PORT TOWNSEND — Puget Sound Energy contributions have jumped to more than $237,000 in the power company’s high-voltage campaign to sway voters from putting electric-service authority in Jefferson County Public Utility District’s hands.
The latest state Public Disclosure Commission report shows PSE has contributed $237,510 to the campaign committee, Jefferson County Citizens Against Proposition 1, staffed by Seattle political consultants Strategies 360.
Jefferson County grass-roots organization Citizens for Local Power, in stark contrast, has received in-kind and cash contributions and paid expenditures totaling $26,432, the PDC report shows.
Puget Sound Energy and Citizens for Local Power are locked in an increasingly competitive battle to deliver information backing or diminishing the proposal.
PSE now provides electrical power to about 18,000 East Jefferson County customers, as well as more than 1 million others.
The PUD now provides only water and sewer service to East Jefferson County.
The ballot question goes before Jefferson County voters when they receive their ballots this week for the Nov. 4 general election.
Ballots were mailed this morning, according to the county Auditor’s Office elections division.
Other battles
PSE has also contributed $131,000 to Whidbey Consumers for Affordable Energy, bringing the total to $276,504 on the issue to form a new PUD in Island County.
And, the utility has given $418,407 to the Skagit Committee for Reliable & Affordable Energy, the company’s campaign group fighting an effort to given the PUD there electric-service authority.
That brings PSE total contributions to fight measures in three counties to $932,421.
“There is no indication that any of the groups has raised a nickel from any other sources, local or otherwise,” said Dean Boyer, Washington Public Utility Districts Association communications director.
The state public utility districts association has contributed $6,490 to the Citizens for Local Power campaign, the largest single contribution, according to Public Disclosure Commission documentation.
Karen Waters, communications manager with Strategies 360, called the state association the “puppet master,” and said it “has been actively engaged in behind-the-scenes politics, especially with regard to Skagit PUD’s ballot proposition.”
Waters said that, since as early as February 2008 and as recently as last month, the state association has assisted Jefferson and Skagit PUDs in efforts to obtain electric authority and to promote the ballot measures.
Specifically, Waters said, the association either has offered or has provided help to the PUDs regarding general advice about strategy.
The association “has used its position to attempt to influence Bonneville Power Administration and to obtain specific information from BPA with regard to a new public utility obtaining power,” she said.
She also said it has been at the forefront of offering assistance to the PUDs to either set forth the positions of the PUDs or to rebut PSE’s position on the municipalization efforts.
The association has written editorials and articles and has offered its assistance in “getting the word out” for the PUDs, Waters said, and paid for a tax study as well as a rate comparison study for the purpose of supporting the PUD’s efforts at municipalization.
‘Ludicrous’
Dean Boyer, communications manager for Washington Public Utility Districts Association, called Waters’ assertions “ludicrous.”
“PSE/Strategies 360 apparently doesn’t understand (or accept) that the efforts in Jefferson, Skagit and Island counties are true grass-roots organizations,” Boyer said.
“Perhaps that’s because PSE/Strategies 360 had to create bogus grass-roots groups in the three counties, headed by Strategies 360 employees and hiding behind high-sounding names like Jefferson County Citizens Against Proposition 1.”
Neither the PUDs nor the state public utility districts association had any role in creating the pro-public power grass-roots groups in Jefferson or Island counties, Boyer said.
“Those groups were organized and operating before were became involved in any way,” he said.
“… The fact is, that neither the Skagit PUD nor the Jefferson PUD can or is actively attempting to obtain electric authority.
“The PUDs, by law, cannot engage in efforts to pass or defeat the measures.
“The measures are being promoted by real grass-roots groups.”
In Jefferson County, the grass-roots group, Citizens for Local Power, collected signatures and went through the county government process to put the measure on the Nov. 4 ballot.
“The fact is that PUDs respond to what their constituents want,” Boyer said.
“That’s what local control is all about.
“If the voters say they want the PUD to explore becoming an electric provider, the PUD will consider that possibility.”
Boyer said the state association’s bylaws preamble states that the agency serves as a medium “for the gathering and exchange of information and study of issues, problems and opportunities …”
That information has included an analysis of taxes paid by PUDs versus PSE.
“We commissioned a study analyzing the likely future of PUDs rates versus PSE,” he said. “And we worked with the Bonneville Power Administration to ascertain the availability of low-cost hydropower for new PUDs.”
The state association also has provided some financial support — about $40,000 total for the three grass-roots campaigns, or less than 5 percent as much as PSE is spending to defeat the efforts, he said.
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Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com
