‘Bleeding us dry’: KCK residents protest BPU proposed rate hikes in water, electric bills

At 91-years-old, Maudella Hall of the Quindaro neighborhood said she can barely pay her Kansas City, Kansas utility bill.

When temperatures dropped to the low single-digits last winter and wind chills of 35 degrees below zero blew across the metro, Hall did not turn on her heat.

She just put on more clothes.

“People called me all the time to say ‘Put your heat on’ and I said ‘But I can’t afford to pay it.”

On Wednesday night, she sat in the first row of a Board of Public Utilities conference room with at least 30 others, each waiting to speak out against a proposed rise in water and electric rates.

General Manager of the BPU Bill Johnson told the disapproving crowd that residents and businesses are increasingly moving from the eastern side of the county to the west, leaving the remaining customers to foot the bill as more financial strain befalls the publicly owned utility.

“I know its never an easy thing to ask our board to increase rates and to have our community be satisfied with that,” he said.

Johnson explained the utility had cut its budget by $42 million and laid-off about 10% of its staff since 2018 to stay afloat.

While a rate change has yet to be agreed upon by board members, BPU staff are proposing a rise in water bills by around 6% through 2025 and a rise in electric energy bills by about 2.5% through 2024 in order to meet financial targets, according to Chief Financial Officer Lori Austin.

Ty Gorman, a spokesman for the Sierra Club, an environmental advocacy organization, said his neighbors are “rightfully angry” in a Wednesday statement.

Research by the group showed residential customers in Kansas City, Kansas are already paying among the highest percentage of their income on utilities in the state.

Like many of the community members at the meeting, Hall’s jaw hung open as she watched the three-hour-long procession of studies and PowerPoint charts revealing major revenue losses for the BPU.

“It’s getting so frustrating,” she said. “They know the situation we’re dealing with in Northeast areas and they’re going to do nothing.”

‘It’s been a challenge’

General Manager Bill Johnson said there are a wide range of issues plaguing the utility during his opening statements.

The BPU has not raised water rates for customers since 2013. Electric energy rates were last increased by the utility in 2018, he said.

Despite this, customers are using less electric energy. And one of the utility’s largest wholesale customers, the City of Bonner Springs, is building its own water treatment facility.

“That’s going to be a big loss in revenue,” Johnson said.

The utility has yet to recover from pressures caused by inflation, he said, or the multiple moratoriums issued to help residents struggling to pay utility costs during the pandemic.

Pipes, transformers and chemicals used to treat the city’s water are getting more expensive. This has led to a shortage in supplies and forced the utility to delay renovations to aging infrastructure.

Some of the Kansas City, Kansas water mains are up to 90-years-old, according to Steve Green, Executive Director of Water Operations.

One main by 12th Street and Kansas Avenue is in serious need of repair, he said.

“Over the years the river has eroded the soil. And so now it is dangerous and we need to replace it.”

Residents groaned and shook their heads as more million dollar projects were proposed to improve infrastructure.

Johnson urged residents to speak to their local representatives about allocating money to pursue development in Northeast communities, as well as those in the west.

“It’s been a challenge for all of us,” Johnson said.

‘My residential survival’

Quindaro resident Evelyn Hawthorne said her blood pressure went up every time she checked in on 91-year-old Hall over the winter.

“It was very dangerous,” Hawthorne said of the lack of heat in Hall’s home.

She considers Hall family, as do her 5-year-old and 6-year-old grandchildren, who Hawthorne brought to the late night BPU meeting.

The four sat together, trading strained faces as BPU staff presented their findings, justifying the rise in utility bills.

Hawthorne felt the plea for community members to shoulder higher costs was disrespectful since General Manager Bill Johnson’s salary continues to rise.

A report by The Star revealed the BPU paid Johnson $270,000 in 2019 and his salary in 2023 is expected to be around $349,226. In 2024, his salary is projected to be around $366,687.

“I’m tired of everybody attaching themself to my residential survival. We need water, lights, gas and food. We need the basic parts of life to live. This is no joke. This is real,” she said. “I cannot start a college fund for my grand babies.”

“The BPU doesn’t appreciate the money that the residential area has given them,” Hawthorne added.

She pointed to a poster hanging on the wall of the conference room that read: “We believe in the power of community because, quite simply, this is our community, too.”

Hawthorne scoffed.

“How is this your community when you’re bleeding us dry?” Hawthorne said.

Just before it came time for the public comment section of the meeting around 10 p.m., Hawthorne stood up, frustrated that a question she had submitted was not being answered. She refused to sit back down and police escorted her, Hall and the grandchildren outside the building.

Other residents were similarly threatened with being removed from the room as the crowd grew restless.

Multiple residents spoke to board members, requesting they find ways to expand their green energy portfolios to lower costs.

Adrianne Matlock, who works with Groundwork NRG, a neighborhood revitalization group for the Northeast, contended the studies being used to justify the rate hikes neglected to mention federal funding available to the utility for pursuing renewable energy sources.

She also said none of the studies presented took the community’s perspectives into account and referred to them as “ethically negligent.”

The meeting stopped around 11 p.m. and continued into Thursday morning at 9 a.m.

Board members said they plan on voting on the new rates, which will vary across the area, in July.