He urged Mayor Street and City Council to fast-track the process and sell this company." 
Perzel said, "The PUC says PGW can save $68 million a year by simply becoming a well-run business. The problem is, there is no way PGW as it now exist, will ever become a well-run business. The fact the audit found numerous ways for the company to generate additional income through reasonable. Common sense business practices shows me a sale is viable" Perzel said the report by the independent Barrington Welleseley Group revealed PGW's mismanagement was much worse than he thought. "Even though I knew there were a lot of bad things going on," he sad, " I was shocked by the audit's revelations and PGW's lackadaisical response to the most serious issues." 

Perzel said the report should serve as a foundation document for the House Judiciary Committee' s upcoming investigate on of PGW' s high gas rates. He has been in the fight against PGW mismanagement and its attempts to force higher rates upon city residents who depend on natural gas for heat. hot water and cooking. Perzel led the legislative effort that placed PGW under the jurisdiction of the independent. quasi-judicial Public Utility Commission rather than the city's politically-motivated gas commission. He recently testified before the PUC. opposing the company's proposed $65 million base rate increase. He said the audit confirms his arguments against the increase.

"My constituents tell me about the horrible customer service situation at PGW. The report paints an even bleaker picture. It is a tragedy. PGW has understaffed, under trained , and grossly neglected its customer service operation."

The independent audit found that it took customers an average of 39 minutes to get a response to their calls on billing and current service questions. The auditors concluded customers could get reasonable service if all customer service personnel were present and billing and service functions were consolidated. It found hundreds of customers waiting at least six months to get answers to questions or resolve billing issues. 

"Three employees had more than 70 days of consecutive absenteeism," Perzel said, citing the audit. "Two of those employees were off work because of foot injuries. The company could not explain to the auditors how foot injuries prevented these people from answering the telephone."

Another major element of the report focused on PGW s had debt write-off practices, an area Perzel has sharply criticized. The report showed about one out of six PGW customer accounts was chronically delinquent in 1998. No figures were available for 1999 and 2000 because of PGW's now infamous computer problems. It said the company could save $28 million annually by meeting industry standards for bad-debt write-offs.

"The audit said it best", commented Perzel, "when it stated 'PGW does not consistently perform credit checks... take large enough deposits... or report customer delinquency to credit bureaus [and] 's shut-off policy... is too lenient."

"Hard-working customers who pay their hills on time are penalized," he noted. Their bills are higher because others know they can ignore their bills and get away with it."

Back ...