Item 2-Letter Regarding Free Central AC Units_Chris Strand — original pdf

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Members of the Low Income Consumer Advisory Task Force, I am writing to express strong protest for the group’s setting of a special called meeting set for Friday, August 14 while I was out of town at a time that I cannot attend and without my consultation. This meeting concerns a very controversial subject that I strongly disagree with: giving away expensive central air conditioners as part of the free weatherization program. It’s curious why this item that we have discussed several times in the past all of a sudden needed a special meeting. Whether intended or not, setting this meeting while I am out of town and without conferring with me appear deliberate and manipulative. Why the Task Force would even consider such an extremely expensive measure when there are so many other important priorities is short sighted. The payback in energy savings from installing free central air conditioning units is 60 plus years! The resolution that created us calls for finding effective measures to service low and moderate income residents. Wasting limited resources to provide free central units is a huge disservice to the tens of thousands of low and moderate income residents we are tasked to help. In contrast there are no special meetings called to create demand reduction goals as specifically called for in our Charter. In fact, we have several much more cost effective ideas left to discuss and vote on in the short time we have left. This one issue is being exaggerated at the expense of everything else. I request that this special called meeting be postponed and set for a time that I can attend, and that any future meetings be posted on our Web site at least two weeks in advance so all task members and the community can plan their schedule accordingly. Chris Strand