ROCHELLE — On April 16, City of Rochelle officials attended Lobby Day in Springfield and met with legislators on potential bills that could impact it in the future. 

Lobby Day was attended by Mayor John Bearrows, City Manager Jeff Fiegenschuh, City Attorney Dominick Lanzito and Rochelle Municipal Utilities Superintendent of Electric Operations Blake Toliver. The two bills the city officials talked most with legislators about included House Bill 5315, which could potentially take authority to govern public electric utilities like RMU away from city councils and give it to the Illinois Commerce Commission, and House Bill 2216, which deals with the ability of cities and local fire departments to bill nursing homes when EMS personnel come in and help one of their residents with a lift assist call. 

“It went very well,” Bearrow said. “It was very productive. Lobby day is a chance to talk to your legislators specifically about certain bills that are maybe before the senate or the house. What we focused on yesterday were a couple of bills that could adversely affect our local folks. There are many bills out there that get presented all the time. I feel like the Lobby Day yesterday was probably one of the best in my five years here. We had some great meetings with various legislators that support our position. As stewards for our ratepayers, our job is to make sure that we stay on top of where bills are at.”

Bearrows said making the city’s voice heard with House Bill 5315 was the most important of conversations had on April 16. He would like to see the city council retain control of RMU’s electric rate setting. There are only 39 publicly-owned electric utilities in the state like RMU, and most are small. Much of the state is serviced by large investor-owned electric utilities, and Fiegenschuh said the city strives to educate lawmakers on what utilities like RMU do. 

“A vast majority of the lawmakers represent communities that do not have municipally-owned electric utilities,” Fiegenschuh said. “It's educating them on what we do. It's a city department. Everything RMU does is subject to the Freedom of Information Act. We operate in a system of transparency because it's a public department. That was interesting to explain to folks. I thought it went very well. We met with the sponsor of the bill that we have great concern with and he was very receptive. We invited him and others to come visit and tour our utility and see what we do.”

Toliver called the chance to speak with lawmakers about RMU “a different experience” and said he was able to clear up terminology issues with legislators. Toliver and city officials asked elected officials to clarify what language meant to make sure RMU would be abiding by the potential law and that it’s fair for all utilities.

“That was the best part for me,” Toliver said. “Not only were they engaged and receptive to what we were saying, but they also wanted to learn some of the terminology and understand what they were actually passing. It didn't sound like they wanted to be detrimental to the utility. They want to make a bill that's fair for everybody. They needed to know what the language should actually say.”

Fiegenschuh called lobbying “the most important thing” the city does outside of its day-to-day operations. He was glad to be able to put a subject matter expert like Toliver in front of people that are voting on legislation that affects RMU. 

“We met with a legislator once that didn't know that city-owned electric utilities existed,” Fiegenschuh said. “A lot of them haven't had experiences with an electric utility like ours. And they vote on these things. Advocating is important and getting your name out there. You can influence these things through connections and relationships. We're not down there expecting to get everything we want right away. But we do expect to build relationships to hopefully help our community.”

In dealing with House Bill 2216, the city would like to be able to bill nursing homes and long-term care facilities when RFD paramedics are called to assist with lifting residents. Currently, it can only bill for that when the person assisted takes the ambulance to the hospital. RFD averages 1.5 lift assist calls per day. RFD does not charge residents of regular homes for lift assist calls, and has no desire to, Fiegenschuh said. 

Bearrows said 1.5 lift assist calls per day for an entire year amounts to “close to $400,000” in revenue the city is absorbing. 

“We're putting our EMTs and paramedics out there to provide a service and we can't bill for it,” Fiegenschuh said. “We're diligently working on a bill that will allow us to bill for and recoup some of our costs associated with lift assists. Those take an ambulance out of service that we may need for another medical call or a fire call. We feel it's fair that we should be reimbursed for a portion of our costs. We're not billing the individual. It's the facilities we're asking to pay a portion of that. I'm sure they're understaffed and need help so they're calling us. And if they call 911 we're required by law to answer and we will. But we feel it's important to be reimbursed for a portion of those costs.”

Fiegenschuh said he was impressed by lawmakers the city met with on April 16 and how much research they’ve done on what they’re voting on. Bearrows was impressed by their familiarity with Rochelle. 

“One thing that has surprised me on Lobby Days is that these representatives and senators that we talk to know where Rochelle is at and they care about Rochelle,” Bearrows said. “Even the people that don't represent our district. I was impressed with that. I want to stay in front of them and have them know exactly where Rochelle is. And they do.”