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Power to the people
Nearly 50 people attended a rally at Civic Center Park Saturday afternoon to call for public ownership of the utilities.
The rally came only four days after the City Council voted to allocate over $80,000 to study the possibility of joining a municipal utility district or taking public ownership of power by some other means.
Organizers said the rally would apply needed pressure to keep the council focused on the option of public power.
"We were at last Tuesday’s meeting," said organizer Richard Challacombe. "It was definitely divided. When it came to the idea of municipalization they got skittish."
Councilmember Kriss Worthington sponsored the bill to explore public power, and has been an advocate of the public power movement. He spoke at the rally, which he considered a necessary public action, "for symbolic purposes, " to provide a strong public mandate for public power.
"The council vote had the minimum number necessary to authorize a feasibility study," he said. "If it was that close of a vote, getting the votes to actually do it is going to be harder. We need to build the public momentum and pressure."
Speakers reinforced the fact that public power is not a pie-in-the-sky dream, but a completely possible alternative.
The movement to establish public power agencies began after California’s power utility deregulation showed signs of
