RCA INVESTIGATION OF CHUGACH ELECTRIC BLOG

	At the Regulatory Commission of Alaska and in the Courts: FIRST FORMAL COMPLAINT EVER FILED WITH REGULATOR ABOUT UNFAIR AND UNJUST LABOR COSTS AT CHUGACH ELECTRIC www
RCA Dockets: Chugach Consumers v CEA [U-06-135] CEA Rate Case [U-06-134] CEA Tariff Filing TA279-8 Superior Court: Chugach Consumers v CEA [3AN-06-13323CI] CEA v Chugach Consumers [3AN-06-13743CI] Federal Court: Chugach Consumers v CEA [3:06-cv-00280]
DATE	COMMENTS
1/9/07	Chugach Consumers Answer to the Chugach Electric lawsuit.
12/22/06	Now Chugach Electric sues Chugach Consumers suppressing documents submitted to the courts and to the regulators! CEA management desperation to silence discussion of labor contract and other waste at the utility continues unabated. [Chugach Electric Association, Inc, vs. Ray Kreig, Stephen Routh and Chugach Consumers]
12/20/06	Chugach board approves pay raise - UNION: Judge denies critic's petition to stall decision until a review by state's regulators - By RICHARD RICHTMYER - Anchorage Daily News - The state's largest electric company Tuesday night approved a contract with the union for some of its workers after a federal judge denied a request to put the pact on hold while state regulators consider whether it would harm consumers...So far, the utility has released little information about the cost of the new contract...Liz Vasquez, a Chugach director, said she hadn't seen any documentation during the course of the contract negotiations that supported that claim. "I still haven't seen any documents that show what the bottom line is," she said. Vasquez was one of two of Chugach's seven board members who voted against the contract. The other, Uwe Kalenka, said he was similarly frustrated. CEA Press Release Outlet bill stuffer sent to 60,000 ratepayers.
12/19/06	Anchorage Channel 2 KTUU - 5 pm + 10 pm News [4:00 min] - Mike Ross - Chugach board president Jeff Lipscomb bars channel 2 from filming this historic and perennial event packed with IBEW Union Chugach employees. It's the board meeting where $ millions of your electric utility rate monies are torched in the approval of an unfair and unjust labor giveaway to the victorious IBEW Union.
12/19/06	Federal Court Judge Timothy Burgess says no to Temporary Restraining Order. Gives green light to CEA board to approve IBEW Union labor contract at tonight's meeting. The fight for ratepayer justice moves back to the Regulatory Commission of Alaska where it belongs.
12/18/06	Federal Court filings: Chugach Electric Mary Tesche Affadavit [CEA utility staff and their law firms had 67 hours to prepare this] Ex C IBEW Union letter Reply by Chugach Consumers [we had only 4 hours to reply!!]
12/18/06	Chugach Consumers files to intervene in the Chugach Electric rate case U-06-134
12/17/06	Chugach Consumers Federal Court Filing - Motion to Remand ExA ExB
12/15//06	Federal judge Timothy M Burgess rules against Chugach Electric. He granted Chugach Consumers request for an expedited hearing to block CEA board's 2nd attempt to pass labor contract at Tuesday board meeting. Chugach Electric did not want any further proceedings as the State Superior Court restraining order expires 12/16/06. Judge Burgess said no to that, he will hold federal court hearing Tuesday morning at 10 am in courtroom No. 1. Chugach Electric also wanted judge to prohibit Chugach Consumers from answering any brief that Chugach Electric would file. Judge said no to that also, Chugach Consumers can file an answer with the court to what Chugach Electric claims before Tuesday's hearing.
12/15/06	Anchorage Channel 2 KTUU - 10pm News [3:20 min] - Chugach Consumers back in court to stop 2nd attempt by board to pass labor contract; it's a fight that could cost every electric ratepayer in Anchorage - Mike Ross Chugach appears frantic to approve this labor contract [Kreig] ; It's the best we can get, it will add very little to the consumers bill [Bill Stewart, Chugach Electric] ; The pay raises are deserved and needed, hard to get employees to stay, wages have fallen behind and we can't attract people [Frank Gwartney, retired IBEW Union lineman]; Contract is excessive, it's bloated, board has not taken the proper efforts to educate members as to the long term implications of this contract [Chugach Board members Uwe Kalenka and Elizabeth Vazquez].
12/14/06	Chugach filing at RCA regarding confidential data
12/10/06	Chugach ordered to hold on considering contract - By Tim Bradner - Alaska Journal of Commerce - A consumer group has gone to the Regulatory Commission of Alaska and state Superior Court to try to stop Chugach Electric Association's board of directors from adopting a four-year contract with some of its employees...Alaska Superior Court Judge Craig Stowers issued a temporary restraining order Dec. 6, barring the board of Chugach from considering the wage increases...The labor contract was added to the board's agenda with little public notice other than a posting on the utility's Web site Nov. 30, according to Ray Kreig, a vice chairman of Chugach Consumers and a former Chugach Electric board member...The RCA has never intervened in a utility wage issue before, but Kreig said the agency has authority to do so... While this wouldn't have a dramatic immediate effect on local electric rates — rising fuel prices are having much more significant impacts — a few percentage points in the rates will add up. The cumulative effect of the increase over time would be substantial, he said. “Chugach's rates are already 20 percent over what they would be if the utility followed national norms in good business practices,” Kreig said. “IBEW workers will get a nice fat bonus, but our grandchildren will be paying for it,” Kreig said.
12/8/06	Cost of Chugach pact: $2.40 a year - UTILITY BILLS: Raises the workers would receive are in dispute - RICHARD RICHTMYER - Anchorage Daily News - Chugach Electric Association's top manager said Thursday that the cost of its disputed labor contract with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers would add 20 cents a month to the average customer's electric bill. Bill Stewart, the Anchorage-based power company's chief executive, defended the proposed pact, which he said would cover 58 Chugach employees, most of them journeyman linemen. He said it contains long-overdue pay raises balanced by changes in work rules that would offset part of the extra pay by "more than $1 million." He declined to say specifically how much the proposed pay raises would add to Chugach's costs and how much the work rule changes would save. The power company is negotiating two other contracts with the IBEW, and providing those details would weaken Chugach's bargaining position, Stewart said. "If we tell everybody what those savings are worth, then the union's going to know what the value is," he said. Ray Kreig, who this week got a state Superior Court judge to temporarily bar Chugach from executing the proposed contract, said the union has more than enough information about the utility's finances and operations to figure out what the proposed contract would cost. "They're certainly able to evaluate it," Kreig said. "Maybe not quite as accurately as Chugach, but we're talking about a very slight difference."
12/7/06	Chugach Electric press release - Chugach fights back with bad information given to the press: It wants you to think this is all just a Chugach Consumers publicity stunt and a failed candidate's tantrum!
12/7/06	State judge blocks Chugach pay hike - RULING: He said state regulators should have a chance to review the proposed contract - RICHARD RICHTMYER - Anchorage Daily News - A state judge on Wednesday issued a temporary restraining order stopping Chugach Electric Association from raising some of its workers' pay 17 percent over the next year and a half. Ray Kreig, a former Chugach board president and longtime critic of its labor policies, asked Superior Court Judge Craig F. Stowers to bar Chugach's board from approving the contract, which Kreig said proposes unreasonably generous pay and benefits increases and hadn't gotten enough public scrutiny. In his order, Judge Stowers agreed with Kreig's argument that state utilities regulators should review the contract. "This will protect the public, Chugach and other utilities, and their members, in their rights to appropriate and uninflated electric rates," the judge wrote.
12/6/06	Anchorage Channel 2 KTUU - 5 pm News [2:11 min] 6pm News [0:50 min] 10pm News [2:01 min] Judge rules no new labor deal for Chugach Electric - Mike Ross
12/6/06	CEA board meeting at which the IBEW contract was to have been ratified
12/6/06	Chugach Electric then tried to duck Judge Stowers restraining order by moving it to federal court but they were too late and the restraining order stood!
12/6/06	RCA U-06-135 - RCA ORDER NO. 1 - The RCA felt they couldn't issue the restraining order (because of uncertainty over jurisdiction) but ordered Chugach Electric to answer the complaint by 4pm the day after Christmas.
12/6/06	RCA U-06-135 - Chugach Consumers RESPONSE TO CHUGACH ELECTRIC RESPONSE TO CHUGACH CONSUMERS' MOTION FOR RESTRAINING ORDER
12/6/06	(CHUGACH Consumers and Ray Kreig vs. CHUGACH ELECTRIC ASSOCIATION, INC.) TEMPORARY RESTRAINING ORDER by C. Stowers, Superior Court Judge
12/6/06	RCA U-06-135 - Chugach Electric Response
12/5/06	Critic protests Chugach union pact - WAGES: Vote is scheduled today on raises for utility's hourly electrical workers - RICHARD RICHTMYER - Anchorage Daily News - A consumer activist and longtime critic of Chugach Electric Association has asked state utilities regulators to stop the Anchorage-based power company from approving big increases in wages and pension benefits for some employees. Ray Kreig, a former Chugach board president, filed a complaint with the Regulatory Commission of Alaska on Tuesday, asking the agency to temporarily bar Chugach's board from approving a proposed contract with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. The board is scheduled to vote on the proposed pact this afternoon.
12/4/06	RCA U-06-135 - Chugach Consumers: Emergency complaint and request for immediate restraining order [REDACTED] Exhibits G [best separately printed in color]
11/30/06	First time members could have known about the OUTRAGEOUS IBEW Union contract when it was quietly posted on CEA website
11/8/06	Chugach Board vote to make offer to IBEW

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