Business in the Village

The Council of Greenwood Village is generally a jolly group. At meetings, they poke fun at one another, and are always relaxed with staff and citizen representatives. Nothing is ever taken too seriously, even when conflict among the council arises.

Until you try and cross them.

At the most recent council meeting, three representatives from Excel Energy discussed recent power outages at the Village Shops at the Landmark. The company attempted to describe their system for checking their power systems. In a very confusing and roundabout way, the representatives basically said that a power system must have the same failure twice in the same 12 month year, two years in a row in order to be deserving of the company’s attention. And although the Landmark has experienced two power outages within the same year, because the system hasn’t failed in the same capacity both times, it will not be examined by Excel.

This was obviously very concerning to the Council, as any revenue lost by the Village Shops is revenue lost by the city. Yet Excel’s lack of concern over these power outages only demonstrate the dangers of having a “controlled monopoly,” like that held by the by Excel. If this were any other business, the council could simply switch providers (if your internet continually failed, you could easily choose to switch to a different company). But the Council doesn’t have that option. They must do business with Excel, even though their service is poor, and their preventative measures lacking.

Even a controlled monopoly must raise their customer service levels to a basic standard. And continual power outages do not meet that standard.