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Committee approves City Light rate ordinance and adopts UDP cleanup amendment
Summary
The Parks & City Light Committee voted 5-0 to recommend passage of Council Bill 121231 (new retail rates and a large-load customer class) and adopted Amendment 1 to remove redundant Utility Discount Program changes already passed in separate legislation.
The committee recommended passage of Council Bill 121231, a City Light ordinance establishing new retail rate schedules and a new large-load customer class, and approved an amendment that removes duplicate changes to the Utility Discount Program (UDP).
Eric McConachie of council central staff explained that Amendment 1, sponsored by Councilmember Strauss, strikes UDP modifications from the rate ordinance because the UDP changes were handled by a separate bill earlier in the week. McConachie said the separate UDP bill moved eligibility thresholds from 70% of state median income to 60% of area median income and set council intent for phased extensions to 70% and 80% AMI in subsequent years.
Councilmember Strauss urged adopting the amendment to avoid redundancy and noted the UDP expansion will add roughly 31,000 families at the initial eligibility change and could expand to about 81,000 families under the phased approach. The clerk recorded unanimous roll-call votes (ayes from Strauss, Sacca, Rivera, Vice Chair Kettle and Chair Juarez) to adopt the amendment and to recommend passage of the ordinance as amended; both measures were forwarded to full council on July 21.
Multiple public commenters during the hybrid comment period urged that City Light strengthen protections for ratepayers and require large-load customers (including data centers) to secure clean energy and provide financial guarantees. Speakers suggested stronger grid-flexibility or interruptible-service requirements so data centers help avoid peak-demand costs shifting to households.
City Light representatives present for the briefing included Rob Santoff (interim general manager and CEO), Kirsty Grainger (chief financial officer) and Angela Song (transportation electrification portfolio manager). Staff said the amendment is a tactical cleanup to keep the rate ordinance consistent with recently passed UDP legislation.
