REGION : Cities Consider Power Consortium

Elected officials from cities on the Westside and the South Bay are completing a proposal for a joint-powers authority designed to buy electricity at lower cost and improve service.

Officials from Beverly Hills, Culver City, Santa Monica, West Hollywood, Hermosa Beach, Rolling Hills Estates, Gardena, Lomita, Hawthorne, Carson and Vernon put the finishing touches on an agreement that will bind the group. Inglewood and several other cities that have been involved with the consortium were not represented at the Wednesday night meeting.

City officials who are serious about formally joining the consortium have agreed to bring the matter before their respective city councils for approval sometime in the next two weeks. Although they participated in the meeting, representatives from Beverly Hills and Santa Monica say they have no plans to join the consortium--at least for now.

Initially, the group’s mission is to act as a bargaining unit and negotiate lower rates from Southern California Edison, according to James Boulgarides, chairman of the consortium and a Culver City councilman.

To start, the group will lobby Edison for a 25% rate reduction. Later, if the California Public Utilities Commission deregulates the electric industry in California--as most believe it will--the consortium will negotiate the lowest rates from power providers.

How much it will cost each city to participate in the consortium is unknown and a concern for some city officials. The ad hoc group, which has not incurred any debt so far, has agreed that cities will not have to pay anything just for signing the joint-powers agreement.

But as costs arise in the future, officials say, they will devise a formula to share expenses among the members of the consortium.