Councilmember Agran Calls for Special Meeting on OCPA

On June 1, Councilmember Agran called on his City Council colleagues to join him and review recent troubling developments at the Orange County Power Authority before their June 14 regular City Council meeting. The purpose of the special meeting would be to discuss 1) directing the City Manager to commence a City audit of the Orange County Power Authority, and 2) assessing the City’s exposure to liability.

On May 31, the Orange County Power Authority’s (OCPA) General Counsel Ryan Baron received a whistleblower complaint from CEO Brian Probolsky via counsel. The Orange County Power Authority has faced multiple calls from Councilmember Agran for transparency for more than a year. These calls have gone unheeded. For example, the memo cites a number of public records requests from March 24 that remain outstanding.

The California Public Utilities Commission on April 20 cited the Orange County Power Authority for failing to procure enough power to meet Resource Adequacy requirements and penalized OCPA nearly $2 million. Resource Adequacy requirements ensure that power providers can supply customers with uninterrupted service.

The Irvine City Council can convene a special meeting with the approval of the Mayor or a majority of the City Council.

The next regularly-scheduled meeting of the Irvine City Council is June 14, and the next regularly-scheduled meeting of the Orange County Power Authority is July 29.