CITY OF SEATTLE

ORDINANCE __________________

COUNCIL BILL __________________

AN ORDINANCE relating to the City Light Department; amending Ordinance 123256 to clarify the role of and support for the City Light Review Panel.

WHEREAS, the Council established the City Light Review Panel (“Panel”) through Ordinance 123256 to assist it and the Mayor in guiding the utility through the Six-Year Strategic Plan and updates to it, and in setting rates to support those plans; and

WHEREAS, the Council and the Mayor find Ordinance 123256 unnecessarily limits the effectiveness of the Panel; NOW, THEREFORE,

BE IT ORDAINED BY THE CITY OF SEATTLE AS FOLLOWS:

Section 1. Section 4 of Ordinance 123256 is amended as follows:

Section 4. Role of the Panel.

The Panel shall

(a) review and assess City Light's strategic plan and provide an opinion on the merits of the plan and future revisions to it to the Mayor and the Council. The Council anticipates that the strategic plan will at a minimum consider long term strategies to rehabilitate and maintain City Light's infrastructure, provide for labor-force continuity, maintain a portfolio of resources adequate to meet the needs of its customers, and ensure continued regulatory compliance. The Panel will advise the Council to include other issues that should be part of City Light's strategic planning framework;

(b)  assist the Mayor and the Council in engaging rate payers in discussions of the merits and implications of the strategic plan and revisions thereto;

(c)   Reserved (( provide an assessment to the Mayor and the Council of the adequacy of financial policies to protect the financial integrity of the utility and the sufficiency of the policies to support implementation of the adopted strategic plan ));

(d)  review changes to City Light's rates not already authorized by the Seattle Municipal Code and provide an opinion to the Mayor and the Council on the adequacy and prudence of such rate changes in light of adopted planning assumptions and financial policies;

(e) Reserved; (( in its second year or earlier, and at least once every three years thereafter, assess City Light's rate design to ensure that rates send the appropriate signals to customers to use electricity efficiently; and ))

(f)   Reserved (( in its second year or earlier, and at least every three years thereafter, assess City Light's implementation of marginal cost allocation among customer classes to ensure that it provides a fair allocation of costs among customer classes and takes account of changes in costs and consumption. )) ; and

(g) after the adoption of each update to the strategic plan, work closely with staff designated by the Mayor and the Council to propose, in writing, a biennial work program to the Mayor and Council. Work program items may include, but are not limited to, financial policies, cost allocation, rate design, operational efficiency, issues requested by the Mayor or the Council, and issues the Panel believes the Mayor and the Council should consider.

(h)  The Council continues to expect the Panel to provide the Mayor and the Council with analyses and recommendations on significant elements of the strategic plan including, but not limited to, financial policies, cost allocation, rate design, operational efficiency, and to submit its recommendations to Mayor and the Council or, if a collective recommendation cannot be reached, a recommendation indicating the majority and minority positions and the rationales for those positions.

Section 3. Section 6 of Ordinance 123256 is amended as follows:

Section 6. Reserved. (( Rate Setting.

The Council will not adopt rate changes proposed by the Mayor for at least sixty days after the Council Bill authorizing the rate change has been referred by the Council to the relevant standing Committee to allow the Panel sufficient time to review the proposed changes and sufficient opportunity for the public to provide input to both the Panel and the Council. However, this restriction does not apply to rate changes initiated by the Council to address emergent issues or to protect the financial integrity of the utility. ))

Section 4. Section 8 of Ordinance 123256 is amended as follows:

Section 8. Support for the Panel.

(( The Executive shall provide logistical and staff support to the Panel, and will )) Each year, funding for the Panel shall be determined by the Office of the Mayor in consultation with City Light and the City Budget Office. The funding for the Panel will be included in City Light's annual budget and City Light shall transfer the budgeted amount to the General Subfund to support the work of the Panel. The City Budget Office or the Office of the Mayor, in consultation with the Panel and the City Council, shall administer the funds appropriated by City Light for the support of the Panel. City Light shall make all reasonable efforts to address Panel requests for information or analysis pertinent to the issues under consideration by the Panel, and to do so in a timely manner.

(( The Panel shall work closely with staff designated by both the Council and the Mayor to ensure that, as it discharges its duties, the Panel understands the issues and concerns of the elected representatives of the City. ))

Section 5. This ordinance shall take effect and be in force 30 days after its approval by the Mayor, but if not approved and returned by the Mayor within ten days after presentation, it shall take effect as provided by Seattle Municipal Code Section 1.04.020.

  Passed by the City Council the ____ day of ________________________, 2015, and signed by me in open session in authentication of its passage this

_____ day of ___________________, 2015.

_________________________________

President __________of the City Council

  Approved by me this ____ day of _____________________, 2015.

_________________________________

Edward B. Murray, Mayor

  Filed by me this ____ day of __________________________, 2015.

____________________________________

Monica Martinez Simmons, City Clerk

(Seal)