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Lehi power dispute may be political
Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Jan 24, 2007 by Amy Choate-Nielsen Deseret Morning News
LEHI -- Recent friction between the mayor and the Lehi City Council over the city's power company seems to be less about electric power and more about political power.
The City Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to have the city manager and finance director perform an internal audit of Lehi Power, while voicing frustration at the mayor's lack of communication with the council.
"It all boils down to adults and their ability to communicate," Councilman Johnny Barnes said at the public meeting. "As a council member I do everything I possibly can to work towards a better relationship between the mayor and council. That would be my strong desire to let that happen."
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Mayor Howard Johnson said he had been considering an audit to determine the utility's efficiency and the possibility of selling it. As part of that research, he contacted Rocky Mountain Power representatives and asked whether a sale of the company might be an option.
"It's a $50 million business (the city operation), and I think we need to know what it's doing and ... what we might do better," Johnson said of the utility. "And I intend to ... find out how good this company is doing for us. A private industry cannot operate negatively, but a public one can -- it just charges the citizens, one way or another, a little bit more."
Council members said they had vague recollections of the mayor's plans to audit the power company, but they said they did not know the mayor had begun examining the company with the potential for a sale.
The council learned of the planned audit at a recent council meeting the mayor did not attend.
"I thought I was looking for information to bring something to the council and, in retrospect, I may have been smarter to come to the council first," Johnson said. "I didn't because I wanted to come and say, 'We've got a problem,' or come and say, 'We've got everything going great."'
While indicating support for the audit, most members opposed selling the company to Rocky Mountain Power.
Rocky Mountain spokesman Dave Eskelsen confirmed Johnson contacted the company about a potential sale, but no further conversations took place.
"It is conceptual," Eskelsen said. "What we have agreed is to talk about it. Beyond that, there is not much that we've done. To purchase a new service area is not in Rocky Mountain Power's business plan, but when we are approached, we will certainly have the discussion."
Lehi Power currently charges residential users a flat 8.7 cents per kilowatt-hour. Rocky Mountain charges 7.5 cents per kwh from September through April. From May through September, it charges 7.5 cents for the first 400 kwhs, 8.5 cents per kwh for the next 600 kwh and 10 cents per kwh for usage beyond 1,000 kwh.
Councilman Mark Johnson, who favors the audit but opposes selling the company, said the rates are comparable and selling the utility would not ultimately help the city's residents.
"It's not hard to look at the gradient scale of Lehi and Rocky Mountain Power and say if we're spending 2 cents more per month over the last 6 1/2 six- and-a-half months, the rates are equivalent," Mark Johnson said. "You can twist the numbers how ever you want, but they're equivalent."
E-mail: achoate@desnews.com
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