KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Your tax dollars are being stretched thin now more than ever by city, county and federal agencies. But at the end of the day, your money is being spent long after workers go home.
The NBC Action News Investigators went out overnight to see if public buildings are being energy efficient by turning off lights in offices.
The results were surprising in this age of tight budgets.
Lights On
Night after night, building after building, the NBC Action News Investigators found public offices brightly lit. For five nights, the Investigators kept a close watch over government buildings late at night and into the early morning hours.
We looked at city halls in the suburbs to federal buildings downtown.
In many buildings, it was easy to spot office lights burning bright long after employees go home. To taxpayers like Carla Kerr of Kansas City, that’s surprising.
"That's a waste of energy," Kerr said. "They can be saving that."
The Buildings Where Lights Burn Bright
The Richard Bolling Federal Building in downtown Kansas City stands 18 stories tall. But one story can be told over and over. We found lights remained on into the night.
On Feb. 25, lights could be seen on in offices on 13 floors of the building’s north side at 7:30 p.m. When we returned at 12:30 a.m. we counted lights on inside on seven floors. The scene was similar March 9 and April 5 when we checked.
Across the street at Kansas City's City Hall, we found lights on in offices on six or more floors after midnight almost every night we checked.
At the Independence City Hall, we saw lights left on in most of the building every night we stopped by. We watched as an employee left one night at midnight in February. But lights were still on afterwards.
Another night in April, we were there when the lights went out. A cleaning person was seen leaving then, but that happened at 3:30 in the morning.
Even at the Board of Public Utilities, we found lights on in most of the office building at Sixtth and Minnesota in Kansas City, Kan. Ironically,
BPU’s Web site explains to customers how to cut costs by conserving energy.
