Business and civic leaders are of two minds when it comes to Measure B, the so-called solar initiative that will appear on the March 3 ballot of City of Los Angeles voters. On the one hand, nobody wants to be seen as being anti-solar, but some have expressed concerns about some of the specific provisions of the proposal, the haste of its development and a lack of transparency and information. If approved by the voters, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power will install, maintain and own solar installations within the city and at city-owned airports to produce at least 400 megawatts by 2014. The Valley Industry and Commerce Association formally came out against the initiative. “Our membership voted to oppose (Measure) B because they felt the process was flawed,” said VICA Chair Greg Lippe. “(The city council) did not need the measure in order to do what they want to do at the DWP for this, and we thought that it was placed on the ballot in a rush and without all the facts, especially regarding the cost of it.” An independent report by Huron Consulting Group which provided a detailed cost analysis was not released until nearly a month after the initiative’s language had already been written and approved. Also, both the Los Angeles Daily News and the Los Angeles Times have reported on stark differences between its cost analysis and previous information provided by the DWP. Most of those interviewed for this article had not yet had a chance to review the Huron report which had just been released, and even the City Council’s Energy and Environment Committee has had additional meetings to review it. Lippe questioned why there was a ballot measure at all. “They’re not required to get the public vote to get to do this,” he said. That’s not the point, said attorney Lee Kanon Alpert, chairman of the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power board of commissioners. While he and the board were not party to the decision to put the issue to a vote, Alpert said, “I can anticipate the reason was that the City Council wanted to hear how the voters felt about solar and the expense that, of course, is going to be incurred, and give the voters a chance to express their opinion.” The LADWP has already moved forward with a variety of initiatives to help them meet state-imposed mandates to increase the use of renewable energy sources, said Alpert. It is his opinion that Measure B provides “a framework, a guideline and a direction, and I think the people should have the rights to make a determination.” Whether the measure is approved or denied, and Alpert wanted it made very clear that he is not stumping for it one way or the other, he feels it has already been valuable by creating debate and stimulating conversation about a problem that has been neglected for far too long in the region. “There needs to be discussion about this,” said Alpert. “People do not realize, I myself did not realize, until I came on the commission, how serious this energy crisis is.” Fellow North Valley resident Vijay Kapur, who is also president of International Solar Electric Technology in Chatsworth said that on the whole he thinks the measure will be a positive. “Personally, in my biased view, the city had better get going on this,” said Kapur, whose company is getting ready to begin manufacturing thin-film photovoltaic solar panels. “It appears to me that regardless of the tactics that were used (to get the measure on the ballot), it is definitely going to create tons of jobs. That’s evident.” But job creation is a question for some, with a much-debated element of the measure being a proviso that only IBEW union members who are LADWP employees will be authorized to perform installation of the panels on city buildings. The president of the Valley Economic Alliance, Bruce Ackerman, said that while the organization had not taken an official position, he was concerned about that restriction. “We would be very concerned if this were weighted so it had to be union-contract driven,” said Ackerman. “I love having unions involved they are a primary partner on many Economic Alliance projects but if it is restricted to union participation, that’s anti-competitive and anti-entrepreneurial.” Lee Alpert dismisses that argument, saying that jobs are jobs, whether they are held by union members or not. “Let’s not fight over little stuff like who proposed (Measure B) and whether the unions get the money,” said Alpert. “Let’s remember that the unions pay taxes, and union members buy goods and merchandise.” He added that there is a provision in the measure to give preference to purchasing the various components that make up the solar installations from local firms. Also, he continued, there was a lot of other work that would likely come out of the program, including things like retrofitting some buildings to accommodate the panels.
