Pontiac City Council, photographed at a previous meeting.

By Todd Wineburner

Pontiac residents might see some energy savings next year through electrical aggregation. At last night's city council meeting, Pontiac city administrator Bob Karls said aggregation has saved electrical customers in some other communities between 25 and 40 percent. Aggregation gives residential electrical consumers the opportunity to negotiate collectively for better electrical rates. Karls says a city council vote on the issue should come before the end of the year. If the city council approves, the question will probably go before the public in April.

Karls says aggregation will only be available to residential customers and small businesses, and no one will be required to participate. There should be no cost to the city to implement a plan. The council also discussed a sales tax referendum on the ballot today in Pontiac that's been attracting some national attention. At last night’s meeting, several board members displayed mailings they’d received, while others talked about automated calls—all of them in opposition to the proposal. Karls said the information is coming from national organizations who encourage “No” votes on virtually all tax questions. He says they don’t mention that a large component of the referendum is property tax relief.