SDG&E; Unveils Agreement to Bolster Relations in Latino Community

San Diego Gas & Electric, under pressure to expand its business dealings with minority-owned firms in San Diego, unveiled a program Thursday to meet what Chairman Tom Page called “the unique needs of Hispanic consumers and businesses.”

Representatives of the Chicano Federation and the Mexican-American Business and Professional Assn. on Thursday endorsed the “Partnership for Equity and Progress” program, which resulted from nearly two years of negotiations with SDG&E.;

SDG&E; and the state’s other publicly regulated utilities last year agreed to meet a state-mandated timetable that calls for minority firms to account for 20% of the utilities’ outside business contracts by 1993. About 11% of SDG&E;’s outside business is done with minority firms. About 6% is with Latino firms.

Though the agreement announced Thursday is designed to help SDG&E; reach the state Public Utilities Commission 1993 goal, SDG&E; Vice President Margot Kyd described it as “an agreement which would encompass not only procurement but all aspects of our relationship with the Hispanic community.”

Ready to Solve Problem

“Rather than another group monitoring SDG&E;, this is truly a partnership in which both parties are taking responsibility to reach mutual goals,” Kyd said.

Utilities and other “mainstream corporations” regularly complain that they “don’t have a way of locating qualified Hispanic candidates” for contracts or employment, said Dan Guevara, president of the Mexican-American Business and Professional Assn. “We’re now here saying we’re ready to solve that problem.”

The program also is designed to bolster SDG&E;’s minority hiring programs and to improve service for SDG&E;’s Spanish-speaking customers. Guevara and Kyd said discussions leading to the program predated SDG&E;’s proposed merger with Southern California Edison.

In a related development Thursday, the Coalition for Local Control, a group that opposes the proposed utility merger, unveiled a string of emotionally charged advertisements designed to bolster anti-merger sentiment.

Several local radio and television stations have agreed to run the ads at no cost as a public service, coalition attorney Dan Stanford said. Two television stations and three radio stations have agreed to run the advertisements “under the spirit of the former Fairness Doctrine,” Stanford said. The federal regulation, which is no longer enforced, ordered broadcasters to make free air time available to groups with differing views on political and public policy issues.

‘Get Out of the Chair’

The coalition’s television commercial, which focuses on an electric chair, urges San Diegans to “get out of the chair” and oppose the proposed merger. Radio advertisements argue that the merger would eliminate jobs in San Diego, increase pollution from SDG&E;’s in-county power plants and raise electric rates.

In June, the coalition complained to regulators that an ad campaign conducted by Edison and SDG&E; contained “false and misleading advertising.”

The advertisements unveiled at Thursday press conference were designed as a “pretty emotional counterpunch,” according to John Long, who produced and directed the ads.

The anti-merger group hopes that the commercial will counter an expensive advertising campaign being conducted by the utilities. Long said the coalition is free to take “the same liberties” as the utilities to craft a campaign to both attract attention and send a message.

Edison spokesman Lou Phelps said the “emotional and hysterical tone of these ads certainly isn’t conducive to helping people make a fact-based decision on the merits of the merger.”