8/20/13 |From the always inquiring Timberjay
COUNTY SCHOOLS
Utility savings fall short of expectations
Marshall Helmberger Overall utility savings at new schools in ISD 2142 have fallen short of projections.
REGIONAL – The utility bills are in on the first full year of operation under the St. Louis County School District’s controversial new facilities plan, and it appears the savings promised by consultant and general contractor Johnson Controls Inc. have fallen far short of expectations.
Back in 2009, as JCI sought to convince school board members and the public of the wisdom of its plan, company officials cited a wide range of cost savings, including an estimated $380,000 a year on utility costs. The company claimed that by reducing the number of schools, from seven K-12 facilities to four K-12 schools and a single elementary school, the district would significantly reduce its energy usage, and achieve substantial cost savings.
The school district spent $748,187 in the 2009-10 school year on utilities for the seven schools it operated at that time, according to the district’s own records. Those bills included the cost of heating fuels, electricity, and sewer and water.
Yet in the just-completed 2012-13 school year, the district paid slightly more in the same categories, despite operating fewer schools, and two newer schools.
In total, the district spent $750,696 on heating fuels, school electricity and sewer and water. That includes nearly $44,000 annually for technical oversight of its wastewater treatment facilities and municipal water supplies at its new North Woods and South Ridge schools, expenses it did not incur with its former school buildings.
While the district reduced its number of school buildings, consolidating school facilities has apparently saved the district very little. In the 09-10 school year, the school district spent $144,885 to operate the Albrook and Cotton schools combined. The district paid just under $142,000 for utilities this past school year at the new South Ridge School, which replaced those two former schools.
In the same issue Editor Helmberger also wrote this:
What surprises me is that the Legislature will react so aggressively when the abuses amount to a few tens or hundreds of thousand of dollars, but will ignore massive conflicts of interest that entail hundreds of millions and even billions in tax dollars. They swat at the gnats, and leave the elephants, like Johnson Controls Inc., peacefully munching on our tax dollars.
JCI makes millions by engaging in the most open and obvious conflicts of interest on a daily basis, and state officials routinely give the company their blessing in spite of it.
