One of the milestones on Competitive Power Ventures’s proposal to build a 400 megawatt power plant in OCWD-owned land in Anaheim arrives next week.

On Thursday, January 30, Edison will notifies offerors who responded to its 2013 request-for-offers whether or not they’re projects have made the shortlist for consideration for contracts.

If CPV’s offer doesn’t make the shortlist, it’s my understanding their  proposal for a Ball Road Basin power plant is dead – as far as this RFO is concerned.

Readers will recall that the OC Water District Board of Directors voted on December 9 to approve leasing Ball Road Basin to CPV for the purpose of building a power plant (although some directors declaimed they were not actually voting for the construction of a power plant even as they voted to approve a land lease for that express purpose).

The vote was 6-4, the bare majority necessary to approve the lease, which would have failed on a 5 to 5 tie. One of those six was Fullerton City Councilman Bruce Whitaker, who was appointed in August of 2012. [Three of the 10 OCWD directors are appointed by the city councils of Fullerton, Anaheim and Santa Ana, respectively; the remaining seven are elected by single-member districts. OCWD directors are paid $221.13 per day of service, up to a maximum of 10 days per month. They’re also eligible for health insurance, life/accidental death and dismemberment insurance, retirement benefits and an electronic equipment allowance.]

On Tuesday evening, the Fullerton City Council took up appointments to regional bodies, and voted 3-2 to remove Whitaker from the OCWD Board and replace him with Councilwoman Jan Flory. Whitaker was also removed from the Santa Ana River Flood Protection Agency and the Water Advisory Committee of Orange County.

Flory attended the December 9 OCWD Board meeting and spoke during public comments, urging the district not to approve the power plant lease. A majority of the council expressed the opinion that Whitaker did not represent the consensus of the council; Councilwoman Fitzgerald said her concern wasn’t over the power plant vote in particular, but inconsistency in his approach to issues as an OCWD director.