The Wrangell Borough Assembly voted Tuesday 4-2 against asking the Southeast Alaska Power Authority for $55,000 in “net non-billable” expenses.
The resolution as voted on had instructed borough Administrator Jeff Jabusch to withhold that amount from power payments made to SEAPA in the event that they declined.
However, Mayor David Jack directed Jabusch to seek legal advice as to whether such a claim had any legal standing, and to consult with an attorney to that end.
The vote and subsequent direction to the administrator seemed to strike a balance between those who voted in favor of the measure -- assembly members James Stough and Wilma Stokes – and a sense, most vocally expressed by assembly member Julie Decker, that the resolution could antagonize other communities in the area. Remaining assembly member seemed to side with Decker’s sentiment in the end.
Stough said he proposed the stronger method because of the actions of the Petersburg borough assembly, which voted unanimously not to fund the Petersburg half of the net non-billable expenses.
“What we’re trying to do is recover the money that Petersburg has refused to pay,” he said, shortly before the assembly’s vote. “At this point, the only real thing to do is to throw the thing on the table and let them make a decision and then get legal device after this. That’s why I was insistent that we take a hard stand and let them make a decision.”
On the other side of the issue, Decker said any solution to the problem must provide for the Thomas Bay Power Authority employees.
“These ideas of owning our own assets, you can’t do any of that unless you have the cooperation of everybody,” she said. “I don’t see that this motion gets us there.”
The board heard at-times raucous commentary from members of the public on the issue. Retired state Sen. Robin Taylor said the current arrangement – in which the TBPA operates the Tyee Lake power plant as a contractor for SEAPA -- wasn’t something envisioned in the legislation which created SEAPA in the first place.
“This was to accomplish the divestiture of the (SEAPA predecessor) Four Dam Pool,” he said. “My dream and I’m sure that of the other communities were involved … was that the communities should own their own power structures, and they shouldn’t be burdened with the debt of the other communities.”
Taylor said he doesn’t believe SEAPA necessarily has the best interests of Wrangell at heart, and that those interests depend on building more facilities to make electricity. He said he’s heard rumors the SEAPA board would place a moratorium on electric heating, that they would buy additional diesel generators, and would increase rates for consumers.
“I haven’t heard anyone deny these rumors,” he said.
The issue was more complex than having the city take over Tyee, a possibility mentioned earlier in the day.
“I can assure you that the board is trying to manage these costs the best that we can,” he said.
Assembly member Ernie Christian abstained from the vote, admitting that his wife Rhonda Christian’s position with the Thomas Bay Power Authority posed a conflict of interest.
However, Christian provided to assembly members a written communication from the manager of Ketchikan Public Utilities, which critiqued a Sept. 10 proposal made by SEAPA CEO Tray Acteson, in which Acteson outlined a plan whereby SEAPA would absorb TBPA employees. More than half of the debt resulting from pension funds would be shifted to Ketchikan, according to the memo from Tim McConell and Andrew Donato
“We believe the logic for the debt transfer is flawed,” the memo reads in part. “If the Board passes this intiative, KPU ratepayers will experience an inappropriate and unjustifiable one-time charge of $53 across all our 7,384 meters.”
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