OPD Meltdown Is Our Fault

In last week's Mesquite Citizen Journal, John Taylor did an extraordinary job of breaking down and explaining why the Overton Power District has now been downgraded by two financial rating agencies, and may have trouble meeting its bond payments in years to come.

Following that tremendous article was a litany of comments from people ready to assign blame.  According to those comments, OPD's collapse can be attributed to: A) The Good Ole Boys   B) The Mormons  C) Mesquite City Hall  D) Susan Holecheck Haters.

You want the truth?

It's your fault.

It's my fault.

It's OUR fault.

Quickie Quiz time: name two people on the last ballot for the OPD board.

Can't do it, can you?

Most people in our area can't, unless they happen to be related to some of the people who got elected (which, when you look at our demographic, is about a half-degree of separation).

At election time, everyone wants to point fingers and call each other names over which cartoon character appears on their pajamas.  We also want to live and die in support or opposition of whoever is to ultimately wind up in the White House.  During municipal elections, fist fights will even occasionally break out over which mayoral or council candidate is best suited to continue the dysfunctional city parade.

The rest of the offices, like Virgin Valley Water District or Overtop Power District boards?  It's like playing phone book Bingo...closing your eyes and running your finger down the page of listings.  Wherever it stops, that's who gets your vote.

We don't pay attention to who's running for those seats because it's just too much work to actually Google somebody other than Kim Kardashian.  As a result, everybody flies under the radar.  The most recognizable name is often the one that gets the vote, even though that name is recognizable only because it's been a part of the same marginally-competent board for years. 

Then you have the reality of politics exposed in the Richard Pryor movie "Brewster's Millions," when Pryor's character asks why any candidate would spend more on a campaign than they would earn in the office, unless they intended to steal it all back once elected. 

Board members at VVWD and OPD get paid peanuts, in some instances less than $5,000 a year.  You're simply not going to recruit the best talent to run anything for that kind of money.  The best we can hope for is to get our money's worth. 

Then you have the issue of proximity.

OPD's headquarters is in Overton -- population 6,924 according to the last census.  Meanwhile, 15,423 of OPD's customers live in Mesquite.  Most of those 15,423 are not going to make the 40-minute trip to Moapa Valley to attend those board meetings, so there is almost no public oversight from rate payers at this end of the jurisdiction. 

Put all of this into one big hatbox and you have an agency that operates autonomously.  No one is paying attention.

Nobody cares until their rates go up (which has happened twice in the last three years, and will certainly go up again in the next two years).  And somehow, even rate increases don't seem to raise the ire of the populace in this part of the country.  There were no protests or public outcry over the last two gouges, and there won't be one for the next.

If the people of Mesquite truly want a better way to go, it can be done.  The City can petition the legislature and attempt to form a new Mesquite Power District.  Only then could we have more of a say over our own electrical destinies, including the possibility of wind and solar power.  As Taylor's report points out, OPD can't and won't pursue those possibilities until 2018 at the earliest, and the truth is they aren't going to do it even then.  The board is content to buy everybody else's surplus power at whatever outrageous rate is offered, then insist "alternative energy is just too expensive."

As the largest of the communities currently served by OPD, we should have our own power district.

But we won't.

It's too much work to petition and press the legislature, pony up the seed money, and create a new entity.

Sadly, that is the crux of our problem as a community and a nation.

We whine and cry about our lousy politicians, but we continue to elect and re-elect them.

We are lazy.  We don't care, we don't take our responsibilities seriously as citizens, and we refuse to do our due diligence as voters and stewards.

And we'll all wind up paying for our sloth in the form of higher and higher and higher bills for water and electric.

It's not the LDS church's fault.  At least members of that religion are stepping up to fill those board spots, and bothering to vote.

It's not the City of Mesquite's fault, since they do not rule, control, or even significantly influence the independent OPD board.

It's not Susan Holecheck's fault, or the fault of her detractors.

It's not even really the fault of the good old boys. 

It's our fault.

And until we get serious about paying attention to these semi-governmental agencies, agencies we actually control in some measure through our votes, incompetence and corruption will continue to be the order of the day in this part of Nevada.