Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Town officials seek new partnership with PG&E

Mayor wants plan to return Civic Center power in emergencies

By Anne Gelhaus

To avoid the long-term power outages that came with December's big storm, Los Gatos town officials are working with PG&E to develop a disaster-preparedness plan.

Mayor Randy Attaway met Jan. 30 with PG&E representatives Steve Machado and Maureen McCarthy to discuss how to guarantee that the Los Gatos Civic Center will have power in emergency situations. When a major rainstorm on Dec. 12 left much of the South Bay without electricity, the Civic Center--which includes the police station, the Los Gatos Library and town government offices--was left in the dark along with the rest of the town.

Attaway said PG&E has agreed to look into setting up the Civic Center with a second circuit that could be activated in case of a power failure. Machado and McCarthy also said that after dealing with downed power wires and getting electricity back to hospitals, PG&E would make turning the Civic Center's power on again its next priority.

Last December's storm also left the Civic Center with only one working phone line, and town staff had no way to contact PG&E to relay complaints from customers who did manage to get through. Attaway said he's asked PG&E to set up an emergency information line to
prevent this from happening again.

"We want a direct line to PG&E," he added. "When PG&E can't be reached, people call the town, and we want to have information."

Attaway also requested that a PG&E worker be dispatched during emergencies to work with town staff in order to get power back to residential areas more quickly. Some Los Gatans were without electricity for several days last December, a situation Attaway said could have been avoided if PG&E workers had consulted staff about the town's power grid.

PG&E officials will also check to see if Los Gatos can get a larger portion of monies distributed by the Public Utilities Commission to fund the undergrounding of electrical wires in local municipalities. Attaway points out that many newer communities already have most of their wiring underground and don't need the money, whereas Los Gatos has had to borrow three year's worth of PUC funds to finance the process.

In a Jan. 2 letter to PG&E President Robert Glynn, Attaway had initially asked that power company officials address these issues at the Town Council's Feb. 20 meeting. After last week's meeting, however, Attaway said he would remove PG&E from the council agenda.

"We're in total agreement that we need to form some type of partnership and that we have to have a disaster center up and running," he added. "[PG&E representatives] don't feel there are any problems with what we're requesting; they just have to see if it's possible."