Guest Opinion | Bill Paparian: Is Anyone Looking Out For us at City Hall?

The answer to that question remains to be seen.  

Changes in our electric bills are known as Power Cost Adjustment.  When the Pasadena Water and Power Department (PWP) announced an average monthly increase of $14 per month for our electric bills it was less than forthright.  

In fact, in a February 28, 2023, memo to the City Council Municipal Services Committee, PWP General Manager Sidney Jackson said. “PWP has historically adjusted the PCA infrequently, however, due to heightened market price volatility, going forward the PCA shall be calculated each month and any adjustments from the resulting values shall be automatically implemented on the first day of the following month.”  

In other words, stand by for an increase in your electric bill every month no matter how much you try to conserve.  Mr. Jackson attributed the “heightened market price volatility” to an August 2021 rupture in a gas pipeline from El Paso Texas to California.

The increased costs to generate electricity for us is not the real reason why we will be confronted with the increased costs of electricity.  No, the real reason is that City Hall has been spending our money like drunken sailors on shore leave and now must balance the books on the backs of the beleaguered citizens of Pasadena.  

What many Pasadena voters don’t realize is that section 1408 of the City Charter provides for a transfer of funds every year from the Power fund of PWP to the General Fund.  At the February meeting of the City Council Finance Committee, Matthew Hawkesworth Director of Finance reported that the PCA monthly increase of $14 will result in a $5 million shortfall in the transfer from the Power Fund to the General Fund for next year.  

In response to a question from Victor Gordo, Mr. Hawkesworth said the solution will lie in further electric rate increases. The Municipal Services Committee is supposed to provide oversight of the PWP.  Don’t count on it.  It’s also supposed to meet twice a month. In the last year alone, it’s cancelled almost half of its regularly scheduled meetings.

Meanwhile, we are a community under financial siege.  Living under a fixed budget, we are confronted with Southern California Gas bills which we can no longer afford and grocery costs that make it increasingly difficult for us to feed our families.  

Moreover, as we approach the warm summer months, we are faced with electric bills that will  automatically increased every month.  

They don’t have that problem at City Hall.  They don’t have to live under a fixed budget like we do.  They are spending someone else’s money not their own. And therein lies the problem.  The money City Hall is spending is ours!

Bill Paparaian is a former Mayor of Pasadena