Placerville's representative told to back Pioneer Community Energy expansion after council discusses vote dilution

Councilmember Carter asked the full Placerville City Council on Oct. 28 for guidance on how to vote at Pioneer Community Energy's governing board meeting on Dec. 18 on Amendment No. 8, a proposed change that would add five additional jurisdictions to the joint powers authority.

City Manager Warren and staff explained that Pioneer Community Energy is a community choice aggregation program that purchases electricity supply while PG&E continues to deliver it. Staff said Amendment No. 8 would let the counties of Madera and Colusa and the cities of Chowchilla, Colusa and Williams apply to join Pioneer. If the Pioneer board approves the amendment, an application then would be submitted to the California Public Utilities Commission for final approval.

Carter said his principal concern was dilution of Placerville's voting power on the Pioneer governing board as the authority grows. Pioneer representatives told the council the proposed additions increase Pioneer's customer base by roughly 120 percent and expand purchasing power; Don(ald) Leckard and Donald Eckert said larger membership can yield economies of scale that may lower procurement costs, though they cautioned they could not predict long-term price changes with precision.

After questions from councilmembers and no public comment, the council directed Councilmember Carter to vote in favor of Amendment No. 8 when it appears on the Pioneer governing board agenda. Council members framed the decision as a tradeoff between slightly reduced local voting influence and potential cost benefits from a larger buying pool.

Provenance: The discussion of Amendment No. 8 begins in the meeting packet presentation and council deliberation (topic intro at 21:58) and concludes with the council direction in the same agenda segment (topic finish at 31:05).