Water, Gas & Light Interim General Manager Tom Berry Resigns
Friday, June 27th, 2014
Maybe it was an ominous sign that the lights went out in the middle of the Water, Gas & Light Commission’s board meeting Thursday morning.
As the second of two monthly board meetings wound down Thursday, Tom Berry dropped a bombshell on board members by announcing he would step down immediately from his position as interim general manager. Berry said after the meeting his decision was based on the “assinine discussion” of a proposed Albany City Charter change at Wednesday’s Albany City Commission meeting.
“You’ve got people (on the City Commission) who don’t understand utilities and don’t want to understand utilities,” Berry said. “It’s all limited by their own politics. You’ve got elected officials so wrapped up in themselves, they can’t see what this community’s future could be.
“Albany has the most dysfunctional political environment I’ve ever seen. The politics are the worst here I’ve seen anywhere. And what’s sad is that this is a community with tremendous potential. The people have got to fix this. If they don’t get up in arms over the dysfunction of that (City) Commission, you won’t get more jobs here. No one will come.”
