Pacific Gas
&
amp; Electric has plans to close its 84 local offices, including
its only Hollister location, a move the company says will save it
about $20 million per year.
Hollister – Pacific Gas & Electric has plans to close its 84 local offices, including its only Hollister location, a move the company says will save it about $20 million per year.
But before it can do so, the California Public Utility Commission has to approve the closures.
PG&E will include the plan in its annual rate report to the commission, which will likely be filed in early December, according to company spokesperson Jon Tremayne, who added that if the plan is approved the offices won’t be closed until 2007.
To compensate customers who might be inconvenienced by the closures, Tremayne said that PG&E intends to increase the number of neighborhood payment centers throughout its coverage area in places like convenience stores and grocery stores, where people can pay their bills and get all other services available at local offices.
“They provide greater convenience,” Tremayne said. “There’s more of them, so they’re closer. And they’re usually open longer hours. The offices are only open nine to five.”
Hollister has one PG&E neighborhood payment center, at Hollister Super at 211 Third Street.
PG&E also provides customer service call centers featuring both English and Spanish speakers, and online customer service where people can pay such things as pay their bills, initiate service, or transfer service to a new residence.
“The needs of customers can be met by other options,” Tremayne said, adding that the plan to close the offices was based, in part, on input received from customers in focus groups.
Some are worried that without local offices, PG&E customers who do not have Internet service will not have adequate access to information about discount programs and energy efficiency.
“I’m not worried about customers being able to pay their bills. PG&E will always take their money. A lot of people are not going to go on the Internet, not everyone has Internet access,” said Mindy Spatt, communications director for TURN – a San Francisco-based utility reform organization.
About 370 employees – two in PG&E’s Hollister office – will be affected if the closures are approved. According to Tremayne, the company hopes to find other positions within PG&E for employees at local offices.
“There is the potential that some employees will be impacted,” he said. “The company is working with the union. The goal is to identify alternative places for them in the company.”
Tremayne said the $20 million in annual savings will go to either reducing rates or improving the company’s infrastructure, which serves central and northern California from Bakersfield to Eureka.
Spatt is not convinced.
“It might also go to executive bonuses,” she said. “If PG&E needs to trim, can’t it trim executive bonuses or executive salaries?”
Hollister Mayor Pauline Valdivia said she has been contacted by PG&E officials and will meet with them next week to discuss the possible closure of the Hollister office.
