LAFCO beefs up public power feasibility report

| September 26, 2001 | SFBG
 
By Savannah Blackwell
 
The Local Agency Formation Commission plans to hire new 
consultants to expand its feasibility study on public power in 
San Francisco. 

Gloria Young, the commission's executive officer, will put out a 
request for proposals for work that would augment the report of 
E.J. Simpson, who was hired July 27 to help the city determine 
how a municipal utility district could bring power here. 

Young told a LAFCO committee Sept. 21 that she was concerned that 
Simpson's preliminary work lacked the necessary backup data to 
fulfill the contract terms. Commission president Neil Eisenberg, 
who supported Young's move, urged her to move quickly to provide 
residents with as much information as possible before voters cast 
ballots for Proposition I, the MUD initiative, in the November 
election. 

The LAFCO move to supplement Simpson's work could also head off a 
legal complaint filed Sept. 18 by Jim Sutton, an attorney working 
for Pacific Gas and Electric's committee opposing the MUD. The 
Coalition for Affordable Public Services is trying to get 
Simpson's work disqualified on the grounds that he is in favor of 
public power. Simpson has advised residents in two northern 
California communities, Lassen and Hayfork Valley, on successful 
takeovers of PG's services. He has also provided preliminary 
advice to the Coalition to Lower Utility Bills, which supports 
the MUD. Prior to that he was a PG employee. 

A hearing on Sutton's suit is scheduled in Superior Court for 
Sept. 28. LAFCO is represented by two attorneys, Nancy C. Miller, 
who worked with the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, and 
Donald H. Maynor, who advised Palo Alto's public power agency. 

Maynor told the Bay Guardian it would be easy to locate a firm to 
complete the feasibility study. "There are several around," he 
said. 

LAFCO will determine at its next meeting, Sept. 28, if it will 
continue to work with Simpson, who was to be paid $90,000 for his 
work. 

"This is a minor glitch," Eisenberg said at the meeting. 

E-mail Savannah Blackwell at savannah_blackwell@sfbg.com 
[savannah_blackwell@sfbg.com] . 

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