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Item 6f Request to consider the formation of a Bay Area Regional Energy Office. (SR 03:108) Item 6h Cities for Communi .ty Aggregation of Power (SR 03:133) Deborah McKeehan presented the staff report for both items. Mayor Pico clarified that there is no commitment on the part of the City at this point. Ms. McKeehan agreed and indicated this is conceptual approval only. Ms. Ayala asked if the PEC had reviewed this yet. Ms. McKeehan said the material has been delivered to them about both these issues, but they have not held a meeting yet because of the time constraints. Ms. Ayala was concerned about creating a special district. Ms. Hosterman said the potential for a future Regional Energy Office is premised upon a Regional Energy Office that exists in San Diego. Many cities have been reviewing that. This will give the City the ability to be advised of any new issues and those can be referred to the Pleasanton Energy Committee for review. This action will allow the City to be notified of new issues. Ms. McKeehan shares the concerns about additional offices, but at the same time there were real advantages with the Waste Management Authority with regard to the green building ordinance. It was a central clearing house for information exchange and education. She believed there would be advantages for ABAG (Association of Bay Area Governments) to be involved. Mr. Brozosky said he had spoken to the executive director of the San Diego Regional Energy Office and discussed their overhead, programs and reviewed their website. The overhead is a million dollars a year for staff and facilities. He wondered if the citizens gained a million dollars of benefit from that. He felt their programs were similar to what exists in the Bay Area. He was concerned about creating a new agency and the inability to remove surcharges on the energy bills once they are in place. With regard to item 6h on purchasing power, he hoped the cities could do a better job than the governor did in buying power. Ms. McKeehan agreed that is an area to use caution, but since the possibility is there, cities need to make certain the citizens are being represented in the best way possible to take advantage of the savings. Matt Sullivan, 7882 Flagstone Drive, member of the Planning Commission and Energy Committee, thanked staff for getting this to Council so quickly. He supported the staff recommendation to approve in concept the participation of Pleasanton in the Regional Energy Office and the Cities for Community Aggregation of Power. Both these efforts emerged from a Pleasanton City Council 27 Minutes 05/06/03