Hamilton promotes info session on utility bills
HAMILTON >> TwomonthsafterHamilton Council killed a resolution that would have reduced homeowner electricity bills, Mayor Kelly Yaede on Thursday announced the township will host a public information session next week to educate the public about the potential benefits of being enrolled into a third-party energy aggregation program.
“I want our residents to fully understand how this program works, so they can be comfortable in participating and will enjoy the savings that the bulk-purchasing of electricity can provide,” Yaede said Thursday in a press release statement. “The reason I proposed this initiative for our community is so we can reduce electricity costs for our residents.”
The public information session will be held 6:30 p.m. Sept. 29 at the lower-level meeting room of the Hamilton Free Public Library.
During the public information session, Hamilton’s energy aggregation consultant, Gabel Associates, will give a formal presentation explaining the program. Attendees will then be encouraged to engage in an interactive question-and-answer period, according to Yaede’s office.
On July 19, Hamilton Council heard negative feedback from residents and then voted 3-2 to reject a resolution that would have automatically entered homeowners into a third-party program that would have reduced their electric bills by 7 percent for at least nine months.
“Maybe there should be an information session,” Hamilton resident Janna Sheiman said in public comments at the council meeting about the Yaede administration’s proposed energy aggregation program. “The opt-out clauses tend to have problems,” she said.
Fast forward two months later, and now the township is fully committed to hosting a public information session next Thursday.
For residents unable to attend the information session, Hamilton Township will be providing the information online at HamiltonNJ. com/energy that will include a program PowerPoint presentation, a video of the presentation, a frequently asked questions guide for the program and information on how any resident can opt-out of the program,accordingtoYaede’soffice.
JoAnne Bruno, secretary of the Hamilton Township Democratic Committee, on Thursday released a letter signed by 12 club members saying they would like Gabel Associates to answer key questions at two public meetings.
Some of the questions from their letter have been answered in the press release that Yaede’s office released Thursday morning.
The press release says energy aggregation programs in New Jersey have “regulatory safeguards designed to protect residents” and other program benefits that include the fact that residents will be free to opt out of a Hamilton Township energy aggregation program at any time with no exit fees or penalties assessed.
Gabel Associates has helped 12 other towns across New Jersey enter into third-party energy programs, including Toms River, which has a population slightly larger than Hamilton’s with about 90,000 residents. Homeowners enrolled into third-party programs in the municipalities of Plumsted, Monroe, Montgomery, West Orange, Lambertville, West Amwell, Colts Neck, Raritan, Flemington, Eatontown, Old Bridge and Toms River have realized energy cost savings ranging from 8.5 percent to 19 percent in the supply portion of their energy bills, according to the press release issued by Yaede’s office.
Hamilton Councilmen Dennis Pone and Dave Kenny supported the energy cost-savings resolution at the July19councilmeeting,butthemeasure failed to pass as Council President Ileana Schirmer and Councilmen Ed Gore and Ralph Mastrangelo voted it down.
Pone suggested it was his duty as an elected official to vote in favor of the 14-month, third-party energy program that would have retained identical power and identical service but would have resulted in at least nine months of reduced energy bills for his constituents over the 14-month contract period.
“If I could save people $78 a year, I’d think I was elected to tell them what to do,” Pone said at the meeting. He also said, “I have never as a councilman never made a decision where saving money is guaranteed and I am not going to vote for it.”
Mastrangelo suggested $78 in estimated annual savings was insignificant; Schirmer said government should not tell homeowners what to do and should not automatically enter people into a program without a homeowner’s prior consent; and Gore said he did not like how the energy cost-savings resolution was added to the council’s July 19 agenda at the last minute.
If council had passed the resolution, all of Hamilton’s residential homeowners — the ones who do not have solar panels installed on their properties — would have been automatically enrolled into a program by third-party power supplier ConEdison Solutions that would have reduced homeowner electric bills by 7 percent for at least nine out of 14 months from October 2016 through December 2017.