Friends of Mill Valley

Posted from the public record of letters sent to the City of Mill Valley City Council: 2-23-10

To: Mill Valley City Council
From: Kevin Ferrell
Date: February 22, 2010

I write to add my name to the rapidly growing list of well informed citizens of Mill Valley including eleven of its former mayors calling for you to opt Mill Valley out of the Marin Clean Energy (MCE) project and to withdraw Mill Valley from the Marin Energy Agency (MEA) as soon as possible.

Posted from the Marin IJ

By Michael Smith -Marin County Treasurer 2/21/2010

At the Feb. 4 Marin Energy Authority meeting, Marin County Supervisor Charles McGlashan, MEA's chairman, publicly stated that I had not carefully read materials relating to MEA.

For the record, I did read MEA's documents, the grand jury's report, interacted with professionals in the municipal investment field and have concluded that MEA's plan to enter the energy business poses a financial risk for Marin County ratepayers and taxpayers.

As your elected county treasurer, I have no agenda, political or for personal gain. My primary responsibility is as an independent fiduciary to protect the fiscal and financial health of this county.

During my tenure, I have seen both exemplary and ill-conceived proposals, but in my opinion, none as concerning as MEA's intent to enter the energy business.

Posted from the Marin IJ Letters to the Editor: 2/22/10
By: Trip Ames, TIBURON

Residents of Marin recently received a mailing from "Marin Clean Energy" notifying most PG&E customers they will now be buying their electricity from a new government agency called Marin Energy Authority (MEA), unless they choose to opt out.

What the notice does not tell you is that as ratepayers and taxpayers there is significant financial risk.

Several Marin cities - Novato, Larkspur, Corte Madera and Ross - have wisely decided not to join the MEA.

Mill Valley is now being urged to opt out as well.

Eleven former Mill Valley mayors have written a very strong and well-researched letter to the mayor and the council outlining the financial risk to their citizens.

I urge every citizen and elected official of Marin to read that letter, which can be found at www.friendsofmillvalley.org.

Here is the link of the PG&E web site to "OPT OUT" of Marin Energy Authority's Marin Clean Energy plan, and keep PG&E as your electrical utility provider.

All you need is a copy of your PG&E bill in hand to give them your electrical "Service ID#" (your account number).

CLICK ON THIS LINK:

https://www.pge.com/myhome/customerservice/energychoice/communitychoicea...

If you do not opt out of MCE within the next 60 days, you will be liable for all future business losses incurred by this new quasi government agency. You will also be at risk of unregulated increases in your energy bills in future years (whereas PG&E prices are state regulated), and will be liable for all of debts incurred by MEA (future debt estimated go as high as $375 Million dollars). These are in addition to the liabilities that you already have as a taxpayer even if you do opt out.

Posted by Bob Silvestri

Posted from the Marin IJ Letters to the Editor - 022010
By: A.T. Anderson, San Rafael

I find it very difficult to believe that the supposedly sophisticated population of Marin would be so easily led to believe that there would be any benefit by entering into an organization that is so naive as to believe that it can supply "green" electricity to select users in the county.

I realize that many people in the county do not believe that PG&E is providing the best service to its customers, but this Marin Clean Energy proposal will not solve any problem. It will only escalate any electricity supply problem that its backers feel presently exists.

So what do the users gain? Green power?

What is that? Power from renewable sources?

Now, what happens when you switch on the light in your home? You will not - and I emphasize not - get the solar and wind power that is produced on the desert or the wheat fields. You will get the electricity from the source nearest to your house.

Posted from the Marin IJ Letters to the Editor - 022010
By: Ray Cook, Mill Valley

Those of us who were living around here 50 years ago, and paying the bills, remember a monthly newsletter, the "PG and E Progress." I always looked forward to receiving my copy.Probably because it was part of the comfort that came with living in a society whose institutions were reliable.

Here, I would like to recall the front page of its February 1969 editions, which by popular demand reprinted its September 1962 summary of "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," the 18th century classic by Edward Gibbon.

My recollection is that PG&E wasn't all bad.

Fast forward to 2010 and observe the Marin Energy Authority, portraying itself as leaders and throwing a lasso around me to drag me along with them into their destiny.

Dear Mayor Moulton-Peters and Members of the Council:

Do I have this right? The City is using our tax dollars to pay Supervisor McGlashan's wife to coach the Council on their response to the "11 Mayors Letter". Her letter is an unmistakable attempt to
reinforce prior MEA/MCE imprinting - she tells you how many meetings you've attended, how many pages you've read, what you should think and what you should do. She is acting like a political consultant and it would appear she's representing Charles and not Mill Valley. The drama would be entertaining if it weren't such a sad commentary on the entire MEA/MCE process - Charles sends his wife to straighten-out the City Council. You're told that the Mayors are wrong. Do you really believe that this group of Mill Valley Leaders would put their names on a letter of such significant import without proper research and in-depth
consideration?

It's been clever of Charles to place his wife in the middle of the

I am no longer a member of the Friends of Mill Valley Steering Committee (since 2008) and have no vote in its actions. So I am not speaking for them. But I would say without reservation that FoMV is the most open and forthright public information service in the City of Mill Valley. It is "unfortunate" that Marie Kerpan is unable to appreciate the years of tireless effort by dozens of concerned citizens, that has brought this about.

FoMV is not a newspaper or an arm of the City's public relations department. Shawn Marshall or anyone else is always free to post anything they'd like on the FoMV web site for everyone to read. But the opinion of any one individual, whether a member of FoMV, a city official or anyone else is not what FoMV emails have ever been about.

February 11, 2010Dear Mayor Moulton-Peters and Members of the Council;The Marin Clean Energy (“MCE”) project proposed by the Marin Energy Agency poses unprecedented and potentially major financial hazards for Mill Valley and local taxpayers, and it is disturbingly unfair to the City’s residents. For these reasons, we are collectively urging you formally to notify the Agency and its member municipalities that, despite the Agency going forward with the contract with Shell, Mill Valley will be opting out of the MCE project and withdrawing from the Agency at the soonest permissible date.Unacceptable Financial Risks and Uncertain BenefitsThe Marin Clean Energy project involves numerous financial risks. These remain largely unquantified. Many are potentially very large and few of these have been faced realistically and head-on.

From the Marin IJ - DICK SPOTSWOOD 2/14/2010

In an extraordinary move, 11 former Mill Valley mayors led by Betsey Cutler, Dennis Fisco and Anne Solem sent a joint letter to the city's Council, urging its withdrawal from the Marin Energy Authority. The group cites "the risk of higher taxes, burdensome municipal debt and/or reduced municipal services inherent in the uncertain economics of the Marin Clean Energy plan."

Even at this late date, Mill Valley could back out of the authority. While unlikely, that would be a stunning reversal in the home turf of MEA chair and county Supervisor Charles McGlashan. The letter will be discussed at the Feb. 23 council meeting regarding the city's reply to the Marin grand jury's report, "Marin Clean Energy: Pull The Plug."