Hundreds of resident complaints about loved ones and pets suffering in the cold with no power has moved one Washtenaw County commissioner to take action on multiple fronts.
Former state rep and current county commissioner, Yousef Rabhi says the frustration has him planning multiple actions. He will be asking the county to push for state laws that would create outage credits for customers, as well as block the utilities from spending corporate dollars on political campaigns.
At the county level, he’ll be asking the legal department to look into the feasibility of creating a countywide municipal electric authority that would replace the utilities, he’ll ask for legal action against the utilities, and he will call for action against some local hotels.
“One of the things we saw was price-gouging on the part of hotels. Absolutely unacceptable. And I will be reaching out to hoteliers in the county and potentially looking at changing our accommodations ordinance to make sure the hotels can’t do that."
He’ll be making the proposals at this Wednesday’s county commission meeting.
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