O’Connor Asks SDG&E; to Abandon Merger Plans

San Diego Mayor Maureen O’Connor on Wednesday urged San Diego Gas & Electric Co. Chairman Tom Page to “wave a white flag” and abandon its proposed merger with Rosemead-based Southern California Edison Corp.

O’Connor used a City Hall news conference to tell Page that “it’s OK to come home . . . we’re not going to be punitive.” The mayor, a staunch merger opponent, also asked San Diegans to flood state officials and the utilities’ boards of directors with anti-merger letters and telephone calls.

In a related development, San Diego City Atty. John Witt will meet todaywith state Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren to discuss Lungren’s concerns about a state law that governs utility mergers.

Lungren last week questioned the legality of a key clause that prohibits mergers that would “adversely affect” competition. The utilities have maintained that the clause would not withstand a court challenge because it would prohibit any utility merger.

Witt on Wednesday said that “it’s too late” for Edison to salvage the proposed merger, which has been attacked as anti-competitive by state and federal law judges. The state Public Utilities Commission and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission are expected to cast final votes soon on the merger, which would create the nation’s largest investor-owned utility, with 4.8 million customers.

O’Connor, however, urged Lungren to stand firm against what she described as pressure being applied by Edison in Sacramento.

“I hope to God that (Lungren) can’t be bought,” she said, adding that her “biggest fear is (Edison’s) political influence and the checkbook.”

While O’Connor and several other merger opponents Wednesday demanded that utility executives drop the controversial merger, utility spokesmen said that won’t happen.

“The merger makes as much sense today to customers and shareholders as it did 2 1/2 years ago,” Edison spokesman Lewis Phelps said. “I’m surprised that the mayor is urging that we forgo a billion dollars in benefits to customers.”

SDG&E; board members “have, from my perspective, shown no reduction in support” for the merger, SDG&E; Vice President Ed Guiles said. The merger “contract remains in effect.”

O’Connor was joined Wednesday by nearly a dozen merger opponents, including representatives from San Diego’s business, labor and minority communities.

Terry Whitmill, a member of O’Connor’s Black Advisory Board, said the merger would hurt San Diego’s minority communities by eliminating local jobs and pushing up electric rates.

Lee Grissom, president of the Greater San Diego Chamber of Commerce, asked SDG&E;’s board of directors to “unilaterally walk away” from the merger during an upcoming meeting. “It’s very, very important that this utility stay in San Diego,” he said.

Michael Shames, executive director of Utility Consumers Action Network, a San Diego-based consumer group, said the PUC has been “besieged” by hundreds of letters from San Diegans who oppose the merger.