Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Still In The Dark

At last night's City Commission meeting, Mary Jolley asked that three items be pulled from the consent agenda. One had to do with the 3/4 of a million dollars paid to SME in December.

Ms. Balzarini indicated that January and February 2007 payments were for the second reporting that NorthWestern did on the imbalance market. The payment for June 2007 was for the third reporting that NorthWestern did. (John Lawton said something about the State now requiring a third reporting). The payment of $709,000 in December was, according to Mr. Lawton, the initial billing for consumption in December.

By the time the energy consumption adjustments (not imbalances) are calculated for December, I think we can safely assume the City will pay, just for December, 3/4 of a million dollars for energy usage. I can't tell you how bad off we are, because we weren't given a report on how much electric revenue was generated for December.

Ms Balzarini did say they are no longer referring to "energy imbalances" as such, because they are not imbalances, but rather adjustments to "energy consumption".

Commissioner Jolley admitted she was confused. Mr. Lawton said that electricity is complicated and not easy to understand, but he is willing to explain the procedure to any commissioner. (He didn't say the general public too).

Commissioner Jolley did get a bit of a rise from Ms. Balzarini when she asked her if ECP was self-supporting. Ms. Balzarini indicated that "I think we already know the answer to that.... No, it is not at this time". BUT, Mr. Lawton jumped in and said that over time, the losses will be erased in future years. Commissioner Jolley said that according to the ordinance, ECP is supposed to be self-supporting. It says nothing about the future, the near future, the far away future. She indicated she will not vote to break the law (the city's own ordinance).

The item passed 3-1.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

It sure is nice having a commissioner that cares enouph to stand up and obey the laws. I wish they all would be so selfless.

Anonymous said...

All the more reason to recall the bums.

The mayor got one new lap dog and a pit bull on the commission.

Anonymous said...

Actually, it passed 3-1. Commissioner Rosenbaum was absent.

Sandra Guynn said...

Thanks for the correction anonymous. I've updated the vote.