Staff say Independence councilman ‘verbally abusive’ after attempt to shut off power
City staff said an Independence councilman was verbally abusive as they attempted to shut off his power after he racked up months of delinquent bills.
On May 21, an employee went to the home of Michael Steinmeyer to disconnect his power, according to emails obtained by The Star through a public records request. Emails show the councilman hadn’t made a payment on his utility account since October 2020.
Steinmeyer refused to allow the service worker to access his electricity meter, a violation of the customer agreement with the city-owned Independence Power and Light. He asked who the service worker’s boss was, informed the worker that he was a councilman and “became verbally abusive,” according to an account documented by city employees.
A real estate agent, Steinmeyer was elected in June 2020 to represent District 3.
On Tuesday, Steinmeyer said he was dealing with an illness in his family and preparing for a conference call, making him unavailable to speak about the issue. But he told The Star “there was no confrontation” with city staff.
Like many utilities, Independence Power and Light postponed disconnections for delinquent bills through much of the pandemic. Those shutoffs resumed on May 3.
About 7,900 accounts are currently past due, said city spokeswoman Meg Lewis. Of those, 915 were scheduled for disconnections during the month of May and 815 were disconnected because no payment arrangements were made.
About 12% of IPL’s 64,400 customers are delinquent with collective account balances of nearly $3 million, Lewis said.
She said Steinmeyer’s home was put on the disconnect list for the month of May but payment arrangements were made before the power was turned off.
“Council members are treated as customers,” she said in a statement. “There are no special policies for any parties related to utility disconnects outside of the weather rules and those with medical life support equipment.”
It’s unclear why he was more than six months behind on his electric bills or how much he owed in total. On the day staff attempted to shut off his power, he began calling city leaders, requesting to speak to the city manager and IPL management.
With city staff, the councilman complained about the disconnection process, saying it was difficult for customers to get a hold of a live agent on the phone.
In an email documenting his conversation, IPL Director Jim Nail said the councilman acknowledged receiving several notices of delinquency, but “intentionally waited just to see how the process works.”
“He intentionally put himself in this position, apparently in order to provoke a needless confrontation,” Nail wrote.
On a 12-minute phone call with IPL customer service the same afternoon, Steinmeyer asked several questions about the shutoff procedure. He wanted to know whether staffers dispatched to disconnect service would have immediate knowledge of a customer calling in to pay a past-due amount.
The customer service worker told him they would not know and noted that those disconnecting service do not usually knock on doors to notify customers.
“If they knocked on everybody’s door, we would have no service men because they would probably all be in the hospital for people beating them up for shutting their service off,” the worker said, according to a recording. “So they do not knock on the door.”
Steinmeyer also asked about wait times on the phone, seniors who do not have access to the internet and issues with missing bills. The city employee told him that billing systems were down for several weeks in December after a cyberattack crippled technology systems.
But those issues were resolved months ago, she said. And she noted that customers can visit IPL in person or leave payments at the drop box.
Because his account was paid in full the day employees attempted to disconnect his service, Steinmeyer was not charged the $15 service fee for disconnection or the $15 fee for reconnection.
In an email with the IPL director, Steinmeyer said he was not looking for favorable treatment but an understanding of the “normal” treatment ratepayers received.
“Consider what I learned about my experience like a ‘secret shopper’ who looks at the inside to see what we do well and what are the concerns,” he wrote.
Steinmeyer then suggested a conversation with the IPL director, City Manager Zach Walker and fellow councilman Mike Huff.
During a May 20 meeting between the City Council and the Public Utilities Advisory Board, Independence Mayor Eileen Weir mentioned the magnitude of past-due bills when discussing the city’s finances.
“We’re in the process of catching up with people,” she said. “I mean, I got a disconnect notice for my utility bill.”
In an interview with The Star, Weir said it isn’t that unusual for IPL customers to receive disconnect notices. She said hers was due to a missed billing cycle.
“I paid it. I wasn’t disconnected,” she said. “But my point in letting people know that is that we were experiencing some different challenges with our system.”
Aside from a months-long moratorium on utility shutoffs, the ransomware attack left many customers without bills for a time. But customers also received a one-time credit of $193.82 on their accounts in February after the council voted to return surplus funds to ratepayers.
“We understand why people may be receiving those kinds of notices,” she said. “There’s just a lot of different things that have made it complicated. So I don’t want people to be terribly alarmed.”
She said anyone facing disconnection should call IPL and seek pandemic assistance or payment plan options.
“We’re here to assist whenever we can,” she said. “We’re not in the business of disconnecting people.”
