Evansville City Council will intervene in CenterPoint rate increase case
EVANSVILLE — The Evansville City Council will officially intervene on behalf of city residents in CenterPoint Energy's latest rate case.
Monday evening, the council voted 9-0 to hire Indianapolis-based Lewis Kappes, PC as its legal counsel with the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission. The fees for the work will not exceed $20,000. The potential approval of those dollars, to come out of the city's general fund, is set for council's next meeting.
The council will join SABIC Innovative Plastics Mount Vernon, LLC; Citizens Action Coalition of Indiana and CenterPoint Energy Indiana South Industrial Group in their effort.
As an intervenor, city council will be able to file testimony in the case, as well as participate in the hearings.
According to the agreement, the firm will intervene on behalf of the city council and monitor the proceedings. This would include giving client reports, appear at public council meetings as requested, attend hearings as needed and participating in emails, calls and executive sessions.
While the city council has not intervened in rate cases before, the former mayoral administrations of Lloyd Winnecke and Jonathan Weinzapfel both did.
'We have so much hardship in our wards'
Missy Mosby, D-Second Ward, said many constituents have been calling their city councilors, especially in the last few days, to talk about high utility bills.
"We have so much hardship in our wards," Missy said. "(There are) people struggling to to pay their utility bills, rent, take care of their children."
Alex Burton, D-Fourth Ward, talked about the median income in Evansville, which is $45,000, and said he would argue that in the Fourth Ward, it's even lower. Many of those residents who are most impacted by CenterPoint rate increases are also renters, Burton said.
"The money that is going to our only energy provider is simply draining too many of us," he said. "Though this intervening will not solve all of our problems immediately, it is a start."
Ben Trockman, D-First Ward, said it was time.
"The cost of inaction was too great," he said.
Both Burton and Trockman thanked activist Chris Norrick and the Direct Action Against CenterPoint group for advocating for the city to address the high utility costs locally.
"We really believe that this will be a helpful tool for us as a council, for us as a city, to move forward and hopefully make some progress," Trockman said.
CenterPoint public hearing coming this month
There will be a public hearing on the CenterPoint rate request later this month.
On Feb. 29, customers hoping to comment on CenterPoint Energy's request to raise its base electric rates will have two chances to do so, once at 2 p.m. and again at 6 p.m.
According to the Office of Utility Consumer Counselor, the rate increase would take a residential electric bill for 1,000 kilowatt hours from $207.20 to $253.40.
This request to the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission is the company's first electric base rate filing since 2009. CenterPoint has had many other filings that impact rates in other forms since that time.
The lack of attendance by elected officials at a public hearing on CenterPoint increases last year became a high-profile topic in the city election. This year, the two hearings will occur during a county election primary cycle.
County council, county commission and state and federal positions are all up for election.
Evansville Mayor Stephanie Terry said in an "Ask the Mayor" series on Facebook that she would be in attendance at the Feb. 29 hearing.
This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Evansville City Council is set to intervene in CenterPoint rate case
