Members of the New Iberia City Council considered their options with the possibility of rising Cleco rates at Tuesday’s meeting.

Councilwoman Deidre Ledbetter said the company that serves New Iberia will be asking for a rate increase to the Public Service Commission, which is the regulatory body that approves utility prices in Louisiana.

“We as a council have the opportunity to intervene,” Ledbetter said. “I’m not saying we’ll stop it but our community just took the brunt of a heavy increase and now we’re looking at another one.”

Ledbetter said the 28 percent of people in New Iberia below the poverty line would be hit especially hard, and even commercial businesses could be hurt by the increase.

Councilwoman Deedy Johnson-Reid agreed, and had also spoke to the Public Service Commissioner representative for Iberia Parish.

“We are lacking representation at the Public Service Commission,” she said. “I’m in favor of writing as many letters as possible to stop this from happening.”

Legal counsel Jeff Simon said that after speaking to professionals in the PSC field, the council would likely need to get a plan of action and listen to proposals about intervening in a legal setting. Even then, the price for seriously contending a price against could prove to be very expensive and long.

“The real issue before the PSC is the allowable costs,” Simon said. “The cost for an attorney can be expensive, and if that’s what gets you in the room it’s difficult to justify it unless you know you can cut down on some of these costs.”

“We need a proposal to know what kind of resources it would take to do this the right way,” he added.

The increase comes in the middle of the New Iberia Council working with Cleco for a franchise renewal agreement. Several contentious meetings have been held this year with Cleco representatives on details regarding the 20-plus year franchise renewal.