As Its Troubles Grow, Edison’s Giving Shrinks

Southern California Edison, a company that meticulously crafted itself over the past decade into one of Orange County’s most visible corporate citizens, has retreated overnight from its starring role in the wake of California’s energy crisis.

Gone are the hotel ballrooms filled with tables of Edison executives and guests. Corporate sponsorships evaporated. Fund-raisers crossed Edison off prospect lists. Employees who gave generously to charitable and political causes are now consumed with the looming threat of job cuts--as much as 20% of the company’s 3,200 local positions.

Even the United Way, which received $860,000 from Edison and its employees in 2000, isn’t expecting a corporate gift this year. In fact, the charity recently offered the utility’s employees a list of resources through its member agencies, including job counseling, in a letter to Edison’s corporate headquarters in Rosemead.

Among the few corporate symbols remaining are the Edison Mission Energy logo atop a high-rise off the San Diego Freeway in Irvine and the green-and-yellow logo attached to the sign at Edison Field. The stadium was renamed in 1998 after Edison International signed a $1.4-million annual contract with the Walt Disney Co., which runs Anaheim stadium.

“They were everywhere, and you’ve got to give them credit; they did it right,” Republican activist Buck Johns said of Edison dynamism in Orange County. “In my estimation, that is all going to change this month. And we’ll miss them.”

Edison officials said that in the wake of rising power prices--which have created an energy crisis in the state and huge losses for utilities--the company has frozen all charitable and political contributions except those made through multiyear commitments.

So far, Edison hasn’t announced any layoffs among its most visible representatives in the community--its 11 public affairs employees in Orange County. While critics point to the department as an example of corporate bloat, others say the public affairs team is more critical now than ever as elected officials grapple with how to handle the state’s energy crisis.

Edison’s local work force consists of several former local, state and federal employees. They brought essential knowledge of the inner workings of government to the table, as well as established relationships with their former bosses: among them, former Sen. Rob Hurtt (R-Garden Grove), former Gov. Pete Wilson, retired Rep. Ron Packard (R-Carlsbad) and two former county supervisors.

Edison hired as public affairs executives Brian Bennett, former chief of staff to retired Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove); former Orange County Supervisor Gaddi Vasquez; and Jo Ellen Allen, first vice chair of the county Republican Party.

It’s an array of political muscle that didn’t coalesce by accident. As the company prepared in the mid-1990s for the expected political tussle over deregulation, it bulked up with well-connected spokespeople to represent the company’s interests. Edison also wanted to keep its municipal clients from being wooed by others as competition entered the market.

Edison officials were everywhere--at city council meetings, the county Hall of Administration, the halls of the state Capitol.

“At one point, we were joking that if Edison were to get into any trouble, we’d lose half our membership,” said lobbyist Randy Smith, a board member of the Orange County Public Affairs Assn., which counts about 20 Edison representatives among its 300 members.

Bennett, who works at corporate headquarters in Rosemead, said that the department will suffer layoffs but that specific cuts haven’t been announced. The public affairs staff remains crucial for servicing franchise agreements to supply power to county government buildings, as well as 31 city franchises, he said.

“Their role continues to be what it’s always been--to protect the company’s assets, maintain a good corporate citizen presence and educate our consumers about the changing electricity marketplace,” he said. “The difference is that our people are having to work harder with fewer resources.

“It disappoints us tremendously that we’ve had to pull back our corporate-citizen presence in Orange County. It’s an ingrained part of what Southern California Edison is all about.”

Not everyone is sad to see Edison’s high profile in political and charity circles fade. Critics charge that Edison skillfully used its connections--and well-connected employees--to benefit its business over consumers.

“We’ve always been outgunned because the utilities have a tremendous amount of clout, and what is absolutely galling is that, as ratepayers, we’re paying for the salaries of these people,” said Michael Shames, executive director of the San Diego-based utility watchdog group, Utility Consumers Action Network.

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Accountant Bruce Whitaker, who gained visibility as a government watchdog after the county’s 1994 bankruptcy, said the company clearly has been involved at all levels of politics and government. In 1996, for example, Edison officials contacted Whitaker, then running for Fullerton City Council, and wanted to know his philosophy toward government, deregulation and utility issues.

“They’re going to have a severe image problem for a while and it might be counterproductive for them to maintain a high profile,” he said. “They might as well duck back in the foxhole for a while. . . . They need to be careful about being out touting themselves when their most basic service is operating on flat tires.”

At many local charities, however, Edison’s financial gifts were pivotal as the company sought to prove itself a generous corporate citizen. Among the company’s charitable donations included providing land and $80,000 in financial support for the Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center of Orange County, which sits in front of the company’s former power plant on Pacific Coast Highway in Huntington Beach.

Edison International, the utility’s parent company, has given more than $7 million a year in corporate gifts, according to Beverly Ryder, corporate secretary and vice president of community involvement. “These were in shareholder dollars,” Ryder stressed.

The Orange County Hispanic Chamber of Commerce “would not be in the position it is now if not for people stepping up from [Edison],” said Ruben Alvarez, executive director. Edison public affairs official Tony Aguilar is a former president of the chamber’s board of directors.

And special-event planner Sharon Esterley said, “There’s nobody in this economy to step into the void.”

Esterley, who organizes events for county chapters of the American Cancer Society and American Heart Assn., said she’s planning an annual event for which Edison previously had bought one or two tables. “I’m not even going to ask them this year,” she said.

The company’s need to “make a public statement” has changed dramatically, Johns said.

“Edison did what they did because they could afford to and they had justification to do it,” he said. “But things have changed. There’s no reason for that kind of presence in Orange County.”