I definitely think our power supply is inefficient and unreliable. Every time it rains power goes out somewhere and even in summer we get outages due to balloons, squirrels and other wildlife, car crashes, etc. The one that lasted 12 hours and kept Charleston Center closed with lost business as well as ruined foods is a good example of how not to expect reliability from our utilities.

The utility always like to compare themselves with PG&E. For example in the article: "remain well below those charged by PG&E, the utility company in surrounding communities".

They forgot to add "PG&E, a convicted felon". PG&E is raising rates to reward themselves for all of their past malfeasance. A pretty low bar for a comparison. They should be doing comparisons with other city owned utilities.

CPAU also notes that they're following PG&E's which pays out dividends on excess profits to its shareholders but when asked where OUR dividend payouts, they either go silenbt or claim that their mere existence is sufficient payment for us when they bother to respond.

“ When people don't realize how good they've got it, they're more likely to complain about the circumstances”

While this may be true, I don’t think it’s the City’s job to engage in propaganda rather than responding to very real concerns. Acting on critical feedback is protective of the thing we value. Citizens can be both critical of burdensome cost hikes and value their public utility. A 79% rate down from even higher is still insanely great. The City should act on rather than deflect criticism to keep our wonderful utility wonderful. (I say this as someone who is both happy we have our great utility and having experienced more than the usual unhappy experiences with it in the last year or two.)