LAFCo bureaucrat sides with PG&E

James Glaser the executive director of the San Joaquin Local Agency Formation Commission is siding with PG&E against South San Joaquin Irrigation Districts bid to reduce retail electric rates 15 percent across the board in Manteca, Ripon, and Escalon.

Less than two weeks after Glaser tried to work behind the scenes to block the Ripon City Council from filling the unexpired LAFCo term of the late Red Nutt in an apparent bid to have one less commissioner that would have enhanced PG&Es efforts to block SSJIDs bid to takeover retail power service in the three communities, he is posed on Wednesday to push for the five-member LAFCo panel to reject the SSJID plan.

Glaser tried to fill the LAFCo seat in advance of Wednesdays meeting following Nutts sudden passing with the alternate from Lodi. Under LAFCo bylaws the alternate member can serve until such time as a permanent replacement is made by the City Selection Committee consisting of the six mayors of the six cities in San Joaquin County.

However, the alternate from Lodi Phil Katzakian could not have served in any case since Dec. 3 was his last day in office. Had Glaser succeeded, there would have been just four voting members at Wednesdays meeting.

Ripon Mayor Chuck Winn, however, was able to contact Lathrop Mayor Sonny Dhaliwal chairman of the mayors committee who was able to pull off an 11th hour gathering of all the mayors to beat a legal deadline for having a replacement in place by the Dec. 10 meeting.

The mayors agreed the seat on the LAFCo board still belonged to Ripon as the appointment of Nutt was through May of 2015.

Last week, the Ripon council appointed Jake Parks to serve on the LAFCo board. The other four LAFCo board members who will decide the fate of the SSJID application are public member and Chairman Steven Nilssen, Tracy Councilman Michael Maciel, and San Joaquin County Supervisors Ken Vogel and Larry Ruhstaller.

The LAFCo commission meets at 9 a.m. Wednesday in the sixth floor Board of Supervisors chambers, 44 North San Joaquin Street, Stockton.

Glaser wants LAFCo

panel to say no to SSJID

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LAFCo bureaucrat sides with PG&E