After most than an hour of discussion behind closed doors, the Haines Borough Assembly on Wednesday voted to accept a settlement with the Alaska Power Company to increase power rates by 11 percent in Haines.
It was unclear this week how the vote would affect legal action taken by five communities to oppose an 18.12 percent across-the-board rate increase the utility sought for its customers in Haines, Skagway, Prince of Wales Island, Tok, Tetlin and other villages in the Interior.
The Haines Borough filed as an intervener in the APC rate case along with Skagway, Craig, Thorne Bay and Coffman Cove.
Borough attorney Patrick Munson said any settlement must be approved by the Regulatory Commission of Alaska. Other intervening communities not wishing to settle can proceed to a hearing against APC, Munson said.
The Skagway assembly voted to accept the settlement last week.
Assembly members Joanne Waterman, Ron Jackson and Dave Berry opposed the settlement. Mayor Jan Hill broke the 3-3 tie in favor of the settlement.
The 11-percent figure wasn’t released before the vote, though manager David Sosa later disclosed the number. He issued a press release Wednesday saying the borough believed negotiating a settlement was preferable to proceeding with a hearing.
“The case involved competing testimony of seven witnesses so far… all of whom are well-qualified and offer potentially convincing arguments. The RCA would have been required to evaluate all the witnesses’ conflicting testimony. The agreement allows the parties to control the outcome of the case, not a hearing officer. The agreement eliminates all risk that a higher rate increase would be awarded at a hearing,” Sosa said.
Former Mayor Stephanie Scott criticized the assembly Wednesday night for shutting the public out of the settlement discussions.
“When we decided to be interveners in this case, we didn’t do it in order to just make the borough’s bill less egregious because of a rate increase. We did it on behalf of the entire community,” Scott said.
“I don’t know what the settlement number is that you are considering in this resolution and I think it’s inappropriate to settle on behalf of the community and the borough without the community being privy to that number,” Scott added.
The RCA approved a 6 percent interim rate increase in January while the commission held hearings to decide if the 18 percent rate increase was warranted.
In a letter to the assembly, Scott cited testimony from Ralph Smith, an expert witness with the Regulatory Affairs and Public Advocacy Section of the Attorney General’s Office.
Smith stated to the RCA that not only should APC not be granted the 18 percent increase, the company shouldn’t be given anything more than 5.51 percent.