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Mayor Todd Gloria said Thursday he will start negotiating with San Diego Gas & Electric officials “within days” to try to hammer out a new electric and gas franchise agreement with the city of San Diego.
“This is a rare opportunity to work on this and I feel fortunate to do this,” Gloria said. “It’s not going to be easy, I acknowledge that. This is a big transaction and the (San Diego City Council) is rightly going to establish a high bar for these negotiations but I intend to meet it.”
In a local government franchise agreement, a municipality grants a utility the exclusive use of public rights of way for transmission and distribution, as well as the right to install and maintain wires, poles, power lines and underground gas and electric lines.
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Three members of the San Diego City Council say they want a new electric and gas franchise agreement to run no more than five years significantly shorter than a 20-year deal set in the previous round of bidding.
“I believe a five-year agreement timeframe is essential,” said Councilwoman Marni von Wilpert, saying a shorter term would help make sure the company that wins the bid will be a good partner for the city.
At a meeting Thursday night of the city’s Environment Committee, fellow council members Joe LaCava and Sean Elo-Rivera also called for a five-year term.
In a memo to Mayor Todd Gloria sent prior to the meeting, Elo-Rivera said a shorter term “is more responsible” because of “the pace of innovation and policymaking in the energy sector across the county and the state, the possibility of forming a public power agency” and the launch of the San Diego Community Power, a community choice energy program serving San Diego and four other cities in the regi