Mayor defends shutting off electricity

SHEFFIELD - Speaking for a majority of the city council Monday, Mayor Billy Don Anderson said the city stands behind the utility department's decision to shut off the Holiday Inn hotel's electricity after it failed to pay its utility bill by the stated due date.

The mayor was responding to a TimesDaily editorial criticizing the city for cutting off the electricity, which negatively impacted guests staying at the 202-room hotel.

"The majority of the council stands behind Allen Hughes," Anderson said, referring to Sheffield Utilities' general manager. "We support and stand by the Sheffield utility department in the decisions they have to make, especially in the case of the Holiday Inn."

The electricity for the Hatch Boulevard hotel has been shut off twice because the hotel allowed its bill to become past due.

In each case, the power was shut off for several hours, but was restored after the hotel's management paid the bill and associated fees.

While he would not discuss the Holiday Inn specifically, Hughes has said the same policies are applied to all utility department customers who fail to pay their bills in a timely manner.

Anderson said his statements were based on conversations with a majority of the council members.

"A hotel of that size, running at 75 to 80 percent occupancy rate shouldn't be having those kind of problems," Councilman Gary Scales said.

The city is involved in litigation after terminating the lease held by Kronos Hotels, the company that oversees the Holiday Inn flag in Sheffield.

In other business, the council:

• gave city clerk Clayton Kelly the authority to continue paying the city's expenses until the fiscal 2008-09 budget can be passed.
• agreed to allow new police officer Rebecca Shirley to be compensated at the five-year level because of to her experience, which includes six years with the Sheffield Police Department.
• hired Ray Cain as a laborer in the street department.
• refunded $38 to Willie McConnico for a building permit he did not need to perform work on his residence.
• refunded $1,000 to Thompson and Son Funeral Home for an error involving the payment for a burial plot in Oakwood Cemetery.
• paid expenses of $20 to William Adkins for a commercial driver's license; $1,028 to City Prosecutor B.T. Gardner Jr. for a seminar; and $421.25 to Municipal Judge Polly Ruggles for a seminar.

Russ Corey can be reached at 740-5738 or russ.corey@TimesDaily.com.