IID board takes a pass on rate hearings

EL CENTRO — The Imperial Irrigation District’s proposal to eliminate temporarily the declining block rate structure for small businesses this summer died Tuesday afternoon after a director’s motion to schedule public rate hearings failed to get a second.

Although Division IV Director Javier Gonzalez said he wanted to hear from the public on the issue, no else on the board appeared interested in pursuing the matter.

The public rate hearings would have been required before the IID board voted on the proposal.

The temporary elimination of the plan, which offers discounted rates for small businesses that use more than 1,000 kilowatt hours per month, theoretically was intended to discourage unnecessarily usage during the high demand months of summer and thus help prevent the need for rolling blackouts. It would have set a flat rate of 12.31 cents per kilowatt hour.

IID projected the four-month pause on the discounts would have yielded about $600,000 in additional revenue.

The rate hearings would have been held in La Quinta April 13 and El Centro on April 20 before coming to the board for a vote May 4.

Before the motion was made by Gonzalez questions were raised whether IID was following the timeline requirement for rate increases.

Director Norma Sierra Galindo asked IID Finance Director Belen Valenzuela to clarify if the public rate hearings would have violated the regulation that all rate changes must have a 30-day waiting period.

Valenzuela said since the IID first brought this idea to the board in early March, this 30-day requirement would have been met.

Galindo disagreed on when the 30 days would start.

“I don’t think (that) was an actual notice, but it was inferred,” she said, adding that it is her understanding the notice would be from when the board approved the rate hearings, which would have been Tuesday.

The first hearing, based on Galindo’s interpretation of the rules, would have been pushed back to May 6 or later.

IID President James Hanks agreed, saying it was his understanding as well that the 30-day notice requirement is necessary. Nevertheless, Valenzuela maintained the 30 days started from when the item was first placed on the agenda for discussion, which was March 2.

IID General Manager Henry Martinez said it could be a moot point because while the Energy Consumers Advisory Committee supported the public rate hearings, the members failed to support the actual rate change.

“We may be spinning our wheels,” Martinez said.