TCL&P mailer sparks debate

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Grand Traverse County Commissioner Ross Richardson, left, and City Commissioner Ralph Soffredine
The Traverse City Light & Power mailer featuring a section on Ralph Soffredine. Special to the Record-Eagle

September 30, 2010

BY ART BUKOWSKI abukowski@record-eagle.com The Record Eagle Thu Sep 30, 2010, 07:53 AM EDT

TRAVERSE CITY — A Traverse City Light & Power mailing sparked criticism by some who contend it provides a political boost to one of the utility's board members and improperly weighs in on an upcoming ballot initiative.

Light & Power includes a mailer with customers' monthly bills, and it includes a regular section titled "Meet Your L&P Board Members." The October mailer features Ralph Soffredine, a city commissioner who serves on the utility board.

On Nov. 2, Soffredine will square off with incumbent Grand Traverse County Commissioner Ross Richardson for a seat on the county board, and Richardson believes the mailer amounts to political promotion of Soffredine.

"The timing is obviously suspect. This brochure is going out to all the ratepayers over the next month ... the last month before the election," Richardson said. "It's just not something you do. Public bodies don't fund or pay for the campaigns of their members."

Soffredine rejected Richardson's assertions.

"This is no planned strategy," he said. "I think he's making something out of nothing."

The "Meet Your L&P Board Members" section in previous months featured Light & Power Board Chairman Mike Coco and Vice Chairwoman Linda Johnson, Light & Power Executive Director Ed Rice said.

The regular feature is intended to let ratepayers know a bit more about Light & Power board members, Rice said, and Soffredine was next in line to be featured. Rice said he didn't deliberately select Soffredine to help his election chances.

"That never even crossed my mind," he said.

Soffredine said he didn't ask to be featured in this month's cycle, and also said delivery of Light & Power's November mailing will begin prior to the election.

Richardson also took issue with a separate section of the mailer that appears to address an upcoming ballot initiative that could return Light & Power to city commission control.

City voters in 1979 voted to split the utility from city government and give it its own seven-member board. The mailer section, headed "Many of today's issues have been debated before," provides questions and answers about the 1979 decision.

Light & Power is prevented by law from publicly taking a stance on the upcoming ballot issue. Richardson believes Light & Power has been "dangling on the edge" of taking a stance, and it continues to walk a very fine line with the mailer section.

"We're basically having a referendum on the competence of the board and how they (interact) with the public, and for them to turn around and put something like this out, it's just ludicrous," he said. "How close can Light & Power dance to the 'not taking a position on the referendum' cliff without actually falling in?"

Former city Mayor Margaret Dodd, responsible for the city commission control initiative, also launched a separate ballot measure intended to give residents the right to vote on any decisions by Light & Power to build a new power plant.

Dodd and others were upset at Light & Power's push this year to build a local wood-burning biomass plant.

Former Traverse City Mayor Michael Estes supports Richardson's candidacy for the county board, and said the mailer outraged him. He sent an e-mail to Rice and other city officials to that effect.

"A blind person can tell you it's essentially an endorsement for Ralph Soffredine," and for voters to reject the ballot proposals, he told a Record-Eagle reporter. "How much more political can you get?"

Rice said Light & Power ran the mailer by its legal counsel to make sure it was permissible.