PORT TOWNSEND — Jefferson County Public Utility District commissioners have returned a proposed opt-out policy, which would allow customers to have non-radio frequency meters — back to staff for revisions.
The Public Utility District (PUD) commissioners disagreed with some wording of the proposed policy and resolution that was presented to them Tuesday.
The opt-out policy would allow PUD customers to choose to exchange the standard Automatic Meter Reading(AMR) meter (which emits radio-frequencies to send data to a collection system) for a non-radio frequency (RF) transmitting meter in either an analog or digital form, according to the PUD’s draft policy.
The non-RF meters would have an additional $5 fee attached to each billing cycle. The PUD said the fee is to pay for the meters having to be physically read by a meter reader.
Renters/non-property owners would have to get permission from the property owners to switch to the non-RF meters, the policy said.
The discussion Tuesday night was focused on the specific wording of the policy and what definitions were included, as the commissioners and staff tried to work through suggestions given by the public Tuesday night, as well as comments received at a special meeting Oct. 16 regarding the opt-out policy only.
Some of the comments included how the meters were referred to in the policy, such as “non-RF” or AMR and keeping the phrasing consistent, and also taking out definitions for phrases that were not used in the policy, but were included in the definition list, such as kilowatt hour.
The three commissioners referred the draft resolution back to staff members, asking for it to be simplified and more succinct.
“I think the actual opt-out policy is in good shape,” said Kenneth Collins, District 2 commissioner. “However I don’t feel the same way about the resolution.
“I think it’s confusing, I think it goes into too much historical detail that I think could be summarized much more succinctly so that it would not be as confusing.”
Clarifications were given to the staff and a new resolution and updated draft of the policy will be presented to the commissioners at their next meeting at 5 p.m. Dec. 10 at the Jefferson Transit Board Room at 63 Four Corners Road.
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Jefferson County reporter Zach Jablonski can be reached at 360-385-2335, ext. 5, or at zjablonski@peninsuladailynews.com.
