By KEN de la BASTIDE
TIPTON — Users of the Tipton city electrical utility will have an opportunity to voice their opinion Monday concerning the city’s intent to leave the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission.
Currently the IURC determines the electric rate charged by the city utility to its customers. Any change in the rates has to be approved by the state agency.
The Tipton water utility in the 1990s left the IURC, leaving rate changes up to the Utility Board and the Tipton City Council.
“We have been talking about this for eight or 10 years,” Mayor Dan Delph said. “It is time to do it.”
Delph said of the 79 municipalities in the state, 60 have opted out of IURC control.
The decision is expected to save customers money and speed up the process of making rate changes, according to Delph.
“In the past we spent $140,000 and the rate increase was not approved,” he said. “We spent $90,000 the last time for an increase.”
Delph said the utility board and the city council would have to vote to approve future rate increases. He said three citizens, two from outside the city limits and one inside the city limit will serve as an advisory committee.
“Local citizens, who are rate payers, will make the decision on any rate changes,” Delph said.
No immediate rate increase is being proposed, but the city is preparing for the future, Delph said.
The electric utility will continue to be audited by the Indiana State Board of Accounts.
“There is a lot of misinformation right now,” Delph said. “Nothing will be done under the table in the future, the council will have the final vote on any rate changes.”
Delph said by having local control, a decision on a rate change could be completed in 60 days as compared to six months to a year by going through the IURC.
“The public hearing is for the rate payers to express their opinion,” he said.
Once an ordinance removing the electric utility from IURC control is adopted, residents have 60 days to submit a petition with the names of two percent of the registered voters to place the issue on the November ballot for a referendum vote.
Beth Roads, IURC counsel, said a fair number of municipal utilities have withdrawn from the IURC.
“Some of it has to do with cost and for others it is how they want to run the utility,” she said.
Roads said if a local ordinance is approved and no petition for a referendum vote takes place, the utility leaves the IURC jurisdiction after 60 days.
A utility can return to IURC control in the future, she said.
Ken de la Bastide can be reached at (765) 454 -8580 or via e-mail at ken.delabastide@kokomotribune.com
