Speaker numbers apply only to this recording.
A special meeting of Charleston City Council was called to order on October 26, 2026, at 18:06 UTC, with a moment of silence. The only agenda item was discussion of the proposed Dominion franchise agreement and the related Berkeley Electric Co-op agreement. No formal action was taken. No written agenda or minutes were available in the source material; this summary is based solely on the raw transcript.
Ms. Copeland table-set the proposed terms: the original 1996 agreement was 30 plus 10; the proposed agreement is 20 plus 10. It grants Dominion and Berkeley Electric non-exclusive rights to install, maintain, and repair utility lines in city rights-of-way. In exchange, the city receives a 5% annual franchise fee on gross gas and electric revenues. Of that fee, 0.5% of electric revenue is set aside for the undergrounding program match. Ms. Copeland said last year the city received a check of $14 million into the fund, with 5.73 toward the undergrounding. The new agreement also creates four classes of construction work triggering coordination and notice requirements, gives City Council the absolute right to set the NSSF priority list, and includes a six-month rule: if required easements are not obtained within six months after design work, the project drops to the bottom of the list and must reapply.
Councilman Seekings asked why the undergrounding fund contribution is only 0.5%, arguing the city should front-load more money because undergrounding costs will rise. Dominion's Danny Cassis said 0.5% is the standard NSSF formula in every template, and the resulting funding is superior to the old capped fund. He estimated the city side would contribute about $1.2 million per year, matched by Dominion at about $1.2 million, for about $2.4 million annually and roughly $60 million over 20 years. Cassis also said the franchise fee is roughly $15 million per year, or $300 million over 20 years, and that the city has been at 5% since 2009, producing $260 million. He cited the existing set-aside as $11.5 million; Councilman Seekings interjected that it is $12.5 million.
Councilman Seekings asked whether the 5% fee is standard. Cassis said about 70% of more than 130 municipalities with franchise agreements are at 5%, some are at 4%, the remainder at 3%, and 5% is the cap for this type of consent permit. The mayor emphasized that if the city does not sign, it foregoes the $15 million-plus annual revenue.
Councilman Delasandro asked about the percentage of undergrounding funding and construction costs. Cassis said all-in undergrounding costs can be as high as $2,500 per linear foot, and work is performed by Dominion or its contractors because Dominion owns and maintains the assets in perpetuity. The city may use the larger general-fund franchise fee for additional undergrounding, but only the 0.5% electric set-aside is matched by Dominion.
Councilman McBride clarified service territories: Berkeley Electric is a co-op serving roughly 7,000 customers, primarily on John's Island, with portions around Maybank, Main Road, Brownswood, Finnwick, Brickyard, a small part of West Ashley, and a small part of Cainhoy; Dominion is a for-profit utility. He suggested the city provide council members with service-area maps and noted Berkeley Electric also faces pressure to bury lines on John's Island.
Councilman Polka asked whether the franchise agreement can address energy affordability, lower-income consumers, and shutoffs. Cassis said the franchise agreement covers rights-of-way and territory, while affordability is handled through state rate-making, energy efficiency programs, demand-side management, and customer assistance resources. Councilman Polka asked that the city accompany the final agreement with information directing residents to those resources.
Councilmember Main praised the negotiated improvements but questioned the cap of two projects in design at a time, especially for small, street-by-street projects. She said the constraint was not money but design capacity and easements. Cassis defended the cap as an efficiency tool and said developers or the city can pay for design separately to move a project up the execution list. Councilman Seekings disagreed, saying the cap disadvantages retrofit projects such as South Battery (about eight transformers and roughly 1.5 miles long) and Clifford Street; he suggested separate lists for large and small projects and allowing more than two projects in design.
Councilmember Rapel argued the main bottleneck is voluntary easements. He called for the city to treat electric easements like other public infrastructure projects and acquire them through a non-voluntary process if necessary. He noted one neighborhood, Waku Heights, had reached 100% sign-off but dropped to short of 100% after a homeowner sold.
Councilman Bowden asked why telecom providers such as AT&T can dig without similar easement processes. Cassis answered that electric facilities are essential service assets that require more protection because Dominion is responsible for their safe and reliable operation and maintenance.
Councilman Waring asked about Dominion's involvement in affordable housing projects, including Project 3500. Cassis said Dominion does not have a direct affordable housing program, but works with redevelopment projects individually and can build them to be highly energy efficient. Waring cited prior SCNG/Dominion work at the Charleston Nine memorial, the Grace Memorial Bridge area with Grace Holmes and James Lewis housing, and the Gibbs Museum/American Garden.
Councilman McBride asked about future Maybank widening or sidewalk work and coordination with Berkeley Electric. Bert Walling of Berkeley Electric said the co-op views these as partnership opportunities and can provide more detail.
All right, I think we're ready to go. All right. I will call this special meeting of city council uh to order. And let's if everybody could join me in a moment of silence. Okay, thank you. So there is only one agenda item on the agenda for today's meeting, and that is discussion relating to the Dominion franchise agreement. Ms. Copeland, is this something you plan on making an introductory on, or do you want me to introduce Danny and go from there? Uh sure, Mayor. I I can table set if you'd like, and just pull up the term sheet again, and then we can introduce uh Danny and Bert, who are both here to answer any follow-up questions. All right. Okay. So this is the slide that we put up at the last meeting, uh laying out the terms uh for this new agreement uh with Dominion and with Berkeley Electric Co-op. Just some key points I want to throw out to you here is the original from 96 was 30 plus 10. This new agreement is 20 plus 10. Um we are also laying out a new agreement with Berkeley Electric, which mirrors most of the Dominion uh franchise agreement, including the 5% fee. And essentially, um, members of council, I don't know if I said this at the last meeting, but the whole purpose of this franchise agreement is to give them non-exclusive rights to maintain, install, um, repair their utility lines um within our rights of way. And in exchange, we get this 5% fee annually, uh, gross gas and electric into the general fund. And then of that 5%, 0.5 of the electric goes into a separate fund for a match for this undergrounding program that we have in place. Uh I think last year we received a check of 14 million into the fund, um, 5.73 toward the undergrounding. And then one of the big key changes that we put into this um from the prior agreement is we broke it down into four classes of construction work within the rights of way. Um, and within those, it triggers uh coordination and notice requirements between the city and uh the Dominion staff prior to work. So this is laid out here, and then also with the NSSF uh portion of the agreement. This gives uh city council the absolute right to create set up the list uh in order of priority for council at their discretion as far as NSS of our undergrounding projects. Um and then one key factor that's new in this is and you'll notice here in the second bullet point, uh, within six months of receiving the draft easements after design work uh with Dominion. Um if they cannot get the uh requisite easements in place, that project will drop to the bottom of the list and they must reapply. And so it'll give us an opportunity to channel a lot of these projects through the program so they don't hold as place in the line for 20 years, like some of them have in the past. So with that, we've got Bert uh Walling with Berkeley Electric Co-op, he's on, and we also have Danny Cassis with Dominion uh by phone here to answer any follow-up questions that council might have. All right, uh with that, why don't we open it up for questions? Any any council member uh have any specific questions related to the terms and conditions. And I can't see everybody, so Madam Clerk, if I'm if I can't see a hand raised, would you just let me know? Yes, sir. Okay, let me ask. I'll start with a question since nobody jumped up immediately. Uh go ahead, councilman seekings. Go ahead. So that's a little slow on the trigger, but uh if you want to make some introductory remarks, Mayor, that's fine. I think one of the reasons that I asked for this meeting for us to get together to talk through this with um Dominion and Berkeley Electric is we're about to set up the next 20 to 30 years in the city for the delivery of electricity and gas to the city. And and one of the things that I think we can all agree on, we're gonna look for is efficient, affordable and safe delivery of that. And along with that comes underground wiring.