Council apologizes for perceived attack

Local company Cranston Electric was at the center of a discussion regarding the practice of charging for use of its truck at a recent town council meeting, with the council coming to the conclusion that Public Works Director Cory Allison would henceforth comparison shop for the best rates among the local electrical contractors.

At Monday night’s meeting of the Moorcroft Town Council, business owner Kent Cranston addressed the governing body, sharing his angst about the inaccurate information shared at the former meeting and consequently published in the Moorcroft Leader.

“I’d like to know where the numbers that were issued in the paper came from. We’ve never had $70 an hour [bills]; we’ve never had an $800 truck cost,” he said.

Public Works Director Cory Allison and Cranston had listened to a recording of the meeting. Allison said, “I listened to the recording today, [I and and Cranston] made sure of this, and [Councilman Paul Smoot] said that he charges $70 an hour for a truck and that’s not even close.” Cranston Electric actually charges $50 per hour for a truck.

Smoot answered this concern: “I might have mis-spoken. What I was referring to was an addition of multiple jobs you did, not one single bill for a truck charge.”

Smoot went on to assure Cranston that neither he nor his fellows had any intention to “belittle or attack” the contractor’s business. “As a matter of fact, I appreciate the work you’ve done,” he said.

Taking advantage of Cranston’s presence, though, Smoot did ask him questions about which he had been concerned, such as what is the typical inventory kept on each truck, what type of items require trips to Gillette and whether he charges for those trips. He then noted a seeming incongruity in the billing: “The one thing I saw that is different in the billing is that all of the Gillette travel truck charges disappeared prior to 2018.”

Cranston told him that changing the method of billing the jobs, “was just easier, letting you know that it takes longer to do the job if I have to go get parts and if you know that I had to go to Gillette, you know it’ll take longer to do the job.”

Smoot pointed out that the problem is not actually about Cranston Electric.

“You obviously do a good job [and] you’re a person I respect highly,” he said. The problem is, “collectively, us as a council working with Cory because we’ve talked about trying to spread the wealth a little bit…I would assume, being a resident of this town, that the wealth would be spread around a little bit.”

Smoot said he had examined the rate sheets assembled by Allison and noted they are comparable, “So if there isn’t any difference, then why are we not at least allowing that other company [in]?”

“What I was doing,” Smoot said of the reason he spoke as he did at the prior assembly, “was questioning the philosophy behind why we’re using just one particular electrician for every single job.”

Allison responded, though, that the town had recently called Good’s Electric to do a job at the MTC; Good is the second electrician used by his department. “Usually I go down the line, I call Kent and if he doesn’t answer, I call Good’s.” The town also uses a third specialty electrical company called Innovative Tech for telemetry problems (radio/communication for wells, etc), he said.

Smoot asked Allison if the maintenance crew could not handle some of this work in house and Allison expressed reluctance to attempt electrical work without being an electrician. “That’s a liability,” he said.

With emotions heating between Smoot and Allison, Councilman Owen Mathews stepped in to say, “We need to have a conversation and not a bickering match, which is not professional in a public arena. We’ll have a conversation about this and get the facts out, but the emotions need to be set aside.”

Councilman Dale Petersen spoke, “I think the main point is that, looking at the rates, our two local folks are identical. That is typical, they charge for the truck.”

Petersen agreed with Smoot that the issue is between the body and Allison coming together in their priorities; the recently installed outlet box on a light post on Big Horn Avenue, costing around $300, was an example of this issue.

“The light pole is something we could have waited on. Those are the types of decisions that the maintenance department and the council need to be thinking about,” Petersen said.

He later assured Cranston, “Being stewards of the money, we have these conversations sometimes. I don’t believe there was any ill intent directed toward you; maybe that’s how it ended up coming out, but it was looking at the bottom line and the dollars.”

Mayor Dick Claar apologized to Cranston: “Reading that article, it looks like Kent’s business has been slammed a little bit. Personally, I would apologize for the way it appears in the paper and the Moorcroft Council ought to ask the paper to just say that we’re satisfied with the rates and that they are competitive between the businesses that we have as contractors. We’re satisfied and we’re not finding fault with Cranston Electric.”

Smoot shared his thoughts on the situation: “Our job here is to watch out for the people who pay the rates so, as a member of the financial committee, that’s my job. I grew up with you and your brothers, I respect you and your family and for anyone to say or insinuate that I’m targeting you or anybody else obviously doesn’t know me.”

Cranston later wondered why the questions posed were asked in an open forum: “A lot of that didn’t even have to happen, they could have just asked me.”

Allison, too, voiced his displeasure, saying, “My phone’s on 24 hours a day and I have an email that nobody uses. Why does it have to come out in a public meeting?”

Petersen summed up the conversation: “Obviously, [Cranston’s] rates are comparable to other people in town. He has not gouged the town in his electrical work, he does an excellent job and we appreciate that.”