Friday, February 5, 2016

A LETTER FROM DR. GREG SCHMIDT, MAYOR, WHY WE VOTED NO, SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT - FEB. 4, 2016

SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT - This letter by Mayor Greg Schmidt was published in this week’s (2/4/16) issue of the Gazette.

To the Editor:

Here in the village over the last two weeks, there has been a significant amount of discussion about a pilot program in New York State called Community Choice Aggregation (CCA). A good bit of this discussion has included inaccurate or outright false information. I’d like to set the record straight.

At the January 19, 2016 Village Board meeting, our board chose, as other communities in Westchester have similarly done, to decline to participate in this pilot program at this time. While all of the board members who voted against participation generally agree with what we believe are the goals of such a program, we voted against participation in the program at this time because of our principled concerns about the lack of public outreach regarding the details of the program in the months after the enabling law was passed by the prior village board, the uncertainty about whether residents and small businesses would actually save money, and the lack of transparency and accountability of Sustainable Westchester (SW), the not for profit corporation which will be the administrator of the program.

In addition, there was another, overarching concern. Our approval of the CCA as an opt-out program would change the relationship between Croton residents and Con Ed by inserting the Board of Trustees in the middle. This is unprecedented in New York State. Since most people pay no attention to the details of their Con Ed bill, we knew it was likely that many busy residents, senior citizens, small business owners, or anyone else who didn't respond to or understand the significance of the communications they received about the program – which in many cases would be their first and only direct communication from the village about it – could end up paying more for their energy costs because we opted them in without their express consent or understanding.

Although the NYS Public Service Commission approved the opt-out plan SW requested for the pilot program, it also stated that “the Commission has had a longstanding policy, underlying the Uniform Business Practices and implementation of retail choice programs, that affirmative customer consent is required in order for a customer to change suppliers.” We have made the decision that the village will not be joining the initial round of the CCA. However, to serve those village residents who wish to participate in such a program on an individual basis, we will continue to work with SW to prioritize the implementation of an opt-in option for Croton residents, and residents of the many other municipalities in Westchester which have chosen, as we have, to decline participation in the first round.

Dr. Gregory Schmidt
Mayor

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8 comments:

  1. And many thanks. Linda

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  2. Again thank you all. I'm also in touch with our town board officials and they have no intentions of putting this on the agenda for the so-called deadline that moves all over place of February 16th.

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  3. Thanks guys. if I wanted to be involved in leo's world, I would have voted for him. Look at the numbers from November. The people have spoken.

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  4. I hope this is the end of this. I'm sick of it.Let 'em scream. Budget season is coming and right now, staying under the cap, if that is even possible with the mess the new board inherited, is all i care about. I need the rebate check. Do your best guys.

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  5. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, for your logic, common sense, and truthfulness. To be contrasted with the truthiness of the last administration.

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  6. Not interested in this program at all. Thanks guys.

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  7. Really tired of this. The answer was no. If this program is really good, we'll know 6 months or whatever the next round is. Until then, you do NOT have my permission to put me in anything to do with anything run by these people, end of story, do not pass go. Thank you Mayor Schmidt, Trustees Anderson and Walsh.

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  8. In total agreement Don. Not interested in this for a lot of reasons. I thank the mayor and Anderson and Walsh for their votes.

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