Gary Bradley-Lopez brings personal experience with utility struggles to Board of Public Utilities race
A lifelong Kansas City, Kansas resident and middle school teacher is running for the Board of Public Utilities At-Large Seat 1 with a platform centered on affordability, improved communication, and community-first decision making.
Gary Bradley-Lopez said his candidacy stems from personal experiences that many Wyandotte County residents share. “I have children, I’m a father now, and so as someone that pays utility bills, have had my lights cut off,” Bradley-Lopez told Wyandotte News Daily. “Had to cut the middle of my teaching session to go pay my bill because my lights were off and my family was in the dark.”
This is Bradley-Lopez’s second foray into local politics. He previously ran for office in 2019 but stepped away to focus on teaching middle school in KCK and earning advanced degrees. Now, with a different perspective shaped by fatherhood and real-world struggles, he’s returning to public service with what he sees as a manageable commitment that won’t take him away from his young children.
What would he do if he wins
Bradley-Lopez outlined four main priorities for his potential tenure on the BPU board:
Better Communication: Drawing on his experience as community engagement bureau manager for the Kansas City Beacon and communications director for Guadalupe Center, Bradley-Lopez emphasized the need for more accessible information from BPU. “My first platform point is creating an access and a pipeline of communication between BPU and the community and its rate payers,” he said.
He was particularly critical of current communication methods, suggesting BPU’s newsletter needs a complete overhaul. “We don’t communicate like an academic journal, a peer reviewed article. We communicate in a way that’s more quick to understand, more fast and more bold,” he explained, noting the need to reach multilingual communities and those with varying literacy levels.
Affordable Utilities: Bradley-Lopez wants residents to better understand where their utility payments go. “We have high utility bills. We have other fees on there that have nothing to do with BPU that we’re still paying on,” he said, arguing that transparency might make people “more comfortable about the bills that they’re actually paying.”
Community-First Green Energy Transition: While supporting the move away from coal plants like Nearman, Bradley-Lopez emphasized protecting local jobs. “We need to make sure that jobs are kept, the jobs that we’re losing from coal, we need to make sure that we’re getting them and sustaining them,” he said. He also wants more jobs brought in-house rather than contracted out, noting that BPU currently has no welders on staff and instead contracts the work to outside businesses.
Improved Customer Service: Bradley-Lopez cited widespread complaints about customer service, from the closed lobby to the 70-minute wait times to speak with a representative. “You have to go through so many channels of online bull crap,” he said, pointing to elderly residents who struggle with kiosks and online payment systems.
Growing pains and data center concerns
When asked about the energy-intensive data centers coming to Wyandotte County, Bradley-Lopez expressed cautious concern. The Piper data center alone is expected to consume 600 megawatts, exceeding BPU’s current 500-megawatt capacity.
“I support data centers if they’re strategically made and strategically for the community,” he said. While acknowledging potential benefits like tax revenue and jobs, he noted that data centers typically only employ about 20-50 people per building once operational. “If you asked me to vote on it today, I would struggle and I’d struggle. I would really need a lot of community input.”
A different kind of candidate
Bradley-Lopez, who grew up in the Armourdale and Midtown areas, believes he brings a unique perspective to the race. “I think I’m the only candidate probably running that lives in an apartment,” he noted.
Unlike his previous campaign, he’s running a more authentic, family-centered effort. “I didn’t dress up for this. I came out in my jeans and t-shirt wearing my college shirt. I go out and I campaign with my family,” he said.
He readily admits he’s not a know-it-all candidate. “I’m a student of everything that I do. Anything that I put my mind into, I become the student first. I listen, I learn, and then that’s where I want to make the change at.”
His vision for BPU emphasizes its public nature. “I want to look at this as a position that has morals and has ethics. Because these are our utilities. We can literally do whatever we want with them because they’re ours and they’re the communities,” Bradley-Lopez said. “And people don’t know that because that’s not how our board or how our public utilities has ever functioned.”
Bradley-Lopez’s campaign comes at a time when BPU faces significant challenges, from transitioning to renewable energy sources to managing unprecedented power demands from incoming data centers. His message is simple: “I am just a neighbor. I’m here to represent my community and if I could serve them, it’d be an honor.”