By Mike Weland
Judge Lamont C. Berecz on June 26 ended a lawsuit against the City of Bonners Ferry over an increase in electrical rates by Idaho Forest Group LLC, dismissing all claims with prejudice and awarding the city $623,771.68.
Managers of the Moyie Springs lumber mill filed suit against the city June 29, 2023, after former mayor Dick Staples notified mill operators in September, 2022, that an electrical services agreement entered into 2011 was expiring and rates would be going up.
Under the 2011 agreement, the mill paid the city a five-percent general fund transfer fee to enable Bonners Ferry to realize a profit on its electrical system. When the new rate went in effect January 1, 2023, after months spent by IFG attempting first to get a copy of the new cost of services analysis used by the city and then more time waiting for the password needed to access the file, they received notice of their new rate December 14, 2022.
“Based on Defendant’s COSA, and the rates for electric service that IFG paid in the year 2021, Defendant’s proposed increase effective January 1, 2023, amounts to an increase of over 25% to the rates for electric service Defendant charges IFG, which is over five times the system average rate increase Defendant claims is necessary,” IFG wrote. “On annual cost basis, and under Defendant’s COSA, IFG would be responsible for over 80% of Defendant’s system-wide rate increase. There is no credible cost causation argument or rate design principle that justifies Defendant’s attempt to foist the vast majority of its rate increase on IFG.”
In rendering his 30-page decision, Berecz concluded, “Considering the totality of the Findings of Fact set forth herein, and the substantial and competent evidence adduced at trial and upon which those factual findings are based, this Court can and does conclude that IFG has failed to prove, by a preponderance of the evidence, that the FY 2023 electric rates charged by the City are either unfair, unjust, unreasonable, discriminatory, or preferential … The City is operating a nonprofit utility which must provide service at rates that are fair, just, and reasonable not only to IFG but also to thousands of other customers, whereas IFG is a for-profit entity whose goal is to pay the lowest rate possible. While IFG is certainly allowed to pursue the lowest rate it can get, with respect to this litigation, IFG has failed to establish a violation of I.C. $ 50-325 by the City.
Dismissal with prejudice means the case cannot be refiled.