Acting director of Independence Power & Light to resign after fractious city meeting

Andy Boatright, the acting director of Independence Power & Light, has announced his resignation after publicly denouncing a City Council decision to cut several jobs at the city-owned utility, a surprise economy move that one former councilman called both "low class" and "a late-night massacre."

In a brief interview with The Star on Wednesday, Boatright — the second highest-paid city employee at $196,500 a year — declined to elaborate on his reasons for leaving his position. He will receive no severance package, a city spokeswoman said.

But news of his pending resignation came just two days after Boatright scolded a 4-3 council majority for its June 18 decision to eliminate eight positions at the utility without any warning or discussion.

The council reversed itself on Monday by a similar margin, but not until after Boatright spent five minutes at a lectern calling the move shortsighted and potentially damaging to the 117-year-old electrical utility and its 57,000 customers.

The cutbacks proposed by council member Curt Dougherty came in the form of a last-minute amendment as the council was about to approve an already balanced budget for next fiscal year.

Councilwoman Karen DeLuccie said Wednesday that the amendment caught her and others on the council flatfooted.

Dougherty said his plan to cut eight of Independence Power & Light's more than 200 employees would save more than $1 million. However, there had been no previous study or discussion and the city's professional administrators and some council members were blindsided. Voting with Dougherty for the cutback were council members Tom Van Camp, John Perkins and Mike Huff, a former Power & Light executive.

"IPL is a big, big deal; you don't casually do something," DeLuccie said Wednesday. "I find it incredible, I just do.

"Do I believe it would save money? Sure. Do I believe it will end up costing money in the end? Of course it will."

DeLuccie said one of the positions contemplated in the cuts was overseeing the tear-down of the Missouri City Power Plant, a facility IPL mothballed. IPL then awarded a demolition contract to a firm called Environmental Operations, which submitted the more expensive of two bids.

"Higher bid by $5 million," DeLuccie said.

Boatright, saying he was addressing the council as a private citizen rather than as a city employee, on Monday said he recognized that his boss, the city manager, would likely not approve of him commenting in such a public forum.

But he said he felt compelled to speak out not only because the cutbacks were unfair to the seven employees who would lose their jobs — one job is vacant, but in the process of being filled — but also because they would interrupt important projects and damage the utility’s credibility when it came to borrowing money through the bond market.

“The staffing cuts put forth by the City Council are severely misdirected and one has to wonder the real motivations at this stage of the process,” Boatright said after asking the seven employees affected to stand as their names were called.

Two other speakers and DeLuccie said that the council had violated its own city charter by singling out which jobs were to be cut.

Former Councilman Jason White said the charter was written to guard against the favoritism that was pervasive in city hiring practices before professional administrators were brought in to run city government in a more businesslike matter.

He called the job cuts "really low class" and a return to the patronage politics of the past.

"It's the city managers' job to deal with employees," DeLuccie said. "It is a charter violation for this council to direct that city manage to hire or fire anyone."

Boatright deferred any comment on his resignation to City Manager Zach Walker, who issued a statement Wednesday.

Walker's statement said Boatright resigned to "pursue other opportunities."

"Andrew’s leadership has been vital in helping set the course for the future direction of IPL," Walker said. "His absence will be felt and he will be difficult to replace. We wish him the best in his next position."

Among the positions that would have been eliminated under Dougherty's proposal, Boatright said, were managers responsible for several important projects that the council wants accomplished, including a new master plan and expanded community solar farm. The cutbacks also would have cut back on customer service, he said, and would have left the utility "a mere shell of its former self."

This story was originally published June 27, 2018 at 4:35 PM.