Chris Brown worked for Singapore Power International and DTE
By Diane Bukowski
DETROIT – In January, Mayor Dave Bing appointed Chris Brown, who was a managing director of Singapore Power International, and previously a DTE Energy Executive Vice-President, as the the city’s Chief Operating Officer. In that role, he was given oversight of the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department.
Bing selected Brown because of his “wealth of corporate and operational expertise,” according to a news release from the Mayor’s office. Bing has not yet appointed an official DWSD director to replace Victor Mercado, now under federal indictment.
DTE CEO Anthony Earley (l) with Mayor Dave Bing at his side during 2010 Christmas tree lighting in Campus Martius
Brown replaced Robert Buckler, previously President of DTE Energy, a subsidiary of DTE, headed by Bing’s close ally and campaign contributor Anthony Earley.
Brown’s role in overseeing DWSD must be watched, said John Riehl, President of Local 207 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). Local 207 represents 3,000 DWSD workers.
“Since Brown comes from private utilities, we will see what direction he will take DWSD in,” Riehl said. His local has fought massive internal privatization under previous directors including Mercado, and the City Council vote last year to buy 100 percent of the Detroit’s power from DTE instead of using the Public Lighting Department.
DWSD workers and customers now have increased concerns as a new Board of Water Commissioners on which suburban appointees will have increased power over contracts and rates takes over in April (click on http://voiceofdetroit.net/?p=4544 to read VOD story.)
Singapore Power Building
Singapore Power was created in 1995 to take over the electricity and gas businesses of Singapore’s state provider, the Public Utilities Board. Since 2007, it has also owned Australia’s Alinta Limited, which was formed in 1995 to take over the role of the State Energy Commission of Western Australia. Alinta eventually bought out suppliers across Australia and New Zealand.
Customers of Singapore Power have increasingly complained of falsely inflated rates, according to an article in the July, 22, 2008 issue of Straits Times.
“A record number of complaints about overcharging for electricity were investigated by Singapore Power last month,” said the Times. “SP Services, the power company’s customer service arm, said it looked into 1,093 cases where customers had complained that their bills for May were higher than in previous months. . . . A Straits Times check of 100 households found many that also said their bills for last month had jumped. About 10 per cent said their charges went up by extraordinary amounts, of between 60 per cent and 113 per cent.”
The Times said SP Services claimed the rates were accurate. The paper predicted, however, that the alleged overcharges would continue in the future.
Alinta Energy logo
In January of this year, the Western Australia Council of Social Service (WACOSS) issued a release saying Alinta had the highest rate of customer shut-offs in the previous year, of the country’s utilities.
“Alinta’s disconnection rates reveal the most worrying data of the [Economic Regulation Authority] reports, increasing for the second year in a row. Alinta disconnected 17,223 households in 2009-10, compared to 12,942 in 2007-08,” said WACOSS.
“WACOSS cautions against further price hikes and calls for careful consideration of essential service affordability following the release of the performance reports on electricity and gas retailers by the independent regulator today.”
DTE demo July, 2009
DTE has been the subject of continuing demonstrations sponsored by the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization (MWRO) and other community groups for its draconian policies of shut-offs of heat and lights to thousands of its customers.
After toddlers Tro’vion, 4, Fantasia, 4 and Selena Young 3, died last March in a fire caused by a DTE shut-off, their grandmother Martha Young, said, “It sure was murder. My daughter begged the man not to shut her power off because there were babies in the house. He saw at least three or four of the children. She told him the utilities were included in her rent, but he wouldn’t wait for the landlord to get there. He said he was just doing his job.”
Travion, Selena and Fantasia Young, murdered by DTE
Seventeen people died that season as a result of shut-offs, said MWRO President Maureen Taylor.
“We recognize that DTE Energy is a private company, but it is subsidized by the people, by federal and state sources,” she declared. “DTE continually violates Michigan Public Service Commission regulations which give limited protection to seniors and low-income people. Utilities are necessary for life and should be protected as a human right. We demand an end to shutoffs for seniors, low-income people and the differently-abled all year round.”
MWRO has also demanded affordable water rates for Detroiters and an end to shut-offs of that basic necessity, which have continued unabated under the Bing administration.
Heat and Light are RIGHTS?
You figure you can just walk in and demand your rights, anywhere you go?
“Hey, I’m here. Turn up the heat.”
I think— you get what you pay for. THAT is a ‘right’. You are not in a country where it is legal for a business to take your money and give you NOTHING… after promising to give you SOMETHING. A company or individual promises to give you something or do something for you, at a certain rate. For every One dollar, they promise to give you One quart of gasoline, for example. If you give a dollar… and they give you a thimbleful, you sue. If you give a dollar, and they give you a truckload… you might not say anything, but they will ask for all but a quart back.
You get what you pay for. That is an ENFORCEABLE right, based on verbal and written contracts in the US.
‘gimme heat’ and ‘gimme electricity’ and ‘gimme light’ is not.
Unless you are the one who said Light BE.
Try it sometime, see how far YOUR word goes.
A right and a priviledge are different things.
We are priviledged to live in a country where we have the right to get what we pay for.
Unlike say… China. We could be over there paying for the right to express ourselves while learning at college… and get shot. Over there you have a RIGHT to … say only what’s approved.
No wonder this country is going down the tubes.
300 million people… of which 11 million pay taxes and the rest wait around demanding their RIGHTS and all the FREE stuff, paid for by somebody *else*.
Necessities of life like heat, light, water, food, health care, etc. are indeed human rights, not privileges. Other countries include them as such in their constitutions. What is the “right to get what you pay for” if you have no money to pay for it, are unemployed, cut off assistance, or otherwise deprived? In Ireland right now, where the country has always provided FREE WATER from its PUBLIC UTILITY (paid for from taxes) to the people, there are protests going on nationally against proposals to start a separate charge for water. Condescending attitudes like yours towards those who cannot pay (over one-third of Detroit families lives below the poverty line, and not by choice) only support the huge profits being made by the PRIVATE UTILITIES in the U.S. These utilities need to be nationalized and provide heat and light for the people, not for profit.
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