Mayor Maryanne Kusaka is poised to make a recommendation to the County Council regarding future ownership of KE. Meanwhile, her committee on governance of an island electric utility remains divided on whether county or cooperative ownership and management is the
Mayor Maryanne Kusaka is poised to make a recommendation to the County Council regarding future ownership of KE. Meanwhile, her committee on governance of an island electric utility remains divided on whether county or cooperative ownership and management is the best way to go regarding Kaua’i Electric,
Since her Administrative Assistant Wallace Rezentes, Sr. is on the side of county ownership and governance, and because of her staunch opposition to Kaua’i Island Utility Co-op acquiring KE, it’s a safe bet the Mayor will recommend county ownership and management, under a semiautonomous entity similar to the county Department of Water.
That would put her in the opposite corner from Charlie King, owner of King Auto Center and one of Kusaka’s campaign chairs when she conducted successful runs for the mayor’s office.
King and three other community leaders are part of the governance committee’s faction favoring co-op ownership, stating that if KIUC is not successful in acquiring KE, they’d support county ownership and governance.
The four members supporting an ideal power authority (IPA, or the county) as owner and manager of KE include Rezentes, Charles “Chick” Lanphier, Walter Lewis and David Seielstad. They have listed 17 reasons for their backing of the county as owner and manager of what is now KE.
Among them are millions of dollars in annual operational savings available to the county and not a co-op by avoidance of state public service taxes and regulation fees; the fact that the county already operates utilities for providing wastewater disposal and drinking water, so has experience and expertise in this area; and – according to Rezentes et al — it is more likely that the county purchase of KE would win PUC approval than another KIUC bid.
The foursome even went so far as to include a proposed amendment to the County Charter likely necessary for the county to own and operate KE.
King, joined by Jim Mayfield, Mark Hubbard and Ian Kagimoto, reason that the ideal cooperative (IC) model is more democratic because every ratepayer would have an equal voice in elections and changes to by-laws; that a majority of Kaua’i voters want to minimize government involvement in the ownership and operation of the electric utility; that electric co-ops have proven track records of successful ownership and management of electrical systems across the country; and that the IC would be able to finalize a deal to acquire KE more quickly than the county, thereby giving the community benefits more quickly than through county ownership.
“We recommend the county wait to take final action until KIUC, remodeled as an ideal co-op, has exhausted its current effort to purchase KE,” wrote the quartet favoring co-op ownership of KE.
The mayor’s committee did agree on one thing – the current, investor-owned KE is not a desirable future option.
“The most obvious conclusion we can make from the work done by the governance committee is that some form of public ownership of this utility is the preferred choice,” Rezentes said.
Kusaka’s recommendation to the Council will be based on findings of the governance committee, and on results of a feasibility study underway by the consulting firm R.W. Beck.
The firm was commissioned by the county to report on the financial feasibility of the investor-owned, government-owned and cooperative models, and based on financial information currently available.
The feasibility study could be complete within the next month. R.W. Beck is also conducting an appraisal of KE at the county’s request.
“The appraisal will help our community, the (state) consumer advocate and the Public Utilities Commission determine what a fair and reasonable price” for KE, said Rezentes.
The appraisal is scheduled to take between three and four months to complete.
Staff Writer Paul C. Curtis can be reached at mailto:pcurtis@pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext. 224).
