Business Owner Lashes Out At El Paso Electric

A local business owner is lashing out at El Paso Electric, after the company wrote a letter to city officials, stating they were not getting a fair hearing from city council.

El Paso Electric attorneys, last week, wrote a letter to City Attorney Charlie McNabb and the city utility consultant, Norman Gordon, stating that Representative Cortney Niland was biased and had begun a campaign against the utility before they presented their evidence in a September 13 hearing.

“EPE is alarmed at the lack of objectivity and the tactics undertaken to sway public sentiment before even a page of evidence has been taken,” the letter states. The company, in the letter, accuses Niland of saying, via her facebook and media interviews, that the utility’s rates are not competitive and too high.

Niland, elected into office in June, has not been silent about her speculations of the Electric Company. She said that while she ran for city council, the issue of high electric rates for commercial customers continued to surface. So, she said she asked business owners to write her letters detailing how the rates had affected their company.

One of the business owners who met with Niland and agreed to share that information with her is Stanley Jobe of Jobe Materials. Niland included examples of Jobe’s rates in an analysis she conducted of the electric company.

In the letter El Paso Electric wrote to city officials, they state Niland did not share her analysis with the company, only with city officials and others. The company did manage to get a copy of it and the letter states her “report is biased and does not explain that the power factor charges that Jobe Materials incurred were due to its inferior power factor.”

EPE’s lawyers, in the letter, also point out that Campaign Finance Reports show Niland received a $1,000 campaign contribution from Stanley Jobe.

ABC-7 obtained a copy of a letter that Jobe sent to El Paso Electric’s CEO, David Stevens and Vice President Richard Fleager Tuesday. In it, Jobe details how Niland approached his company and “requested information about the recent dramatic electric rate increase and any effect that the increase may have had on our company’s operations.”

Jobe writes that Niland had told him other companies had shared such information with her but did not want to be named “for fear of reprisal or retaliation.” “Now I understand why they were concerned,” the letter states.

Jobe, in the letter, refers to El Paso Electric’s questioning of the public officials as “malignment of our City Council.”

“Why would you impugn a local business customer, insult a City council member and accuse the El Paso City Council of impropriety and illegal conduct simply because questions are being asked about the fairness of your rates,” the letter states.

“It’s very unfortunate that Stanley arrived at those conclusions, clearly that was not our intent” said Richard Fleager, El Paso Electric’s Vice President of Customer Care and External Affairs. He said he expects to have a better understanding with the city at the next schedule meeting later this month. Fleager said the company’s purpose in that letter was only to show that they were not being included in the communication between city officials. He said the company was under the understanding that they could not communicate with the mayor or council unless it was in an open meeting. However, at Tuesday’s council meeting, City Attorney Charlie McNabb said the city’s dealings with EPE were similar to a zoning case, in which discussion and opinions can be shared outside of meetings. Fleager said that cleared up most of the company’s issues with Niland’s efforts to spread the word of her belief that rates are too high. He said now the company can share its opinions with the public and officials.

“Every business right now with this economy is suffering, and I think every business would like to see some kind of break in their costs in some fashion”,said Fleager, who believes the city could and should provide relief to commercial rate-payers with El Paso Electric’s franchise fee they pay to the city.

Niland said it makes more sense to lower rates.

When asked about EPE’s mention of Jobe’s campaign contribution, Niland said she thought it was interesting considering the electric company had offered her a campaign contribution after she was elected and had promised, during her campaign, to tackle the issue of high rates.

Fleager said EPE does have a political action committee who donates almost all the time to incumbents or, in cases where there is no incumbent, to the winning candidate. He said it’s a standard action for the PAC and that the offer of the $500 donation to Niland had nothing to do with her promises to try to lower rates.

The only other new member of city council, Dr. Michiel Noe, who was elected into office at the same time as Niland said the electric company had never, either during his campaign or once he won the election, offered him any donation.