Community members speak at town hall to discuss public takeover of RG&E
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ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Metro Justice hosted a town hall on Monday night to discuss turning RG&E into a public utility company.
Advocates held a town hall at the Rochester Public Library on South Avenue. Organizers say the goal of the town hall was to encourage more city leaders to support a public takeover of RG&E.
It comes as RG&E proposes a nearly 20% rate increase and amid continued billing issues that News10NBC has reported on for months. Last night, community members had a chance to share their frustrations.
“In June, they called me and said they need a meter reading. They hadn’t done a meter read in a while,” said one community member. “So I gave them a meter reading. In July, they sent me a bill for $2,700. They just lie to you. The last girl that I talked to, she said, ‘you know everyone is complaining, if I were you I’d just call a lawyer’.”
City Councilmembers Miguel Melendez and Stanley Martin were at that meeting.
The first town hall to discuss a public takeover, led by City Council vice president Mary Lupien and Metro Justice, was on October 27. Speakers discussed how making RG&E public could improve its affordability, accountability, and carbon emissions. The public would need to vote before RG&E could become public.
More about billing issues with RG&E:
- Frustrated homebuilder encounters more problems with RG&E
- Greece housing development slowed over struggles to get RG&E power
- RG&E billing chaos continues
- RG&E Customers protest at Rochester City Hall
- Business customers having issues with RG&E too
- New Business Spends 17+ Hours Trying to Get RG&E to Hook up Gas Line
- NYS regulators launch new investigation into RG&E
- RG&E President: ‘We’re in the storm’ of customer service issues
- City leaders flipping the switch, wanting to take over RG&E
- RG&E threatening to shut off customers for uninspected meters
- Lifespan Helping Elderly Customers Worried about High RG&E Bills
- Public hearings begin on RG&E and NYSEG rate hike requests
- RG&E president responds to billing issues and PSC penalty
- RG&E penalized $900,000 for missing bill service quality metric
- Hilton Man Gets $7,622 Bill from RG&E
- RG&E and NYSEG to begin installing smart meters across the region
- President of RG&E: “We’re working on ways to make billing more efficient”
- Good Question: What’s behind RG&E billing issues?
- An Irondequoit man’s big RG&E bill spurs a call to News10NBC
- RG&E answers questions about months of no bills
- After months of no bills, pizza shop owner gets $6,168 RG&E bill
- ‘We were shocked’: Marion family facing nearly $1K utility bill
- RG&E offers help, suggestions for customers stunned by big bills