Spencer Pack, a resident in the City Center area, recently sent this email to Mayor Jackson and has given me permission to reproduce it here. It contains some interesting insights into the true degree of interest Questar and Rocky Mountain Power have in acquiring our gas and electric utilities. As usual, it doesn’t appear that the city, and specifically the mayor, was telling us the truth when they said that neither of these entities had any interest in buying us out.

Mayor,

I wanted to share with you some of my recent findings on the subject of our Utilities. I attended a city hall meeting on February 13th of this year. Where like everyone else, I shared my frustrations about our increased Utilities rates at that time. I had asked the question of “why our city was in the utilities business and if the city has every explored getting out of the business?” I was taken back when the response I received from a couple of your city council members was that Questar and Rocky mountain power wouldn’t possibly be interested in taking over our utilities grid. The overall tone was that our system would basically be too much of a burden to anyone of those companies. Which at the time, I thought okay they’ve already explored that option. So I decided to call Questar and Rocky Mountain power myself, so that I could hear from their lips the truth about the Utilities ever being an option of discussion. First, I called Questar, and I spoke to a couple of people there. I asked to speak to one of their Utah executives to find out if they’ve ever had talks with the city about taking over our utilities. I was surprised to hear that they have had talks a few times. They told me that the price that the city wants for their lines wasn’t what they were willing to pay. But that they were in discussions again. They are very interested in our utilities, especially with all of the growth out west. Why wouldn’t they want to service 25,000 + citizens privately, with the hopes of servicing all of the growth after that. So, I established that Questar is in fact interested in our city system. They do want it, even though I was told that private companies aren’t interested. Next I spoke to Rocky Mountain power. I spoke to an individual who covers the Utah county territory. He said that the city has never proposed a sales deal of any kind. But that Rocky Mountain power would be very interested in our utilities grid in Eagle Mountain. They asked me to tell you to call them, if you’d like to explore that option in the future. This was another example of the citizens being told one thing, but in reality the truth being another thing. We always hear the city officials boast that we are so transparent in Eagle Mountain city. I don’t believe that that is the case. The citizens should know if any negotiations have taken place or if any plan to take place. At the same time the city is at a crossroads. We have an opportunity for an exit strategy out of the utilities business, paying off our municipal bonds debt, and raising taxes if we need to make up the difference. Let’s get creative! I don’t think we can continue on this path of funding “big” town government all with Utilities Revenue. The residents deserve more than this. We need serious change! I’m hoping that tonight, we will get the change that we need to move forward in a positive direction. Thank you for your listening and I hope that you’ll remember who you represent.

Thanks,

Spencer Pack