Community Meetings to Address Deregulation of Utility Industry

Pasadena residents who have questions about the scheduled deregulation of the utility industry can get answers at a series of informational hearings that begin tonight, officials said.

City Manager Philip Hawkey and Rufus Hightower, general manager of the Pasadena Water and Power Department, plan to meet with residents at 7 p.m. in the Jackie Robinson Center.

There are no plans to raise rates once the city-owned utility is deregulated in 1998, said Hightower, in an about-face from a warning he made to the City Council five months ago.

Aside from questions on rates, residents may have concerns or questions about how the Department of Water and Power can compete in the marketplace.

The impending deregulation would allow customers to purchase their power from any provider.

In order to stay competitive, the city utility needs to eliminate a $399-million debt that was incurred over a decade of helping pay for a Utah coal plant and an Arizona nuclear facility, Hightower said.

“It’s probably going to be a whole new way of doing business,” Hightower said. “We’re going to have to operate like a business and not in the slow, methodical way we do things.”

The meeting is the second informational session held by the water department, but the first one “was not well attended,” Hightower said.

In addition to tonight’s session, nine more meetings are planned this month. But only one of the meetings, on Aug. 28 at 7 p.m., will be attended by Hawkey and Hightower.

Hawkey is expected to make his recommendations to the City Council next month in a detailed explanation of how the municipality can best prepare for the deregulation.

“The city will have to make some difficult decisions to position Pasadena to deal effectively with the issues and survive as a competitive, market-driven organization,” Hawkey said.