PASADENA 100
RECEIVED
2022 OCT 11 AH 7:37
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i (<....'*-..«< \ October 10, 2022
By email
Dear MSC Councilmembers:
After the non-specific talk about diversity in the composition of the Stakeholders Advisory Group (STAG) for the Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) at the last City Council meeting on September 19th, we now learn from the materials for Agenda item #2 of the October 1 1th MSC meeting that "diversity" means increasing representation of organized special interests, particularly business. That's a disturbing distortion of the socially important value of diversity.
Consider this sentence from the October 11 agenda materials about the current STAG:
"Current STAG well represented in environmental and residential sectors; low representation from business and low-income sector. "
In fact, the STAG histogram that we provided to the MSC and PWP last week, shows that business is overrepresented in the 2023 STAG when compared to the 2018 and 2015 STAGs.
The MSC does not have facts to back the notion that the current STAG lacks representation from what the agenda memo refers to as "low income/seniors/disadvantaged communities." This data was not collected in the STAG application process and no effort has been made to assess this representation.
With respect to the claim that "environmental advocates" are "well represented," a troubling aspect of the MSC agenda report is to consign "Environmental Advocates" to 2 slots out of 17.
Part of the difficulty of this kind of "sector" representation is that our community camiot be neatly divided into separate sectors: A senior may be in business, a low-income person may be passionately concerned about the environment, an education institution representative may be a residential ratepayer, etc.
We note that under the new proposal for the STAG, the largest "sector" is City staff.
If additional members of a refonnulated STAG are to be selected, will the process be open and transparent like the one used to select the current STAG members? Be it through direct representation ofCouncilmembers, their staff, or through appointments by Council Members, the STAG should not be co-opted by city officials who have hiring and firing power over the IRP Contractor and have voting power to approve the IRP. This provides outsized influence over the group and diminishes the ability for the public to provide meaningful input.
www.pasadenal00.org1
We ask that you continue the IRP process with the current STAG. If additional representation from groups of diverse individuals, not special interests, is to be desired, we ask that you once again seek these people through an open and transparent process.
Yours truly,
Steering Committee
PASADENA 100
Sam Bemdt
Cynthia Cannady
Rick Cole
Claudia Funke
Robert Haw
Denise Houlemard Jones
Rev. Tera Landers
Carl Selkin
George Vine
www.pasadenal00.org2
Stevenson, Garrett
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Paul Little <
Monday, October 10, 2022 2:35 PM
Stevenson, Garrett
City_Council
Public Comment for Municipal Services Committee meeting Stakeholder Advisory Group letter to MSC 10-2022.pdf
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Hello.
Attached is a letter from the Pasadena Chamber of Commerce asking that the process for selecting members of the Stakeholder Advisory Group be restarted to ensure fair representation of all groups who may be impacted by the long- range plan.
Please distribute to the committee members before the discussion.
Thank you,
Paul Little
Pa^^tt&e.
Paul Little
President and Chief Executive Officer
Pasadena Chamber of Commerce and Civic Association
Pasadena, CA 91106
www.pasadena-chamber.org
This information could be sensitive or privileged. If you are not the intended recipient, please delete this email immediately. Thank you.
1 October 6,2022
.PASADENA
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CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
t CIVIC ASSOCIATION
Andy Wilson, Chair
Members of the Municipal Services Committee
VIA EMAIL to gstevenson@citvofDasadena,net
Re: Stakeholder Advisory Group
Dear Chair Wllson and Committee Members
The Pasadena Chamber of Commerce and Civic Association has significant and serious concerns about the process to select members of the Stakeholder Advisory Group to provide community input on the long-range Integrated Resource Plan for Pasadena's electric utility.
The current process was very different than those of the past where balanced input from utility stakeholders, customers and city staff were solicited and constituted a balanced committee to provide comments and ask questions of staff and the consultants. This year it is very different.
You have 16 people who applied and were selected for the committee. I have not seen a list of those persons. Nor have I seen any information related to areas of expertise or past involvement with the City of Pasadena, it's government or community. Nor do I know if any are affiliated with groups, companies or have investments that could benefit financially or otherwise from recommendations of the committee.
In the past, the advisory group included one council member (from the Municipal Services Committee), staff from key City departments and balanced representation of our community. Representation included residents, members of the Environmental Advisory Committee, large and small commercial users and representative groups who could articulate concerns of groups of your utility customers.
To have 16 self-selected members of the committee not representative of a balance of stakeholders is very troubling. It is also an unusually large group for a working committee, especially if you intend to add more members to balance viewpoints. That many people on any advisory group is unwieldy and likely to accomplish little, if anything, except a long string of very lengthy and tiresome meetings.
I would suggest the Municipal Services Committee ask the department to begin the process again. The IRP for Electricity Is much too important a plan to not have meaningful input from major stakeholders who represent your entire customer base. Plans for electric power and water resources have been very successful in the past with balanced input from stakeholders with compromises required by everyone to advance the plans to the City Council for approval. Please start the process again to ensure fairness and balanced perspectives from stakeholders.
?aul little
President and Chief Executive Officer
Pasadena, California 91106-1745
www.pasadena-chamberorg