In today's Solares Hill newspaper, a personal opinion letter by Jody Smith (who happens to be a board member of Last Stand and of Keys GLEE) urged the City of Key West to take steps to correct long-standing problems. Problems that should help save scarce money in these hard times, while moving in a more Green direction. That letter is reprinted here for your convenience....
An Open Letter to the City
Dear Mayor, Commissioners and City Managers:
The Solares Hill article about last week’s retreat and the city’s grim financial outlook was disturbing and has compelled me to write this letter. I’m sure you are all very concerned about how to meet the needs of the community with increasing costs and declining revenues. It was interesting to read that the city’s air conditioning bills and cost of diesel fuel were reported as being major contributors to the current budgetary problems, and yet there was little mention of conservation efforts as being the logical response to the situation. While I may support a proposed tax increase, I certainly hope the city is first looking at every opportunity to cut its costs by reducing waste of goods and materials, fuel and electricity.
Any time I go into a city building, I must come prepared with an extra sweater because the air conditioning is kept at such a low temperature. I also know that some city staff use space heaters to combat their overly air-conditioned offices. The fact that the city is wasting financial resources this way while also adding unnecessarily to the greenhouse gases that it has committed to reduce, is unacceptable in my opinion. Aside from these issues, it is also irritating that I must be uncomfortably cold whenever I attend a meeting or do business in a city building. I’m sure the public would understand and support raising the air conditioning temperatures as an effort to save money and energy. Likewise, the city should ensure that air conditioning is turned up much higher on nights and weekends when buildings are not in use.
Also in the past few weeks, Key West The Newspaper reported a story about the leased building at Mallory Square for which the city has been paying its electric bills for eight years. This error was discovered as a result of the greenhouse gas inventory that I conducted for the city last fall. Please note that I have not communicated with KWTN about this or any other topic, and I do not know where they got their information. I am happy to see that the problem has been corrected and the city will no longer be unnecessarily spending more than $17,000 a year on this.
The larger context of this story, I believe, relates to the fact that this problem may have continued to go undiscovered for a very long time in the future, since it took a concerted investigation to even find the electric meter for that account and to figure out what the account was for. This was the case with many of the more than 200 electric bills that I reviewed in my analysis. Bills are not clearly identified as to their use, and since the bills are sent directly to bills are sent directly to the Finance Department, the department heads and staff have no awareness of the electrical consumption at their facilities and therefore have little incentive to conserve. I strongly suggest that a thorough tracking system of electric meters and functions be implemented for all city facilities, and that responsibility and accountability be assigned to the appropriate department head or manager for energy use at each facility. This would ensure that the situation that happened with the Mallory Square property would not happen again, and would also allow any other irregularities to be monitored more easily.
Lighting and electronics use is another area that should be closely examined in an effort to conserve energy and costs. Installing motion sensors and/or timers at many city facilities would dramatically decrease the electricity use at times lights are not needed; for example, ball fields, tennis courts, bathrooms, exterior security lighting. I hope you will take the opportunity to consult with representatives from Graybar or other lighting companies about possible upgrades to bulbs and fixtures that would save significant energy use in a very short payback period. I am not recommending one company over another, but I know that a meeting with Graybar has been proposed and I think it is worthwhile to find out what the latest technology has to offer.
I know you all have a very difficult job to prudently manage the city’s needs in these dire economic circumstances and I thank you for your service to the city. I hope you will realize that the difficulties we are facing also offer opportunities to work smarter, by putting systems in place that will lead to greater conservation and efficiency, and will be of economic benefit to the city for years to come.
Thank you for your consideration of my comments.
Sincerely,
Jody Smith Williams
Key West
