Campbell in negotiations to sell city-owned utility services

The Campbell, Mo., power plant is the center of attention involving discussions regarding the sale of the system between the city of Campbell, Ozark Border Electric Cooperative, and Pemiscot-Dunklin Electric Cooperative.

Staff photo by George Anderson

According to Gunter, "there is a whole lot of misinformation, outright distortions, and worse being put out there saying that the City of Campbell and its elected officials are to blame" for the current high cost of electricity in the city.

"To set the record straight," Gunter said, "I feel the need to respond personally to the good citizens of Campbell so that you will know the clear facts."

According to Gunter, the Campbell Board of Aldermen decided "the interests of Campbell's citizens would be best served by the City selling its electric utility system for the best price it could obtain and getting out of the electric business."

Gunter said the primary factor in that decision was the ever-increasing cost of running an electric utility, "especially the cost of power we buy from others to be able to serve [the City's] electrical needs." Gunter said selling the city's system would bring "much lower electric rates" to the city.

"Since that decision has been reached, the City's officials have worked very hard to find a capable and qualified buyer and complete a sale of the system as quickly as we could," Gunter said. "And we have made considerable progress toward that goal by overcoming some overwhelming obstacles."

Gunter said one such obstacle was the claim by the City's current electric supplier, Missouri Joint Municipal Electric Utility Commission (MJMEUC), saying the city was obligated to buy all its power from them for the next 30-years.

"With the help of special legal counsel, we persuaded MJMEUC that Campbell has no such obligation, which opened the door for us to be able to sell the electric system to a qualified supplier for the best price we could get," Gunter said. "To be able to transition to a situation where we could sell the system and get a new provider to serve [the citizens], it was necessary that we continue buying power from MJMEUC on a temporary basis."

Gunter said that MJMEUC decided to take advantage of the opportunity and marked up the price of the power they sell to the city by about 20-percent over the old price, up to about 15-cents per kilowatt-hour, one of the highest rates in the nation. Six of the 50 states currently pay 15 or more cents per kilowatt-hour on average, according to the Average Revenue per Kilowatt-hour from Retail Sales to Ultimate Consumers by Sector and by State report.

"This made their already high charges to the City of Campbell even higher and [the citizen's] monthly bills directly reflect the effect of MJMEUC's decision," Gunter said.

Once over the MJMEUC hurdle, Gunter said the City began to seek qualified buyers for the city's utility system.

"The City was fortunate in that we had two parties express a genuine interest in buying the system," Gunter said, noting that both Ozark Border Electric Cooperative and Pemiscot-Dunklin Electric Cooperative had made offers.

"When the bidding and preliminary discussions were done, Pemiscot-Dunklin had offered to pay $600,000 more for our system than did Ozark Border," Gunter said. "In addition, the City would retain existing bucket and digger trucks worth approximately $50,000. To get the best price for the City's electric distribution system, we worked to finalize a contract with Pemiscot-Dunklin. This decision was confirmed by the City voters in the ballot initiative passed on April 7, 2009 regarding the sale of the electric system."

In April, Campbell Proposition E, the selling of the utility system, was passed by a majority vote of the Campbell's citizens; 434 for the sale and 90 against.

"It would appear, however, that the board of directors and management of Ozark Border hate to lose, even in the context of a fair and honest 'best price' bidding process," Gunter said, adding that it seems as if Ozark Border is trying to prevent or delay the City of Campbell from completing its deal with Pemiscot-Dunklin.

Gunter said Ozark Border recently filed with the Public Service Commission (PSC) that they had a binding contract with Campbell to buy the City's system and that Campbell was now violating that contract.

According to a representative from the PSC, no such filing has been made by Ozark Border.

According to Stanley Estes, general manager of Ozark Border, his company has not filed with the PSC against the City of Campbell. Estes said his company's lawyer is the one who made that claim, but that it is not currently valid.

Estes said Ozark Border thought that it and the City of Campbell had an agreement, however, "nothing was put in writing."

Estes said that he has recently been in talks with Gunter and 'feels that the atmosphere between Ozark Border and the City of Campbell has changed,' and he feels the two parties will have another meeting soon to work out their differences.

Attempts to contact Gunter after speaking with Ozark Border were unsuccessful, however, a follow-up story will appear in the Wednesday edition of the Daily Dunklin Democrat.