By JIM BUTLER

Mayor Jacques Roy plans to reactivate a panel charged with studying all aspects of Alexandria’s utility system.

Roy told City Council members Tuesday that the Commission on Utility Reform, created in 2013 but apparently dormant the past four or five years, will advise the administration on the full range of utility issues.

As such the panel is subject to all the “sunshine” rules public bodies function under.

The reactivation comes, perhaps coincidentally, as billings including consumption during days of near-record cold hit mail boxes.

The mayor said he intends to retain John Carroll, John Scott, Martha Crenshaw’s, June Davis and Connie Cooper as panel members.

Councilman Chuck Fowler has been a member but Roy said an abundance of caution leads him to suggest Fowler as a non-voting ex-officio member.

His concern stems from the fact that the council votes on utility issues, including those approved and forwarded from the committee.

Utility issues – particularly cutoffs for non-payment and payment catchup via Project Restore – were the apparent driving force in Project Enough’s formation in late summer and its launching a recall effort.

Petitions seeking a referendum on recall of Roy and Councilmen Lee Rubin and Jim Villard must be filed with the Secretary of State by March 17.

The required number of signatures certified as valid city voters by the Registrar of Voters is 6,329.

Petition organizers have not announced where the effort stands.