Thursday, in a meeting that should have been happening regularly, Bryan's city council and the board of its utility company, BTU, discussed the future of electricity rates. But top city officials say they don't have all the info they need to recommend new rates. Both sides spent the afternoon figuring out the way forward.

Bryan's charter says the city council is supposed to jointly meet with BTU's board once a year. Thursday, for the first time since 2004, there was a meeting, with fault accepted by both sides at the lack of gatherings.

"This joint meeting is way overdue," said Mayor Mark Conlee.

Despite information circulated in local publications and e-mails to the contrary, Conlee told the gathering the council had no designs on looting BTU by raising the seven percent transfer rate of annual revenue from BTU to the city's general fund.

"An increase of more than seven percent requires a vote by the Bryan citizens and an election to change the city charter," Conlee explained. "There has been no discussion and no plans for a charter amendment election."

Because of rising costs and debt incurred in relation to a long-standing suit recently settled with the Texas Municipal Power Agency, BTU is looking at options for an what was noted as an inevitable raise in rates over the next few years.

The city council is responsible for approving BTU rate increases, and City Manager David Watkins recommends options. Watkins says he needs to see a detailed, complete budget, and has asked for one a number of times -- including from BTU General Manager Dan Wilkerson -- but hasn't received what he says he's owed the city by state law.

Thursday, the BTU board and its chairman, Hank McQuaide, pledged to provide a detailed rundown to the council, though he said the council and top city staff, including Watkins, had seen as detailed a budget report as the BTU board had seen. Watkins said he had not seen enough detail, including employee pay per position, and that neither he nor the city council could properly assess the level of rate increases necessary without knowing those details.

When asked whether Watkins had asked for a more detailed look at BTU's budget, Wilkerson said, "We think the proper way to communicate this kind of information is what was said today. The board will give it to the council. The council will share it with the city manager. We have the competitive information we have to protect, and we're under several different aspects of the law there, and we're just very careful with how we send the information across."

Mick McKamie, a San Antonio-based attorney versed in municipal legal matters including with electric utilities, told the meeting by his examination of the city charter, BTU was obligated to provide all budget information to the city council. Because there is information that, if disclosed, could harm BTU in the marketplace, a portion of the budget info must remain private.

"By state law, the city manager's recommended budget has to include all pertinent data from the BTU budget, including items that would be subject to competitive matters," Watkins said, "but I've got to have that because that's what the council has to adopt. We have not been getting that information. I'm glad to hear that we will."

Watkins says there may be opportunities for shared resources to find savings and not raise rates as much, though BTU officials cautioned there are aspects of their operations that need people with specific skill and knowledge sets.

While BTU was spun off into its own company in 2001 to opt in to the competition energy market, it remains under city control. The BTU board is appointed by the council.

Among the rate increase options discussed Thursday:

- a five percent increase in 2010, followed by a five percent increase in 2011, and then a three percent increase in 2013

- a 10 percent increase in 2011, followed by a three percent increase in 2013

- an 18 percent increase in 2013

According to BTU, since 2006, the summer base rate has been $0.0472 per kilowatt hour. Since 1984 when the summer base rate was $0.06884 per kilowatt hour, the rate has decreased eight different times, and increased only twice (in 1993 and 1997). The 1997 increase was done to fund latter year increases from TMPA, according to the BTU presentation Thursday.