Labor. Please advise where I can be brought up to speed on the number of Management Employees, including Pay and Benefits, along with that of Labor at LL&P. Also are the profit and loss trends you speak to publicly available thru LL&P on a website?

Thank you for your time, Janet Howard

I understand you are frustrated and upset, Mr Canfield, and I do appreciate the time and effort that all of our Board and Council members put in for little pay. I would like to explain, however, where we of VOICE are coming from. Members of the community asked for a meeting months ago with the City Manager and Council members. The desire was to discuss some of the issues that were of concern. In particular, at that time was simply a desire to get some legitimate questions answered. We were also concerned about what could be done to get a decent contract signed for OUR employees so that the City—both sides—could get back to business. This request for a meeting was ignored and instead there were offers made by the City Manager to meet individually with those concerned.
This immediately raised red flags. Why would someone who has nothing to hide and really does want open discussion want to waste hours meeting with each person individually when an hour meeting might have resolved the concerns? This felt like a divide and conquer tactic used to divert from certain issues.

Since then many attempts have been made through Council meetings and yes, even Board meetings as well as letters to the Editor and phone calls to get some type of dialog going. All to no avail. Hence, those of us VERY concerned about secrecy, spin and denial of facts have had to resort to other means. So, Mr. Canfield, I do sincerely appreciate YOUR invitations and efforts. But please realize that many of us who have tried attending meetings are no longer willing to do so. We understand that “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting different results.” We have now found other means to express our concerns. I hope we can get to the point of discussion and collaboration to make things better for the entire community. I really hope that's what we all want.

Mr. Canfield. Thank you for your response to previous threads. I would also like to take your last post point by point and ask some very direct questions.

First point: The EPA on 1/24/08 published a advance warning about the emissions. You said that the GM informed the board 12-18 months later and after LL&P spent 250K. Why didn't he advise the board before the upgrades took place.

Second point: Is it true that you cannot run the new Combustion turbines from the month of Sept. to May due to a lack of natural gas?
According to your last thread they might not run due to cheaper available power but be there in case of disaster.

True or False: It takes a 300 hp and a 100 hp or a 150 hp electric motor to start them, that is 295 kilowatts to 335 kilowatts of electricity. How will you start them if they are not running and the power goes out? That is an VERY large portable electric generator that I don't believe LL&P owns.


Third point: The biodigester; I have been told it will only produce around 850 kilowatts. That will not meet our required 10% green energy so we will still have to purchase green energy from the open market. True or false?

Why did LL&P chose a biodigester where only one existed in the world? Why not a more pr oven design or at least a more common one. The City of Grandville just added an anaerobic digester that didn't come from Germany and it was placed at there waste water plant, were the fuel is, not in the middle of town. Our plant is on the outskirts of town. It would provide some of the fuel and the trucks that will be bringing the rest of the fuel won't have to travel into the city.

True or false: Did the DEQ stop the installation of the combustion generators during an inspection mid summer due to lack of permits?

True or false: Doesn't the planning commission require ALL permits before the start of any construction?

True of false: Was the board aware of the problems that Mr. Pierce encountered in Travers City before he was hired?

True of false: Did LL&P take the coffee pot away from one of their union employees just to latter return it when the public found out.
If so, would that be why worker moral is so low among the workers that joined the union?

True or False: Has LL&P added multiple surcharges to rate payers bills in the last couple years.

I know that LL&P hasn't raised the rate of Kilowatt per hour but due to these added charges their bills have gone up considerably.

One other thing, if in your own words:
"Employees wanting job security and those supporting them would like the union to take over management rights that currently belong to the LL&P Board. The right to Hire, Fire and manage employees needs to remain locally controlled, with final decisions being made by the Board of appointed community residents, not an arbitrator and attorneys from outside the area, whose main motivation is billable hours."

If this is so why do we have a great police force, that has been in a union for years, and has not crippled our city? The city and the Lowell police dept has been negotiating contracts for years without the city hiring a specialized labor attorney and due to Act. 312 the police has guaranteed 3rd party binding arbitration. Arbitration is neutral and fair so why would LL&P and the city not want it's other employees to have the same right?

This isn't mudslinging. These are simple, straight forward questions that I and some other ratepayers would like to have answered.

Here is a copy of a report written by a mid level employee regarding recent improvements at LL&P. Next post to follow is Auditors report for LL&P fiscal year 2011-20012.



Before and after Greg Pierce’s employment with Lowell Light & Power

In May of 2008, the General Manager was asked by the Board of Directors to submit his letter of resignation after hearing complaints from employees who were upset that the company had been going on a downward spiral. LL&P had been financially in the red for the previous 3 years and some employees had complained there was a tremendous lack of leadership from the General Manager and the Operation’s Manager. LL&P and its workers had the reputation throughout the community of being just like any other governmental agency. Citizens of Lowell made negative comments that typified governmental agencies where employees were standing around on the publics’ dime and not being gainfully employed.
As stated above, LL&P was not fiscally sound and their financial statements showed they had been in the red 3 years prior to and including 2008. Employees were regularly seen at the corner gas station and throughout town talking to friends for long periods of time and not doing the work they were hired to do. The company was not being operated like a successful business, was fiscally irresponsible and exhibited a total lack of accountability by upper management and staff. Employees became accustom to a lack of accountability because nothing was expected of them. Private business owners expect their staff to be on time to work and to be gainfully working for the time they are being paid and public employees need to be held to the same standard. The public, by paying their electric bills, pay for the employee’s wages and benefits and thus expect the staff at LL&P to be earning their wages.
Slightly earlier in Lowell Light and Power’s history, 1999, the current General Manager retired and a new General Manager was hired from out of state. That General Manager hired a friend of his, also from out of state, to become the Operation’s Manager, a newly developed position. That management team quickly changed the way LL&P conducted business. LL&P quickly alienated itself from the City of Lowell and the public. LL&P was not seen as helping its customers but as a strongman. Time clocks were removed and there was no accountability of staff for when they showed up or left work. A year or so later, that new General Manager resigned his position at LL&P to take another job back in the state where he came from. He recommended to the Board that they hire the person who had been responsible for advertising at Lowell Cable TV as his replacement.
The outside staff was small consisting, at most times, of only 3 line workers. Even though there were only 3 line workers, LL&P had two separate crews. Two line workers made up the construction crew and one line worker made up the service crew. Prior to this time period, there had only been one crew because there were so few outside staff. The construction crew complained regularly to management that they had no work to do and were told by management that they were working on getting them jobs. Work for the construction crew was very sporadic and that crew was either told to clean the warehouse (scrubbing the floors) or to make themselves scarce. And that they did. The line workers at this time were making over $20.00 an hour, not doing what they were hired to do or what would be expected of them by the rate payers. Many days the service crew (1 employee) would be driving around town not performing anything meaningful, just wasting fuel. Employees who complained to the Board about this behavior and the lack of consistent work were rightfully concerned because as stated, LL&P was not financially sound, was alienated from the City workers, and the public they served.
During this time frame, contractors were hired to perform routine work that LL&P employees or city employees had done previously, thus costing LL&P more money, which ultimately cost the rate payer. A lawn care contractor was hired to mow the grass around the main office building and at the warehouse. A snow plowing contractor was hired to plow snow at the warehouse. A contractor was hired to spray weeds at the 6 substations LL&P had at the time. This contractor would go to each substation to spray the weeds and at the same time, a LL&P employee would be sitting in the company pick-up watching them, “supervising”. Tree trimming contractors were hired to trim trees around the power lines. During a three year period, an average of $175,000 was spent per year. On top of that, many times one or two Lowell Light and Power employees were with the contract tree trimming crews “supervising” their work from the company truck(s). LLP employees also painted smiley faces on trees that were going to be removed which upset the public. Trees that the public wanted to keep were totally removed instead of being trimmed. A public outcry resulted.
Contractors were hired around 2006 to install two circuits of insulated Hendrix wire from the 138kv substation along Bowes Rd extending to S. Hudson. From that time until after Greg Pierce arrived, no voltage work was being performed by LLP. The construction crew spent many days surveying the same area in preparation for a “someday” conversion. The construction crew complained, again, that they were not being productive by doing the same surveying over and over and no other real work was being performed.
Fast forward to spring of 2008…concerns by employees were brought to the attention of the Board of Directors and an investigation was done. After the resignation of the General Manager, the Chairman of the Board, with the help of Michigan Municipal Electric Association (MMEA), hired Greg Pierce as LL&P’s interim General Manager. Greg Pierce was allowed some time to get acclimated as the interim GM. After that short time period, Greg Pierce asked the concerned employees about their thoughts on how the company had been operated. Greg listened to the employees concerns and then embarked on a fact finding mission to see if these concerns had merit. Greg would come to the warehouse prior to the start of the workday and see for himself if employees were coming in late. Greg also witnessed employees talking with friends at the gas station while they were supposed to be at job sites. Greg further witnessed employees while they were at job sites standing around doing no productive work for long periods of time.
Greg had seen for himself what the concerned employees had relayed to him. Greg expected LL&P employees to be accountable to the company and to its rate payers. Greg began shifting job assignments to allow better and more expeditious planning of jobs and ensuring employees were gainfully working. This did not sit well with some outside employees because changes were being made in the status quo. Outside staff was required to be to work on time, to have materials ready the previous day for jobs planned the next day. They were not allowed to go to the gas station where they would talk with their friends while they were supposed to be working. A comment made by one employee was that “we don’t want to work too fast because we will run out of work to do”. This was nonsense because LL&P had many jobs to be performed and would never run out of work. Another comment made by an employee was that “he didn’t have one nickel invested in LL&P so why should he work any harder”. These employees’ attitudes ultimately changed for the worse because they were no longer going to be able to come to work and operate as they had in the past.
During the time frame of June 2008 when Greg was hired, to the present, he has fiscally brought LL&P out of the red and into the black. He has demanded accountability of staff and he has put together a “big picture” to move LL&P into the future. The following are projects that were planned and completed under his guidance and leadership:
• Voltage conversion of Bowes Rd residences from the 4160 volt system to the 12470 volt system utilizing the two Hendrix circuits previously installed but unused.
• Removal of the south substation on Bowes Rd.
• Removal of two 69000/12470 volt substation transformers and switchgear after the circuits from this substation had been converted.
• Removal of one 69000/4160 volt substation transformer and switchgear after the circuits had been converted.
• Removal of the 69000 volt transmission line owned by Wolverine Power Supply Cooperative.
• Removal of poles and conductors associated with the 69000/12470 volt substations and 69000/4160 volt substation.
• Installation of new poles on N. Hudson and Flat River Dr. after WPSC removed their transmission poles.
• Installation of a substation transformer and switchgear associated with King Milling and LL&P generators.
• Gaining Attwood as a customer.
• Installation of three 12470/4160 volt step down transformers and riser pole installations as part of the voltage conversion project.
• Installation of fiber optic from Bowes Rd/ S. Hudson to the main power plant which ties into the 138kv substation.
• Installation of new electronic meters that are capable of being read remotely in the Whispering Hills neighborhood, Stoneridge apartments and various commercial businesses west of Alden Nash on M-21.
• Boring electric circuit under the Flat River and removal of overhead conductors across the river.
• Converting Schneider Manor to the 12470 volt system.
• Converting S. West St to the 12470 volt system.
• Converting S. Pleasant St to the 12470 volt system.
• Converting S. Center St to the 12470 volt system.
• Extending circuit 201 from just north of Laurels of Kent on N. Center St south to Sibley as part of the 12470 volt system conversion.
• Conversion of Metric Manufacturing to the 12470 volt system.
• Conversion of Shell gas station to the 12470 volt system.
• Conversion of Michigan Wire west to the 12470 volt system.
• Conversion of one King Milling service to the 12470 volt system of S. Broadway.
• Conversion of Wittenbach to the 12470 volt system.
• Conversion of the old antique mall adjacent to King Milling to the 12470 volt system.
• Conversion of the Lowell Schools bus garage to the 12470 volt system.
• Conversion of Pebble Beach apartments to the 12470 volt system.
• Conversion of Whites Bridge Tooling to the 12470 volt system.
• Conversion of Laurels of Kent to the 12470 volt system.
• Conversion of Mynt Fusion to the 12470 volt system.
• Conversion of Gee Dr hill residents to the 12470 volt system.
• Conversion of Foreman St north of Gee Dr to the 12470 volt system.
• Conversion of Larkins to the 12470 volt system.
• Circuit 208 extension to the warehouse to connect the output of the two combustion turbine generators.
• Installation of two electric car charging systems at City of Lowell parking lots.
• Rebuild of overhead power line from Recreation Park to Birch field.
• Installation of underground services to Birch field.
• Changing dual voltage transformers (7200/2400) to straight 7200 volt transformers south of the Grand River (Circuit 207)
• Installation of the last phase of underground service to the Whispering Hills neighborhood.
• Replacing all 175 watt mercury vapor street lighting to 65 watt cfl’s.
• Replacing 400 watt high pressure sodium lights with 200 watt cfl’s at LL&P warehouse.
• Upgraded the transformer behind the Chamber of Commerce building to accommodate River walk festival additional electrical load.
• Upgraded the transformer at AT&T to accommodate additional electrical load.
• Installation of four overhead gang operated switches for system redundancy.
• Installation of new underground service for the Garage of Lowell.
• Installation of four 3” conduits in the M-21 bridge during bridge reconstruction.
• Installation of new underground services to main street businesses during the main street bridge reconstruction.
• Removal of an unnecessary distribution circuit pole line on Foreman St.
• Upgrade of electrical service to Curtis Cleaners/Car Wash.
• Installation of new service to Main St. Inn.
• Numerous residential conversions to the 12470 volt system.
• Removal of numerous deteriorated power poles throughout LL&P service area.
• Installation of a new 3 phase circuit to feed Timpson orchard.
• Installation of two combustion turbine generators (in progress)
• Installation of cement foundations for combustion turbines.
• Planning and designing anaerobic digester at LL&P warehouse (in progress)
• Reorganized warehouse storage to accommodate the combustion turbines and anaerobic digester.
• Audit of AT&T and COMCAST pole attachments on LL&P utility poles.
• Audit of installed transformers and locations.
• Acquiring modeling software through GRP engineering for system conversion projects.
• Training apprentice lineman for line workers rodeo.
• Participation in line workers rodeo.
• Upgrade of DAFFRON accounting system software.
• Upgrade of computer server system at main office.
• Tree trimming throughout LL&P’s service area.
• Meeting and exceeding goals with LL&P energy optimization program.
• Became part of block safety training through MMEA participating with Grand Haven, Zeeland and Holland.
• Became recognized as a Reliable Public Power Provider (RP3) through the American Public Power Association due to system upgrades, service reliability, workforce development and safety structured under Greg’s leadership and initiative.
• Sponsored successful 2012 MMEA conference.
• Refinanced LLP debt to save the utility $674,000 over the remaining debt term
Greg has implemented performance evaluations and goal setting for employees. This is tied to annual cost of living and merit pay increases.
Greg initiated the change from vacation, sick and personal days and combined them to be personal time off (PTO) days. By doing so, this allowed employees to collect all their awarded days on July 1st of every year and not have to wait for the end of each month to gain a day which used to be sick days. Also, this allowed employees to use any of these days as they wish and not have to lie about calling in sick.
Greg allowed employees to “bank” PTO days in a disability account so when an employee has a disability outside of work, employees are able to combine PTO time with disability pay. As an example, employees with 30 days of banked PTO can be absent from work for 6 months and still receive 100% of their base pay.
Greg has allowed employees to “cash in” 40 hours of banked PTO on December 1 every year.
Greg has allowed 5 instances where employees can call in just prior to the start of the work day in the event of sudden illness or emergencies and still collect pay for those days.
Greg allowed all staff who wanted to attend, a visit to the line workers rodeo in Cleveland to give them an opportunity to see line workers compete with their peers and exhibit pride in their profession and respective companies.
Greg implemented a work schedule change from 7am-3:30pm to 8am-5pm for outside staff to coincide with LL&P business hours and better meet the needs of its customers, while still giving employees a 40 hour work week.
Greg has allowed outside staff to do productive inside work during inclement weather conditions, again, to be able to count on a 40 hour week.
Greg initiated the follow list of Basic Employer Expectations:
1. Safety-Comply with safety policies and rules.
2. Initiative-Complete the job assigned and if you have completed it, look around to see what else needs to be done and help do it.
3. Willingness to Learn-Learn what your job description indicates and engage in other duties that may be assigned, which adds value to LL&P.
4. Willingness to Follow Directions-Always follow directions as you are told.
5. Communication-Supervisors will inform you of what they require you to accomplish and you in turn will inform them when that work is completed.
6. Honesty-Lowell Light & Power expects you to be honest and to tell the truth. Other forms of dishonesty on the job are: starting work late, leaving work early and stealing company property. Stealing time is the most costly form of dishonesty on the job. You "steal" time when you come in late/leave early or are not working steadily when not on rest periods or lunch break.
7. Dependability-Be on the job every day and on time. If you will be absent or late, you must call your supervisor. You will be allowed to make up lost time at the end of the work day. Frequent tardiness, even though supervision is called, creates a hardship for your supervisor and the employees who must cover for you and reflects poorly on your dependability.
8. Enthusiasm-The most successful employees are those who are enthusiastic about their work. Have a positive attitude, be polite and confident.
9. Teamwork/Cooperation-Work as part of the team and provide positive input and show up to work with a winning attitude.
10. Problem Solving- Think on your feet and be willing to solve problems. If unsure, ask your supervisor or other employees for assistance.
11. Go-Getter-Generate new ideas that will benefit Lowell Light & Power.
12. Goals- Identify and work toward goals which challenge your abilities.
13. Acceptance of Criticism-Criticism is the way a supervisor tells you how they want a job done. You are expected to improve because of it. Listen and learn from the constructive criticisms your supervisor will share with you. Try to see how it can help you become a better worker.
14. Loyalty-Show loyalty to Lowell Light & Power by representing it positively. You will be expected to demonstrate your loyalty and commitment to Lowell Light & Power through active involvement in company sponsored events.
15. Punctuality-Arrive to work on time and don’t leave early.
16. Dress Appropriately-Dress according to what is required.
17. Ask for further instructions if the task is unclear. Request clarification if you are unsure how to complete an assignment.
18. Flexibility-Go with the flow and accept assignments that may not fall under your specified job duties. Be receptive to new ideas and situations.
19.Observe and respect chain of command. Learn what position each of your co-workers hold and how their position relates to yours.
Greg came to LL&P in May of 2008 and took the bull by its horns and aggressively initiated a “big picture” plan to move LL&P forward to ensure system reliability, fiscal responsibility and employee accountability. Greg became the leader LL&P and its customers have come to depend on and expect.