The Jamestown Board of Public Utilities (BPU) has a long and successful history of serving the region. The BPU, now in its 124th year of operation, continues to provide competitive electrical rates and the provision of other key services needed for businesses to retain and grow jobs. Key to the success of the BPU has been a strong management team and a skilled workforce. We applaud the work of the team at the BPU and we strongly support the management team at the utility. It is because of the BPU that many businesses chose to locate in this area and the reason why many of us have been able to keep our businesses in Jamestown. Without the BPU many area companies would not be in business today or would not be operating in New York. The BPU is a critical economic engine of the community. The team at the BPU is responsive to the needs of businesses and homeowners. This is a sign of good management and a strong workforce.

The energy market and the economy as a whole are dynamic and are experiencing major shifts. We are fortunate that the BPU is very well managed by a team of staff working in what is a very challenging and changing environment. Energy markets and energy production are a complicated business. The BPU team has to understand federal, state and local regulations, the energy market, the process of manufacturing energy, how and when to make capital investments in equipment, maintenance of complicated equipment, working within the parameters of contracts and practicing sound financial management. On top of the responsibilities of managing the electrical division, the utility also facilitates bringing water to our doors, cleaning waste water and collecting garbage. Managing the BPU is an enormous responsibility which requires multiple skills to achieve successfully.

David Leathers, general manager of the BPU, has done a stellar job of managing the BPU. He is a strong leader, knowledgeable of the utility business and responsive to the needs of customers. It was because of Leathers’ strong leadership and management skills, long history of work in the community and in private organizations, that the Chamber of Commerce recognized Mr. Leathers as its Person of the Year in 2009. Our observation is that Mr. Leathers is also smart enough to know what he does not know and has surrounded himself with a hard-working and intelligent team of professionals. That is good leadership. Yet, despite the stellar job performance of Mr. Leathers and the rest of the team at the BPU we are concerned about the utilities future as well as the future of the management team. We have witnessed the mayor of Jamestown remove voices from the BPU that disagreed with his policy directives. This is rather unfortunate considering that the purpose of public boards is to have deliberation and debate policy. Yet, that was too much of an inconvenience for this mayor so he removed these voices of reason. On New Year’s Eve of 2016, the mayor wiped out 100 years of collective experience from the board. These were people knowledgeable of the complexities of the utility. So, what is to stop a mayor who has been on a mission to take full control of the utility from dismissing the current management team? What is to the stop the mayor from managing the utility like one more department of the City of Jamestown? We cannot allow this to happen. The business community and the community as a whole need a strong utility if we are to retain and grow jobs. A strong utility is built on a foundation of strong management and a skilled workforce. Now that the mayor got rid of three strong voices at the board table we would hope that he does not have a competent and capable management team in his sights for dismissal.

David Dawson is president of Dawson Metal Companies and member of the Chamber of Commerce and Manufacturers Association of the Southern Tier Public Policy Committee