Electric City Power rejects Southern Montana co-op’s ‘illegal’ rate hike – Great Falls Tribune

The city of Great Falls commission members met Monday night as the Electric City Power Board and rejected as illegal a 20 percent rate hike approved Oct. 21 by the city’s wholesale electricity supplier.

City Attorney James Santoro said the city’s legal team considers the Oct. 21 vote “illegal” because only three of the six representatives of the Southern Montana Electric Generation & Transmission Cooperative board were present. That means a quorum was lacking, because at least four board members should have been present for the vote to be legitimate, he said.

Also, late on that day, the diminished Southern Montana board voted to file for Chapter 11 reorganization with the bankruptcy court.

At Monday’s meeting, Santoro told the board the city has not gone ahead with any type of challenge to the filing of the bankruptcy petition by half of Southern Montana’s board.