MASON CITY – The Mason City City Council met for a work session Tuesday night and seemed to inch closer on terms for a franchise agreement with Alliant Energy.
A franchise agreement spells out how Alliant would provide electric and natural gas service to Mason City and how the city can regulate how Alliant works within city limits.
Council member Scott Tornquist ran Tuesday’s meeting in the absence of Mayor Eric Bookmeyer. Tornquist carefully took the council and two Alliant representatives through the points of the agreement, starting with the electric service agreement, and later the natural gas service agreement. Both agreements are nearly identical but are separate.
The biggest concerns for the council were changing state laws and changing technologies over the course of future years and being tied to a long agreement with Alliant as those changes come around. The council seemed set on asking for opt-out clauses or “windows” in the twenty-five year agreement, which would theoretically give the city some bargaining power if disagreements with Alliant arise. Five-year windows to opt-out of the agreement seemed to be favored among the six council members Tuesday night. Some were willing to start at the ten-year mark and then go every five years. Alliant rep’s seemed reasonably open to the idea.
An Alliant representative, attempting to explain how Alliant handles these concerns, said that Alliant is bound by state laws and the Iowa Utilities Board and would have to stay in step as new laws and regulations are passed.
Another major concern was the possibility of Alliant being bought out or selling part of the company and a new company moving in and being the new provider for Mason City. “It’s already happened,” council member Max Weaver said. An Alliant representative noted they sold part of their service area in Illinois. The acquiring company would pick up the franchise agreement and operate under those stipulations.
The council also wanted more assurance from Alliant that they would go ahead with construction of a multi-million dollar operations center, likely to be built in Mason City’s industrial park area.
After this round of discussions, it was agreed to send the agreement back to the legal teams to hash out the wording, and further to allow City Administrator Brent Trout to continue to negotiate the finer points with the Alliant team.
The franchise agreement will not show up on next Tuesday’s agenda due to the still lingering disagreements.
Council member Don Nelson stated that “we owe it to the next council to move this forward and get it passed.”
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