Hold your horses.

Byline: The Register-Guard

CLARIFICATION (ran 11/19/04): A Thursday editorial failed to mention that Eugene Water & Electric Board Vice President Sandra Bishop changed her vote opposing further negotiation with Triad Hospitals as a parliamentary move to allow her to revisit the issue at the board's December meeting.

Eugene Water & Electric Board commissioners are absolutely right t0 insist that they will not stick ratepayers with the tab if an offer to buy EWEB's current site falls substantially short of the costs of relocating the utility.

But until EWEB has a better handle on exactly what those costs will be, it's premature for commissioners to flatly conclude that a purchase offer from Triad Hospitals is insufficient. Unfortunately, that didn't stop two commissioners from launching an effort Tuesday night to pull the plug on the whole process.

The board narrowly killed the misguided motion on a 3-2 vote, but not before the discussion called into question the criteria being used to evaluate Triad's $24.8 million offer.

Board Vice President Sandra Bishop's initial vote Tuesday to terminate talks with Triad over worries that the very act of negotiating could result in a "fire sale" of EWEB's property suggested - perhaps unintentionally - a lack of confidence in General Manager Randy Berggren's ability to protect EWEB's interests.

While Bishop's misgivings were at least based on fiscal criteria and a concern for ratepayers, Commissioner Dorothy Anderson advocated breaking off negotiations with Triad because she has suddenly decided a five-story hospital doesn't belong on the downtown riverfront. Tell that to the Eugene City Council, which has voted unanimously on three occasions to support hospital development on EWEB's property and backed up its endorsement with the promise of millions in proposed infrastructure improvements.

Thank goodness Commissioner Ron Farmer reminded Anderson for the record that she was not elected to make planning decisions for the downtown riverfront.

After Bishop changed her vote to join Commissioners Farmer, Patrick Lanning and Mel Menegat, the board emerged with a 4-1 decision to accept a "conceptual offer" from Triad to purchase EWEB's property. The preliminary agreement gives Triad and EWEB 240 days to conduct feasibility studies. At any time during that eight-month period, either party can choose to walk away from the deal.

If EWEB's design study confirms that an insurmountable gap exists between Triad's offer and EWEB's cost to move its headquarters and operations facilities, the deal is dead. Yes, EWEB will have to spend an estimated $800,000 for preliminary design work to better determine the cost of replacement facilities, but that's money the utility will have to spend at some not-too-distant time with or without a willing buyer for its current site.

Right now, board members are basing their calculations on a squishy 2002 estimate that relocation will cost EWEB $38.5 million. That estimate includes a whopping 35 percent contingency cushion - 10 percent is typical - that could turn out to be way high.

There's no shortage of pie-in-the-sky speculation about what could be done to develop Eugene's riverfront. But the City Council's decision to support a hospital on EWEB's riverfront property addresses valid urban planning goals and improves upon the site's existing use.

EWEB commissioners must be responsible stewards of the long-term interests of the utility and its ratepayers. They can't do that if they act prematurely with insufficient information.