There will be several firsts in Iowa City in the November 2005 elections.

What's next • The City Council will discuss the issue during its informal meeting at 6:30 p.m. Monday in City Hall, 410 E. Washington St.

Residents will not only have the opportunity to vote for the first time in recent history on whether officials should move forward with a municipal electric utility, conversely they will have the chance to vote on whether the city should enter into a franchise agreement with MidAmerican Energy.

"This is the first time in recent years, and maybe the first time ever, that there has been an initiative for public power," Assistant City Manager Dale Helling said about the ballot issues. He said the only other time - 1986 - the city renewed its electric franchise with MidAmerican Energy, it was done through City Council action. "There was no referendum," he said.

MidAmerican Energy's 15-year franchise agreement with the city expired in November 2001. Rather than renew a long-term agreement, city councilors opted to investigate establishing a city-owned electric utility. Last year, the city entered into a joint feasibility study with 19 Iowa communities to determine the possible savings of establishing a municipal system. Latham & Associates, the Cedar Rapids-based firm that conducted the study, determined the city could save about $61.5 million over a 25-year period.

Citizens for Public Power, a grassroots community group, filed a petition with more than 1,200 signatures in January requiring the issue be placed on the ballot.

City Attorney Eleanor Dilkes said in a June 9 letter to the City Council that submitting the question of a franchise ordinance to voters at the same time as the municipal electric utility issue could result in both measures receiving favorable votes, "even if such result appears logically inconsistent."

"With such an outcome, it would be within council's discretion whether to proceed with either measure," Dilkes said in the letter, adding that if the council approves a franchise agreement with MidAmerican, it cannot proceed with a municipal electric utility until that franchise had expired.

Despite a MidAmerican request, councilors declined to set a special election this fall to ask voters whether the city should enter into a franchise agreement. Therefore, Karen Huizenga, the attorney representing MidAmerican, recently requested the council place the issue on the 2005 ballot.

Dilkes said Wednesday in a letter to councilors that they are obligated to put the proposal on the ballot.

"The decision for the council is whether to negotiate a franchise agreement with MidAmerican," she said.

Dilkes said that if the council does not negotiate terms of the agreement before the election, residents will vote based on the language of the previous franchise that expired in 2001. If they choose to discuss new terms for the election, issues that can be negotiated include: franchise fees, franchise duration, economic development components and options in the event of deregulation.