Don't defang City Light

Seattle City Council members are political experts, not energy experts. But if they are going to continue to oversee Seattle City Light, they better surround themselves with some.

Monday, the council is expected to consider a recommendation from its energy and environmental policy committee to defang its panel of energy advisers. Instead, they should make sure the panel of advisers continues to have the latitude to set its own agenda and offer independent advice.

Council committee chair Jean Godden and David Della are proposing a replacement panel that would lack the gravitas of the recently disbanded advisory committee. For three years until January, a top-flight group of energy and business experts, including the former CEO of GE Japan and the former Bonneville Power Administrator, dished out advice that helped steer City Light back onto firmer ground after the energy crisis of 2000 led to a 58-percent rate hike. They investigated best practices and tailored recommendations for City Light.

When utility customers were agitating for relief from high rates, the committee's adamant advice to stay the course until City Light got on firmer financial footing provided the council with some cover for its decision not to reduce rates just then.

Mayor Greg Nickels likes the advisory board as it was, jointly convened by him and the council but able to establish its own agenda. Godden and Della want the council to set the advisory board's agenda and forbid its members to advocate for their positions.

Nickels seems ready to compromise to get the energy advisory board moving again. But that would be a mistake. The Municipal League of King County and others concerned about the quality of advice argue convincingly the advisory committee, under the proposed limitations, would not have members with the same firepower.

Godden and Della were not on the council during the turbulence of the energy crisis. But five others, including Chairman Nick Licata, were. They should remember those difficult times, which were exacerbated by the council's inane but politically popular policy in the '90s of taking on debt to keep rates low.

A little wise dissent then from an advisory committee of industry experts focused on the bottom line — not the politics — might well have helped City Light better weather the crisis.