In its first meeting as the Utilities Board, the new Colorado Springs City Council voted Wednesday to pull the plug on a process that began last summer to look into the ramifications of leasing or selling the city’s electric assets.

The board voted unanimously not to move forward with a contract with NewGen Strategies and Solutions of Denver, citing the April 2 City Council election that brought in six new members, several of whom campaigned against selling any of Colorado Springs Utilities’ four services. NewGen would have received about $186,000 to support an independent, citizen-led citizens committee tasked with overseeing a sale/lease study.

“I think there were a lot of messages that we learned in this election, and I think this is one of them — that the community wholeheartedly supports us not selling the electric portion of Utilities,” said Councilwoman Jan Martin.

The issue of selling or leasing CSU’s electric assets came up in June when Mayor Steve Bach sent a letter to City Council recommending that a community task force be created to review new models of Utilities governance, as well as the lease or sale of “power generation units.”

In August, the Utilities Board asked the independent, citizen-led Utilities Policy Advisory Committee to oversee the study. Committee chairwoman Terri Carver told the Utilities Board Wednesday that from August to November, the group worked on the scope of its assignment and how to best accomplish its goals. The committee decided the best route would be to hire two consultants — one to provide project management support for the committee’s work, and another to do an asset valuation.

Utilities set aside $500,000 in its 2013 budget for UPAC study, and the committee chose NewGen over another bid earlier this year. For the past six weeks, Carver said, the city has been in negotiations with NewGen, and the Utilities Board was being asked Wednesday to approve the contract.

The board members thanked UPAC for its work, but said it would be ludicrous to approve a contract for a study that could recommend selling the city’s electric assets.

“If we go ahead and do a study like this, eventually the ratepayer pays for this, and if we have no intention of ever selling utilities, which I hope that is the case, then there really is no point in going ahead and pursuing this particular study,” said Keith King, the new council president.

Although UPAC’s task had its roots in the mayor’s June letter, Councilman Merv Bennett told the board that Bach agreed with the decision to stop the process.

Carver said that because no contract had been signed, the city will not be on the hook.

“That came up in a UPAC meeting; we asked the city attorney if there would be any liability, and were told ‘no,’” Carver said.

A loader moves coal outside Colorado Springs Utilities’ Drake Power Plant in Colorado Springs Thursday, Sept. 11, 2008, toward the hopper that will transport the fuel into the power plant. Photo by CHRISTIAN MURDOCK/The Gazette file

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