He really needs to read the room

To all our Austin citizens who are furious about the ongoing power outage, you’re right.

There must be accountability. pic.twitter.com/iA6vYwzPzM

— Mayor Kirk Watson (@KirkPWatson) February 6, 2023

BurnetAggie99 said:

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Mayor and council looking for a scapegoat or scapegoats

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I live in PEC territory, not Austin Energy, but yes that reads like "I, the Mayor of the city, and the City Council are powerless when it comes to the city Utility department. Therefore we put all blame on the City Manager".

Meanwhile mayor and city council touted slashing $42.5 million from utility budget back the same year the city manager was hired. https://www.kxan.com/news/austin-energy-rates-cut-budget-slashed-for-2017/

What do AE customers feel led to this - lack of preventative maintenance or not enough staff to quickly recover power? Both PEC and ONCOR had massive number of outages too, but as a percentage of total customers it looked like lesser impact to users and by end of yesterday 99% of customers had power back.

BurnetAggie99 said:

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Mayor and council looking for a scapegoat or scapegoats

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The buck has to stop somewhere, and in this case I think I'm okay with it stopping at our $388,000/year city manager.

From my ring camera

I feel for these people

You live in my hood?

Closer than you think!

Actually I have no idea, but if we're getting the same ring reports than I guess haha

I'm closer to the reporter here

Oh wow! Yep.

Hope people get their power back on

Getting ridiculous

Aston 91 said:

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BurnetAggie99 said:

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Mayor and council looking for a scapegoat or scapegoats

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The buck has to stop somewhere, and in this case I think I'm okay with it stopping at our $388,000/year city manager.

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What about the CEO of Austin Energy? Seems more culpable than the CM. And Council is the primary party to blame. They set policy and rates for AE. But you do you.

Wahoo82 said:

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Aston 91 said:

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BurnetAggie99 said:

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Mayor and council looking for a scapegoat or scapegoats

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The buck has to stop somewhere, and in this case I think I'm okay with it stopping at our $388,000/year city manager.

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What about the CEO of Austin Energy? Seems more culpable than the CM. And Council is the primary party to blame. They set policy and rates for AE. But you do you.

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CEO makes $418,000 a year

Hopefully he is earning it

MarathonAg12 said:

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Wahoo82 said:

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Aston 91 said:

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BurnetAggie99 said:

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Mayor and council looking for a scapegoat or scapegoats

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The buck has to stop somewhere, and in this case I think I'm okay with it stopping at our $388,000/year city manager.

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What about the CEO of Austin Energy? Seems more culpable than the CM. And Council is the primary party to blame. They set policy and rates for AE. But you do you.

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CEO makes $418,000 a year

Hopefully she is earning it

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She's been out front on every press conference while Watson deflects and council hides.

What this address. Also if they can get me a pole number off a pole on their property or next door. The pole tags are yellow background with black letters. I will see if a ticket work order has been assigned if not I will make one. When I make a ticket work order it automatically assigns to a crew

I can look

Thanks brother

Also we have guys in trucks that are inspectors trying to ride out the lines/or walking the lines in back lots doing adamage assessment. They are tracking what they see to get ahead of the crews.

78757 checking in on Day 7. We're in the lead with 1,767.

Potcake said:

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MarathonAg12 said:

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Wahoo82 said:

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Aston 91 said:

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BurnetAggie99 said:

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Mayor and council looking for a scapegoat or scapegoats

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The buck has to stop somewhere, and in this case I think I'm okay with it stopping at our $388,000/year city manager.

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What about the CEO of Austin Energy? Seems more culpable than the CM. And Council is the primary party to blame. They set policy and rates for AE. But you do you.

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CEO makes $418,000 a year

Hopefully she is earning it

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She's been out front on every press conference while Watson deflects and council hides.

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Not trying to be argumentative, but the answer to me is if she had AE on a proactive tree trimming program before the ice storm, there probably would not have been a need for a press conference.

In my mind, and based on the GMs of most utilities I have worked with over the years, they are paid to be proactive, not reactive.

Back in the game!

Potcake said:

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Back in the game!

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Does Austin Energy reimburse you for the food in the freezer and fridge?

Probably not AE. Insurance will after deductible.

MarathonAg12 said:

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Potcake said:

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Back in the game!

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Does Austin Energy reimburse you for the food in the freezer and fridge?

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I heard on the news that it is possible, but it would come from disaster relief funds that Austin and Travis county are applying for. Maybe Austin Energy has some options there as well, but I did not hear that mentioned.

No clue how one would go about trying to prove that they lost food and an associated dollar amount to go along with that.

When had a claim from the tornado the food loss was honor system. You estimated the loss and if reasonable by the adjuster they paid.

I said 'if deemed reasonable'.

MarathonAg12 said:

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Potcake said:

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Back in the game!

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Does Austin Energy reimburse you for the food in the freezer and fridge?

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Meh, ate most everything before it went bad. I'm just happy to have electricity. Not every calamity requires free stuff. Thanks AE.

Sir this is Austin

There will be an opportunity to make some claims. When I know the exact steps you I'll share it

Just some more BS we keep dealing with trying to restore power. Heat it up and primary burns down and the trees in areas council would not let us trim continues to make us do more work and slow us down.

MarathonAg12 DM your address I'm going to personally come get with you tomorrow

The tree trimming issue blows my mind.
I've never seen anywhere else where trees are allowed to grow into the power lines. People plant trees under lines and then don't like that they have to be trimmed.

I hope someone over there is feeding info to news outlets so that the proper people catch flak for this.

If you call 311, will they come get your fallen tree branches? I have a huge pile on my curb.

https://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/austin-area-cities-offering-tree-limb-brush-collections-post-storm/

I haven't had to figure it out since all of my trees were OK and our hood was also scheduled for large brush collection this week or next.

ETA - if you want them gone quick, offer some cash to one of the tree trimming companies when they are at your neighbors.