KIUC receives member petition challenging meter fees

News Release from KIUC

Līhu‘e, Kaua‘i, HI – 11/13/13 – Kaua`i Island Utility Cooperative has determined that a petition submitted by members challenging an action of the board of directors has a sufficient number of signatures to be considered a “qualified petition” as defined by Board Policy 32.

Board policy enables petitioners who gather at least 250 valid signatures to put to a member vote any action of the elected, 9-member cooperative board.

The action being challenged is the board’s vote on Oct. 1 to set fees for reading and servicing the meters of customers who have chosen not to use KIUC’s wireless “smart meter.” About 10 percent of KIUC’s 30,000 customers have opted out of the smart meter program.

On Oct. 31, the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission approved the fees proposed by KIUC, describing them as “reasonable.” The fees took effect on Nov. 4.

“The decision by the board was about fair cost recovery for our members – reading those old meters costs money,” said David Bissell, president and CEO of KIUC.  “The petitioners are challenging this approach. So now the members will decide whether those who opted out of a smart meter should pay or if all the members should pay.”

Customers without a smart meter pay $10.27 per month for the extra costs of manually reading and servicing the old meters. Spreading the cost to all customers works out to just under $1 a month.

Within 15 days, a committee of the board of directors will meet with members of the petitioning group to discuss the method of submitting the challenged action to the members for a vote and to develop the wording of the ballot.

The process will follow the steps outlined in Board Policy 32, which can be found at http://website.kiuc.coop/content/board-policies.

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