ROBERTSDALE, Alabama — The Robertsdale City Council voted Jan. 17 to reject a contract to training of the city’s electrical employees after the city’s attorney expressed concerns about the contract.

At its Dec. 5 meeting, the council voted unanimously to contract with the Electric Cities of Georgia for its lineman school.

“I don’t have any issues with what they are charging or with the type and quality of the training,” said city attorney Ken Raines. “It is the contract itself that I have an issue with.”

According to Raines, the city would be locked into a 12-month contract and would have to give notice before the contract is up that they do not wish to renew the contract, without specifying what the terms of the new contract would be.

“Essentially, we could be locked into another 12-month contract without knowing how much we are paying or anything else,” said Raines, “that’s not something I would recommend we do.”

There is also no escape clause in the contract, Raines said, allowing the city a certain time period to give notice if they do not wish to continue the contract.

The contract also includes several pages regarding the settling of disputes between the town and the electric company which, according to the contract, would require city officials to go to Georgia for arbitration between the city and electric company.

“There are certain things that can be negotiated,” Raines said, “but there are other things that just aren’t negotiable and it’s not just in one place, it’s through the entire contract.”

In December, Scott Gilbert, the city’s director of Public Works, said the city is currently sending employees for training to Montgomery, but the Electric Cities of Georgia offered to come to Robertsdale and train employees using the city’s own equipment.

“We’re still doing training through AREA (The Alabama Rural Electric Association),” Gilbert said during the most recent meeting.

City engineer Greg Smith said the city could also choose to use the Electric Cities of Georgia for training as a non-member.

The city is continuing to work on upgrades to the electrical system after approving three bids in October, including bids for poles, transformers and pole line hardware.

The electrical system expansions, which were approved last year, include:

•Retain the 115 KV service point at the County Road 48 Substation, located just west of College Avenue.

•The East Substation, which is currently built to step down from 46 KV to 12 KV, will be dismantled, leaving the County Road 48 Substation as the only delivery point.

•All remaining downtown four KV distribution lines would be converted to 12 KV distribution lines.

•The city’s two four KV substations, the North Substation, located at St. Paul Street, just south of Michigan Street; and the South Substation, located on St. Paul Street, just south of Nebraska Street, would be dismantled using in-house labor.

•Several of the existing distribution lines would be upgraded.

The city will also begin an eight-year contract in 2018 with the Municipal Electric Association of Georgia (MEAG), which was approved in September.

The contract will run through Dec. 31, 2025. The contract covers only power generation fees, not power transmission, or SEPA fees, which are fixed by federal law, said Mayor Charles Murphy.

The city will continue to contract with the Southern Company for those fees, officials said, while the new contract with MEAG should bring the city’s electrical rates back to 2012 levels.

The council also voted in September to approve bid results with Stewart Engineering electrical consultants, based in Anniston, for system upgrades.

Besides approving minutes from previous minutes and paying monthly bills in the amount of $409,179.90, the only other item on the agenda for Jan. 17 was the approval of a request to surplus a trash truck for the city’s Utilities Department.

The truck would be placed on govdeals.com with a minimum purchase price of $15,000, Gilbert said.