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A lobbying firm hired to give Fort Wayne residents a gambling referendum will also be paid to help City Utilities.
The Fort Wayne Board of Works on Wednesday approved a 12-month, $60,000 contract to hire Krieg DeVault of Indianapolis to lobby the state legislature on a variety of issues.
Most pressing is the city’s foray back into the electricity industry. The House approved an amendment to its state budget bill to ensure the city has the right to serve 33,000 former City Light & Power customers when the city’s lease with Indiana & Michigan Power expires next spring.
The amendment is not part of the Senate’s budget plan. A conference committee will discuss a compromise between the two bills.
The city plans to seek proposals from electric companies to provide power to those customers, but I&M has questioned the city’s right to the former City Light & Power territory. Kumar Menon, City Utilities director, said the city is more than a month away from seeking such proposals.
Menon said the electric issue is likely the only one to be tackled during the legislature’s special session, but the firm will help the utility work on its strategy on several other issues for next year.
Specifically, it will work with the Indiana Utilities Regulatory Commission to give the city a bigger presence there.
The firm will also work with legislators on alternative ways to finance the city’s $240 million plan to keep raw sewage out of area rivers. The city plans to nearly double sewer rates over the next five years to help pay for the work, but several more rate increases will be needed unless the city can find other sources of money.
A task force recommended the city push for a local sales tax to help finance the work, but that effort stalled in the legislature.
Mayor Tom Henry this year announced hiring the same firm. Krieg billed the city $10,057.50, according to February and April invoices, for its work lobbying legislators for a gambling referendum.
Such a referendum has not yet been approved and does not appear in any special session legislation.
The board approved a contract for up to $50,000 with the Anthis Career Center. It will allow students to get experience filling in concrete cuts made to give the city access to utility lines.
City officials said they would be on hand to ensure the work is done to appropriate standards but added it would serve as a pilot program to determine whether students could learn doing other work.
