At our April 14 Los Angeles County Community Choice Aggregation Task Force Meeting in Palmdale today the County’s legal representative presented a proposed governance document for forming a Joint Powers Authority (JPA) to run the CCA that would serve the County’s unincorporated area.

Click on document to enlarge

Forming a JPA is a crucial step in creating a CCA, and while we were glad to see the process started, we were disappointed in the governance structure proposed.

The County’s JPA proposes a five to nine person Board of Directors appointed by the Board of Supervisors and expressly forbids any elected officials from serving on the BOD. That means that none of our South Bay Clean Power Cities would have direct representation if they were to become part of the County’s JPA.

The successful collaborations between Counties and Cities in Marin Clean Energy and Sonoma Clean Power both are governed by JPAs that give each participating city a seat at the table with each represented on their JPA’s Board of Directors with one of their Councilmembers or Supervisors.

The County’s JPA proposal is only their first draft and we are hopeful they will find a way for cities who wish to participate to have a voting seat at the table.

CLICK HERE to download the County’s draft JPA document.

We have discussed with County staff the continuing option that our South Bay Clean Power cities will form our own JPA, with each of our cities represented on the Board of Directors, and that SBCP JPA may partner and collaborate with the County’s JPA on power procurement and operations.  It all still remains to be seen, but rapid progress is being made and the County’s updated April Timeline still remains aggressive calling for a July 2016 launch: