By Karen Middleton
Athens is about to hire a new Utilities general manager since being without someone in that position for a decade.
The job comes down to two candidates: Electric Department Manager Gary Scroggins and Gas Department Manager Steve Carter. Depending on which one the City Council chooses, the new general manager will have to wear two hats because there are no plans to hire or promote someone to be in charge of either department.
Both Scroggins and Carter told the council in open employment interviews Thursday that they can handle both jobs – with adequate compensation to reflect the doubling of workload. Scroggins has been with the city for 12 years and Carter for 33 years.
Scroggins was first in the hot seat when the council met early Thursday in Mayor Dan William’s conference room.
There has been no Utilities general manager since the retirement of Tom Craven in the late 1990s. Since then, Utility department heads have come directly to the council for requests. In the council’s last regular meeting they decided to once again hire a general manager to streamline the process and better coordinate services.
Both candidates were asked how the Utilities could get more money into the General Fund.
“I know you’re not filthy rich,” said Council President Johnny Crutcher. “But you have a money flow that needs to flow into the General Fund, possibly through a gross receipts tax.”
“The city owns the Utilities, manages them and is responsible for the debt,” said Scroggins. “The city is entitled to a return on that debt. The council makes the policy decisions. What I would commit to doing is give you all the information you need and be as transparent as possible. Once you decide, I would support you 100 percent.”
Carter said that he realizes the city is bound by legislation that says it can only charge 2 percent more for power than what it purchases it for from TVA and there is no more revenue to be made from the transaction.
“I’ve looked at power buying and power selling,” said Carter. “But the Utilities get other revenues that could be funneled to the General Fund. Right now, we’re getting $2.8 million a year in aid-to-construction. TVA doesn’t own that. We own the poles and the infrastructure.”
Both Scroggins and Carter were asked what they would do to improve customer service and relations, about which the council members said their constituents complain.
Scroggins acknowledged that customer service procedures need to be updated.
“Customer volume has increased 30 percent over the last three years, but we’re still doing things like we did 12 years ago,” said Scroggins. “We need to look at it from the top to the bottom to see if there is a better way to do things and get the information quicker and more efficiently to the customers.
“We need to give them a brochure when they pay their bills on how to pay through bank draft or online so they don’t have to come into the office every month. We need better traffic flow both inside and in the drive-through window. Possibly we could add another window. Also, we could find a place on the east side of the county for payments. There are banks in Ardmore and Elkmont who take our payments, but nothing on the east side.”
Carter said Customer Service people need a brush up in telephone etiquette and supervisors need a way of following up to see if customers’ complaints have been answered.
“I put a tracking system on all the vehicles in the gas department to make sure they went on the calls,” said Carter. “It gives a means of following up.”
When asked their greatest accomplishments since coming to work for Athens Utilities, Scroggins listed: no rate increases in 12 years (only those incurred by the increase in power passed along from TVA), two new electrical substations and the cutting of losses by thousands of dollars a year.
Carter listed his achievements as the securing funding and building “Leak City,” a testing facility on Sanderfer Road that municipal and private gas companies from across the nation use to train workers in safety; the replacements of all cast iron gas pipes throughout the city and increasing natural gas customers from 3,000 up to 7,000.
