The owner of St. John Restaurant, Eric Cook, talked to Thanh Truong about the $40,000 electric bill that raised eyebrows across the country and raised questions about the way Entergy in New Orleans handles its billing.
Cook explained the bill that ended up shutting down his restaurant pre-dated the current ownership. He moved into the French Quarter location in the summer of 2021. And when the bill came, months and months and months of requests for clarification by the new owner went unanswered.
Late fees and penalties on an $18,000 bill drove the utility bill up to $40,000.
Cook said the bill brought on 'fear and panic' ... adding 'We just went into this tailspin, which we really haven't come out of yet.'
But who's really to blame? Cook believes the problem rests squarely with city management and lack of accountability for Entergy.
As evidence, Jesse George, policy director for an advocacy group says the energy burden -- or percentage of household income that goes to utility bills -- is upwards of 28% in New Orleans, higher than it should be. The lowest income households tend to pay the highest percentage.
"It's an endless cycle of just mismanagement. That's what this is. A cycle of mismanagement. Oh, our streets are terrible. Let's make a video about it. Let's all get in the hole and take a hot tub bath. Yeah, it's funny. Oh look, look at the building falling down. Yeah, it's New Orleans, it's no big deal. It's the Kardashian sitcom running of our City Hall vs. City Council vs. news outlets of who's doing what and going where. It's our convention center that hasn't been really running at 100% yet. We're all affected by this lack of leadership in this city and things have just been running amok for so long. I'm through laughing at it. I can no longer laugh at it. It's not funny."
He said they spent months going directly to the Entergy office to try to alleviate the problem, trying to set up a payment play, anything they could do. "Notices just keep coming and coming," Cook said.
On Nov. 1 they officially gave then until the the 8th to pay it before the power was shut off. Then they shut it off on Nov. 1.
Even that was a comedy of errors, with the people who came out to shut the power off unable to find the correct meter. They had to return the next day.
Cook went public with his story when the restaurant went dark, saying it would be closed indefinitely. The announcement got the attention of City Councilmember Helena Moreno's office. Moreno sits on the City Council's Utilities, Cable, Telecommunications and Technology Committee.
Cook met with Moreno and the lights were turned back on.
The building owner, Entergy, the city and others finally met and agreed to let the restaurant operate while the bill was worked out. Forty-two employees went back to work.
But the restaurant owner said he was left with a bad feeling about all the people not powerful enough to get personal attention from a member of the City Council. He has an outspoken voice as a chef in New Orleans, but many other people struggling with an electric bill have no one to advocate for them, he said.
"I'm being privileged here because I own a restaurant, because I have a big mouth, because it's making a social media presence, good or bad. These companies don't want, the city doesn't need anymore bad press. No company wants bad press, even myself. I kind of got the wink-wink nod-nod, let's fix this. I had to say 'thank you, but you're wrong for doing this.' What about, what if it was one of my employees maybe, who was struggling to pay bills? They don't have the ability to do this. They scream from the heavens and they're losing their homes, they're losing an ability of a basic, human right which is food, shelter, electricity."
