Nevada Power flier raises ire of County Commission

Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2002 | 11 a.m.

Nevada Power Co. has launched a rhetorical salvo in its battle against the prospects of a public takeover, and the company's move has raised howls of protest from Clark County Commissioners.

The company is backing Citizens Against 14, an organization fighting Question 14 on the November ballot. The question asks voters if a public agency should be able to take over a privately owned utility such as Nevada Power.

"A Risky Experiment We Can't Afford," says a flier going out to Clark County businesses under the Citizens Against 14 letterhead. The flier says ratepayers risk increased taxes, electric rates, lost funding for public services and power interruptions if the advisory question passes.

"This is an absolutely irresponsible attempt by Nevada Power to mislead the people and use scare tactics," responded Clark County Commission Chairman Dario Herrera from Washington, where he was fund-raising for his congressional campaign.

Nevada Power, in a one-paragraph written statement, said the company is just one member of Citizens Against 14, "a coalition of organizations and individual statements who oppose Question 14 ... in the formative stages."

"At this point it is inappropriate for us as a member to be discussing the coalition in any more detail this this, but we expect that the coalition will make a public announcement next week," the company said.

The arguments in the flier closely match company arguments against a proposed buyout of Nevada Power assets.

The Southern Nevada Water Authority last month made a $3.2 billion bid to buy the assets of Nevada Power from parent company Sierra Pacific Resources. Company management, however, has rejected the offer.

Authority consultants are now reworking the offer and plan to resubmit the bid.

Commissioner Myrna Williams, like Herrera a water authority board member, contends that the arguments raised in the flier were soundly refuted by the authority's consultants in a meeting last week.

"Every point was refuted by nationally respected consultants in all areas," Williams said. "I am dumbfounded by their attitude, I really am."

Herrera and Williams cite the authority's consultants who said a public buyout would mean an immediate 20 percent rate reduction for ratepayers. Most of the reduction would come because the cost of borrowing money, a huge burden for the fiscally unsteady private company, would immediately come down significantly.

The flier, which asks companies and organizations to endorse the opposition to Question 14, carries the address of R&R Partners, a public relations company headed by Billy Vassiliadis.

But Vassiliadis said Tuesday that the address listed is not correct.

"We are not involved in Question 14," he said.

He suggested the address could be a matter of confusion.

"A few weeks back, somebody asked if we had space for lease," Vassiliadis said. "By the time it got back to me, a week had gone by, and I said 'No.' "

R&R Partners handles accounts by both the water authority and Nevada Power, he said -- both accounts urge water and power users to conserve.

Clark County Commissioners said the flier uses unfair scare tactics.

"Nevada Power should put their money into reducing power rates and not lobbying against the will of the people of Southern Nevada," Herrera said.

"This is a campaign called misinformation," Commissioner Yvonne Atkinson Gates said. "It's just a campaign to intentionally misinform the public. This is just a means to scare people."

Gates predicted that voters in November will not buy the arguments.

"I'm betting on the public. I believe they'll be able to see through this."