The Better Clarksdale Foundation
To: Citizens of Clarksdale
From: The Better Clarksdale Foundation
Re: The fight for fair utility services
Dear Citizens,
It has been made abundantly clear to us that we will not achieve a fair and equitable understanding between the people of Clarksdale and Clarksdale Public Utilities through reasonable process.
It is air and apparent that changes need to me made for the good of the citizens of Clarksdale. Exorbitant utility costs are sinking citizens deeper into an insurmountable debt. By the end of the year the average Clarksdale citizen could be several hundred dollars in arrearage on just their utilities.
At the last CPU board meeting where we were not allowed to present, we noticed something that Is very telling. Clarksdale Public Utilities considers Clarksdale citizens to be “customers” and citizens are only allowed to make “comments” at board meetings. Nothing could be further from the correct. Clarksdale citizens are “Stakeholders” [in] CPU and not customers [of] CPU. CPU’s manager and board are not the owners but the employees of the collective citizen body and each citizen of the Municipality of Clarksdale, Mississippi is in fact a stakeholder in their own utilities company.
The end-goal of the Better Clarksdale Foundation is to bring the citizens of Clarksdale and the management of CPU together to create an “entrustment agreement” that allows CPU to operate efficiently based upon the expressed needs of the citizen body and not in the autonomous fashion by which it currently operates. The rate payer’s bill of rights is a part of said agreement.
Recent interviews and investigations have revealed issues that will require official entities to sort out. We have discovered issues that are not just improper but some that raise legal concerns.
In the very near future we will be asking the Governor’s Office to direct the state’s PEER organization to conduct a full investigation into the operations of Clarksdale Public Utilities.
In the meantime we will continue to work relentlessly to bring attention to this cause. We have begun a campaign of video recording testimony of our senior residents. We are asking citizens to save and photo copy all utility bills and please contact us by phone or email if you have information to share.
As we understand that faith without work is dead we must know that voting without activism is also dead.
I challenge each and every citizen to write a personal letter in your own hand to your commissioner, Supervisor, Mayor, State Representative and your governor. All of these individuals work for you and should be speaking up on your behalf. Also noticeably silent on this issue is the NAACP!?
Thank you
While we are still in the process of constructing the Better Clarksdale Foundation, please contact either Marvin Reddick or Stanley Clark at the following phones and or emails:
Marvin Reddick: 404 281 6347, jabarimuata@yahoo.com
Stanley Clark: 662 313 7821, stanleyclark55@yahoo.com
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