'Delightfully Unanimous' Board Support for Electrical Aggregation in La Grange

La Grange trustees weren't static at a Village Board meeting in La Grange on Monday evening. In the words of Village President Liz Asperger, trustees were, "delightfully unanimous" in their support of putting a referendum on the November ballot on the issue of electrical aggregation.

The last few months have seen . Asperger has cast the deciding vote in a number of recent board decisions to break a split between board members over issues of taxation and budget cuts in La Grange. But, board members could all agree on one thing, and that was putting the question of electrical aggregation before residents and letting them decide whether their government should bid for lower electricity rates on their behalf.

About 170 area municipalities asked residents in their cities the same question in March, including La Grange Park, and received a resounding, 'yes,' on aggregation. Of the 10 nearby communities who had the aggregation issue on their ballot in March that have been talking with Assistant Village Manager Andrianna Peterson, all reported they were happy with new, lower rates.

Trustees Jim Palermo and Michael Horvath have led a push to bring the discussion before the board in several meetings this year. Both said at the meeting that they have already made the switch to an aggregator over ComEd and are enjoying savings.

"If it's a better rate, I'm in," Horvath joked with fellow trustees.

Village Manager Robert Pilipiszyn told trustees that staff could have a resolution drafted for the board to vote on by their next meeting on July 9. 

Trustees questions mainly stemmed over issues that they would have to discuss and decide on if La Grange residents pass the resolution in November. Key issues before the board will be how much, if any, of the village's electricity would need to come from sustainable sources, and whether to include a civic contribution in bids that would raise revenues for the village, while still saving resident's money on their electric bills. Trustees also were concerned about the amount of staff time that would be spent on the bid process, and the cost of hiring a consultant to help them navigate and understand their bids.

Peterson said she believed about 30 hours of staff time had already been spent researching the topic for trustees and a total of about 100 hours would be needed throughout the process. Peterson also told board members that consultant’s fees ranged between $11,000 and $40,000. However, one direction that many village's have gone in—including La Grange Park—was to hire a consultant whose fee would be included in the bid price and paid by the aggregator, and not residents—at least not directly.

Trustee Mark Kuchler said in his statements that he was pro-aggregation, but thought the village should limit its use of consultants in order to cut costs as much as possible. Kuchler said because so many other municipalities have gone through the process, there should be a lot the village can learn from them.

Trustee Jeff Nowak said although he was generally unsupportive of government's attempts to bid for services on his behalf, he was supportive of a referendum on electrical aggregation because of the possibility of saving residents a significant amount of money.

Other trustees disagreed, or downplayed those concerns, and said residents would have their say through the referendum and would also be able to opt-out of the program. Most trustees said they felt that hiring a good consultant was key in helping them navigate the bid process.

Trustees will likely vote on whether to put a referendum on the November ballot in La Grange at their next meeting on July 9.

For a timeline of the electrical aggregation process, and for more information about what trustees will be discussing, take a look at village staff's memo to trustees that I've uploaded in pictures.