Edison, Not City, to Foot Repair Bill
City officials will not have to foot the bill for power repairs made after hours last weekend, and Southern California Edison said it is backing away from its no-overtime policy as a result of the flap.
Mayor Dan Del Campo said the city will not have to pay up to $2,100 for crews used Saturday to fix an underground transformer that failed Friday evening.
Until City Manager MaryJane Lazz agreed to have the city foot the bill, 315 residents of a condominium complex faced a weekend without electricity when Edison officials refused to make the repairs.
“After looking at what took place, [Edison] decided it wouldn’t be a wise idea for us to cut the check,” Del Campo said Tuesday. “Edison should have paid for it in the first place.”
The state has been in Stage 3 conditions--those that require rolling blackouts--for more than a week, though there have been none so far in Ventura County.
Edison spokeswoman Nancy Williams said Tuesday that unplanned residential blackouts will now qualify as authorized overtime work. Before the Thousand Oaks incident, company officials said overtime would be used only in matters of life and death, such as power interruption during a fire or downed power lines.
“In all outages, public safety and health criteria will come into play, as always,” she said.
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