HomeMy Public PortalAbout10-06-1975 PROCEEDINGS OF THE COMMON COUNCIL OF THE
CITY OF RICHMOND , INDIANA , SERVING AS
A COMMITTEE IN CHARGE OF THE OPERATION OF THE
RICHMOND POWER & LIGHT PLANT , OCTOBER 6 , 1975
1 The Common Council of the City of Richmond, Indiana, met in regular
2 session October 6, 1975 at the hour of 7:00 p.m. in the Council
3 Chambers in the Municipal Building in said City serving as a committee
4 in charge of the operation of the Richmond Power & Light Plant. Mr.
5 Brown presided with the following members present: Messrs. Cornett,
6 Elstro, Geier, Hilton, Marino, Merchanthouse, Mills and Williams.
7 Absent: None. The following business was had to-wit:
8
9 Mr. Williams moved to approve the minutes of the previous meeting,
10 seconded by Mr. Mills and on unanimous voice vote the motion was carried.
11
12 Mr. Hilton moved to approve the following bills, seconded by Mr. Elstro
13 and on unanimous voice vote the motion was carried.
14
15 APPROVE THE FOLLOWING:
16 Bills in the amount of $ 261 ,205.64
17 Interest Coupons 387.50
18 2 Payrolls 131 ,454.45
19
20 INVESTMENTS PURCHASED
21 *Depreciation Reserve Fund $ 300,000.00
22 **Cash Reserve Fund 180,000.00
23
24 *C.D. 's Maturing 9/26/76, yielding 8%
25 **C.D. 's Maturing 12/30/75, yielding .6 5/8% interest
26
27 Mr. Brown, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Richmond Power
28 and Light stated, "At our last meeting Mr. Sumner, Business Manager
29 of the IBEW read a statement to this body and at that time we agreed
30 to take our answer under advisement.
31
32 Mr. John Brown, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Richmond
33 Power and Light Plant read the following letter:
34
35 Gentlemen:
36
37 We thank you for your letter of September 15, 1975, and the
38 following is a reply to the questions raised.
39
40 The Councilmen assigned to the Employees Relations Committee
41 have studied the events of each meeting held to date and have
42 advised the Board of Directors that negotiations have been
43 taking place in good faith and progress has been made.
44
45 Richmond Power and Light has engaged the services of Mr. Reed
46 Scism as their Labor Relations Consultant and he is acting in the
47 , capacity similar to you and Mr. E.J. Bailey. You three men are
48 acting as chairmen and consultants to your committees. Upon
49 an agreement between the two negotiating committees, both
50 the employees of Richmond Power and Light and the Board of Directors
51 for R.P.&L will vote upon the acceptance of the proposed contract
52 and labor agreement.
53
54 Contract language is very important to the employees of R.P.&L.
55 as well as the management. It is necessary that the two negotiating
56 committees meet in order to work out any differences. Therefore,
57 it is our request that your committee meet with the R.P.&L. manage-
58 ment committee and both negotiating groups resume bargaining.
59
60
R.P.& L. Minutes
October 6, 1975
Page 2
1 Mr. Cornett moved to have a rate comparison for the month of August
2 and September to be issued at the next meeting, seconded by Mr. Mills
3 and on a call of the roll the following was recorded: Ayes; Cornett
4 and Mills. Noes; Elstro, Geier, Hilton, Marino, Merchanthouse,
5 Williams and Brown, The vote being two (2) to seven (7) in favor
6 of rejection of the motion.
7
8 Mr. Irving Huffman, General Manager, presented the following statement:
9
10 Mr. Chairman, tomorrow I have a meeting in Ft. Wayne with
11 Mr. Raymond Cristell of the City of Cleveland and Mr. Robert
12 Hart, Assistant Law Director of the City of Cleveland.. The
13 City of Cleveland is interested in purchasing our excess
14 power.
15
16 Several companies in the past have shown an interest to pur-
17 chase our excess power; however, it seems we always run into
18 a block from I&M. I&M never replies adequately to any of our requests
19 to transmit the power, or advise the rate for transmission.
20
21 The City of Cleveland is making a personal visit to I&M tomorrow
22 with a request to purchase our excess power. R.P.&L. does
23 not want to sell power to other utility companies. In order
24 to minimize our losses we are forced to seek to sell our excesses.
25
26 Mr. Chairman, the antics of I&M have been most gotesque. I&M
27 has set up every roadblock possible to keep Richmond and other
28 municipals from doing their thing, and that is generating, trans-
29 mitting, and selling power to each other for the benefit of
30 our customers. These customers are our owners.
31
32 The newest antic of I&M comes in the form of recent testimony
33 of Mr. Robert M. Kopper, Executive Vice President and chief
34 operating officer for I&M, and also a Board-of-Director member
35 for American Electric Power, the parent company of I&M. Mr.
36 Kopper testified before the Federal Power Commission in Docket
37 No. E-9329, which is a limited issue with the City of Anderson,
38 that I&M does not have the capability to serve the increased
39 power needs of Anderson.
40
41 I&M has been very busy these past few weeks. They have sent
4Z cancellation notices to all their wholesale customers.
3
44 In the past, I&M spent considerable effort to advise the
45 citizens of Richmond why we should not install a new generator
46 here in Richmond. To us, and to other customer owned systems,
47 I&M has advised that they have spent considerable money to look
48 after wholesale customers, and there was no need for municipals
49 to install generation. Now, all of a sudden, they are advising
50 municipally-owned and cooperatively-owned systems we don 't have
51 enough capacity and we don't want you.
52
53 I do sympathize with I&M, because I&M is short of investment
54 money. But I do not sympathize with I&M whey they no longer
55 want to live up to their responsibilities to serve all their
56 customers regardless of the class of customer.
57
58 Anderson was encouraged not to install .generation. What are
59 the citizens of Anderson faced with now? I quote from
60 Anderson's Sunday Herald, "Candlelight suppers will become
61 nightly occurrences in Anderson by 1978 if the city does not
62 find a new electric power source". I&M is now encouraging
63 them to install their own generation or go elsewhere to purchase
64 power, and I&M will transmit it over I&M lines. The citizens
65 of Richmond, ineffect, had been told by way of the demand
66 requirements, "You must purchase or pay for more power than
67 you need at rates higher than charged to other customers."
68
R.P.&L Minutes
October 6, 1975
Page 3
1 General Manager Irving Huffman's statement cont.
2
3 And now apparently we are being told, "You purchase from
4 us or pay for more power than you need as long as we
5 want you, after which we don't want you. "
6
7 Mr. Chairman, depending upon when business starts back up,
8 this country is going to be faced with a very severe
9 power shortage by the late'70's. There is a very definite
10 need for all power companies to build for the future now.
11 This includes R.P.&L.
12
13 However, Mr. Chairman, here we sit. I&M doesn't answer
14 our letters adequately----won't reply to our request
15 submitted in 1972 for a contract along the lines they
16 are now proposing for Anderson. What gives? In effect
17 they are telling municipal and co-op electric systems,
18 "If you don't have generation, put some in and we will
19 help you", which naturally includes a complete interchange
20 contract. However, what has R.P.&L. had to date? If
21 you have generation you are not going to get an interchange
22 contract.
23
24 Mr. Chairman, the citizens of Richmond need to be most
25 concerned with these antics. We need to plan for our
26 future needs, not those of I&M. Our attorneys have been
27 made aware of I&M's latest antics.
28
29
30 Mr. Geier moved to authorize Mr. Huffman to receive bids to
31 replace a wrecked car, seconded by Mr. Hilton and on unanimous
32 voice vote the motion was carried.
33
34 There being no further business on motion duly made, seconded and
35 passed, the meeting was adjourned.
36
37
38 John Brown
39 Chairman
40
41
42 ATTEST: Margaret Mellen
43 City Clerk
44
45