We got our first broken pole fixed!

A utility pole at the corner of Bancroft and Mirabeau in New Orleans had been broken for about five years. Not leaning, broken: a splintered stub held up by a 2x4.

It is one of the worst poles I have ever seen, and someone submitted it as part of ServiceMyPole, where we photograph the poles utilities are supposed to be maintaining and let everybody see them.

Last Friday, the morning of June 26, a crew finally showed up and took it out.

"It looks like someone (Entergy maybe?) FINALLY giving the utility pole at Bancroft and Mirabeau this morning, so thank you for maybe embarrassing them! It's been 5 years."

Five years of nothing, then it goes on the internet, and six weeks later the truck finally arrives.

We already paid to maintain that pole. Every month, on every bill, there is money for maintenance. When the utility skimps on maintenance, that money does not come back to you. It becomes profit. There is no audit and no refund.

So a pole like this one sits there for years, because fixing it costs money and neglecting it does not. Then a storm comes, the pole fails, and they rebuild it. Only now the rebuild is a capital project, paid by you, AND the utility earns a guaranteed 9.70% return on it, every year, paid by you.

Read that again. We paid once to maintain the pole. They did not. We pay again to rebuild it. And then we pay interest on that second payment, for years, because it is on their books as an asset earning a return.

We paid three times for one pole. And on top of that, they run ads telling us what a great job they are doing on our grid.

Watch me explain how this works in under a minute.

None of this is an accident. It is how the system is built. A utility earns money on everything it builds and nothing on the upkeep that keeps what we already have running. Economists named this problem back in 1962. So the incentive runs one way: let it fail, then rebuild it. I am not saying anyone wants a pole to fall. I am saying we built a system that pays them more when it does.

That is what ServiceMyPole is really about. Accountability. When one neighbor puts a bad pole where everybody can see it, things that sat broken for five years finally get fixed. Imagine what happens when it is not one pole. Imagine what happens when it is somebody in that seat who reads the filings and sets standards for the maintenance money we already gave them.

Getting our grid fixed before I am even in the job.

If you have a pole in your neighborhood that has been ignored for years, upload it to ServiceMyPole. Let us put it where everybody can see it.

The field is set for the November 3rd Public Service Commissioner race. We are going up against a utility-backed candidate with deep political support. We can win, but only with significant help. If you are interested in supporting the campaign in some way, join the fight.

P.S. If a friend forwarded you this and you want to keep getting these, sign up at votechrisjustin.com.