GLASGOW – The Glasgow Electric Plant Board agreed Tuesday to allow an independent firm handle the selection of an advisory council that will discuss the city-owned utility’s controversial rate structure, while also encouraging the firm to keep the meetings open to the public.

During a special-called meeting of the EPB board of directors, Superintendent Billy Ray said Smart Electric Power Alliance – a market research group involved in a recent forum intended to gather public input on the rate structure implemented in 2016 – suggested that EPB organize an advisory council consisting of people of varying opinions about the rate structure, which charges significantly more for electricity usage during the one hour each month when demand is the highest. The structure, which EPB calls “Infotricity,” has been the subject of criticism, with opponents saying the rate is a burden on disabled or low-income residents.

“A few days after that, SEPA came back and said, ‘Oh, we also want to stipulate that these meetings are private. We think that this is not going to work if we have it completely open to where cheering sections should come in,’ ” Ray said.

Ray said a Glasgow-based reporter later told him that SEPA’s insistence on holding advisory council meetings in private raised legal concerns.

“She said, ‘Well, you’d better check into that, because if the plant board appoints a committee or a subcommittee, then the open meetings laws go straight down to that committee,’ ” Ray said.

Shortly before Tuesday’s meeting, Ray learned that SEPA is now interested in opening the meetings to the public.

Ray suggested the board approve a measure delegating the power to organize and hold advisory council meetings to SEPA.

“We’re not appointing the committee, we’re not delegating any authority to (the committee),” he said. “We’re interested in supporting the idea but it’s their deal and we’re not going to be in on this.”

Glasgow Daily Times reporter Melinda Overstreet, who attended Wednesday’s meeting, said she thinks the board should encourage SEPA, in writing, to hold the meetings publicly.

“I believe that this board should do what it can to encourage it to be open, either by amending the resolution to that effect and or having a written communication with TVA and SEPA, because this deliberate attempt to try to keep it closed just seemed extremely inappropriate,” she said.

In response to Overstreet’s remarks, board chairman Jeff Harned said the board is trying to stay uninvolved in the advisory council’s business, adding that the board did not endorse SEPA’s initial preference for privacy.

“It wasn’t our recommendation,” he said.

The board approved a measure allowing SEPA to operate the council’s meetings and choose – without board approval – the council’s roster, as well as an amendment calling for Ray to suggest the meetings be open to the public.

According to Ray, SEPA’s goal is to form an eight-member advisory council that will include at least John Boles, Sherri Myers, Debbie Biggers, Candy Wethington and Christine McCann Bennett. Ray declined to identify three other people SEPA has approached for council membership but haven’t yet accepted the position.

“These are their invites based on, I’m not sure what all they studied,” he said. “Certainly conversations at the open house and perhaps some letters to the editor.”

The board members could not identify with certainty who most of the people on the list were.

Myers has consistently voiced criticism of the EPB as a founding member of Glasgow Citizens Against the New EPB Rate Structure and a write-in candidate for Glasgow City Council.

Reached after the meeting, which she did not attend, Myers said she thinks the council has the potential to steer the ongoing EPB debate in a positive direction.

“I feel like if everyone comes to the table with open minds, genuinely wanting to help the community, it’ll be good,” she said.

Myers believes EPB should have tried to put together an advisory committee within the first few months of the controversy, she said.

“It would have shown more of a good-faith effort on their part to do this earlier,” she said.

According to Ray, SEPA plans to hold the first three meetings April 18 at an undetermined time, and May 11 and June 27 at 5 p.m.

All meetings are scheduled to take place at the Mary Wood Weldon Memorial Library in Glasgow, although the first meeting might consist of one-on-one discussions between the members of the council and SEPA representatives, “just to get people up to speed on how this is going to go,” Ray said.