Decorah City Council votes to send informal complaint to the Iowa Utilities Board about Alliant Energy

The Iowa Utilities Board will soon receive a letter from the City of Decorah complaining about Alliant Energy and its dealings with the city about a new franchise agreement.

The 6-1 vote came Thursday afternoon at a special session of the city council, with city council member Randy Schissel the lone dissenting vote.

City council member Steve Luse says the informal letter to the IUB is a chance to get an answer to the question of whether Decorah has been treated unfairly in negotiations with Alliant because of the recent referendum on whether to establish a municipal utility.  Alliant Energy has offered to sign a franchise agreement with the City of Decorah for a 15-year term, with the first chance to get out of the agreement coming after five years.

City council member Emily Neal said it was her opinion communities like Decorah which don't want to sign a franchise agreement get forced into it because of the costs they would face without such an agreement.  Alliant Energy has said they would charge the City of Decorah $1.5 million to move utilities during the Locust Road project if Decorah doesn't sign a franchise agreement binding Decorah to Alliant for at least five years.

Decorah Mayor Lorraine Borowski argued against sending the IUB the informal complaint, saying she is worried about Alliant's response to the letter and worried that the City of Decorah would get tied up in a long, expensive legal fight with Alliant.

City council members favoring sending the letter to the Iowa Utilities Board stressed that the letter was an informal complaint which could be reviewed by the IUB and the Office of Consumer Affairs.  They said any future commitment by the City of Decorah would have to come back to the city council for approval before money started to be spent on a contested proceeding involving the IUB.