Member System Profile: City of Mesa, Arizona

Mike Comstock

Out on the outskirts of Phoenix, sits the booming desert city of Mesa, Arizona. The residents of Mesa enjoy average high temperatures in the mid-80’s and 313 days of sunshine annually. Keeping 53,000 customers in Mesa and portions of surrounding Pinal County warm during the late-November to late-February heating season is the City of Mesa Gas Division.

The Gas Division celebrated its 80th anniversary four months ago, marking the day that Mesa bought the gas works started by pioneering veterinarian, builder, and all-around Arizona visionary Dr. A. J. Chandler. The utility is owned by the citizens of Mesa, and the city council is the gas operation’s board of directors.

The city has benefited from migration of large numbers of people from California and often-chilly northern states to enjoy the temperate climate, varied activities, good schools and high quality of life in the area. As some residents say, “You don’t have to shovel sunshine.” This growth has made Mesa one of the fastest-growing municipal gas utilities in the United States, adding eight percent more customers for almost the last three years. They have installed more than 2,000 new services per year and over 30 miles of pipeline annually.

This growth has made the City of Mesa gas operation the largest municipality-owned gas utility in Arizona. The city is also served by a large IOU, Southwest gas, which has 1.5 million customers in the state. The two utilities have defined service territories in the state, so they do not encroach on each other and compete for customers. Instead, Mesa gas system superintendent Mike Comstock says the two “have a very good working relationship. Since some parts of the city are served by us, and some by Southwest, we have similar emergency response territories. Beyond that, we also partner with them on local and state issues.”

The City of Mesa is a member of APGA because “we get a good return on our investment,” according to Mike Comstock, gas system superintendent. “We get to participate on the national level on committees that make a difference in gas, and partner with like utilities on issues.” The interaction with other similar utilities though quarterly meetings, conference calls, and other events keeps them happily in the APGA fold.

The City of Mesa has been very involved in APGA since they joined in the late 1980s under then utility manager Ralph Wisz, who served as APGA President in 1994-1995. This has been continued by Mike Comstock and Gas Division Director (and Iraq war veteran) Gerald Paulus.

Originally in August 25, 2005 Public Gas News