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Power outages and the City's fight with FirstEnergy

City leaders have pressed FirstEnergy over repeated power outages in Lakewood, mainly through the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO). minutes p. 1 On Sept. 28, 2026, FirstEnergy officials appeared before Council's Committee of the Whole to present their plans. minutes p. 4

Issue pages: RES 2025-74

What was decided

Dec. 1, 2025: Council adopted Resolution 2025-74, supporting the City's intervention in a PUCO case on minimum reliability standards for Ohio Edison, Cleveland Electric Illuminating and Toledo Edison. minutes p. 7 resolution p. 99

Law Director Vargo told Council the resolution's purpose was to show the judge that the opposition is supported by Lakewood City Council. minutes p. 6 ▶ 0:26:51

At the Sept. 28 hearing, President Kepple said FirstEnergy's request to lower its reliability standards was denied, with help from the City's Law Department, which intervened in the case. minutes p. 1

July 20, 2026: Council sent President Kepple's communication on legal matters related to FirstEnergy to the Committee of the Whole. minutes p. 6 ▶ 0:37:29

Sept. 8, 2026: Council met in executive session to consult with an attorney about FirstEnergy and the rate case, then referred the item to the Committee of the Whole. minutes p. 1 ▶ 1:09:50

What PUCO has ordered, according to the Law Director

Law Director Vargo said PUCO's 2025 notice of probable non-compliance required FirstEnergy to install two new substation transformers: one in July 2026 and the second by the end of 2026, at a cost to FirstEnergy of $3.6 million. minutes p. 2

He said thermal-imaging tests of pole equipment found 19 deficiencies, 15 of them repaired so far and the remaining 4 due by the end of 2026. minutes p. 3

He said the 2026 notice requires a capacity analysis by Oct. 31, 2026 and a plan for proactive equipment upgrades by Dec. 31, 2026. minutes p. 3

What's still pending

President Kepple said the final orders from PUCO's 2026 investigation were still pending on Sept. 28. minutes p. 2

Law Director Vargo said the City has filed a motion to intervene in FirstEnergy's pending rate case and opposes the proposed increases. minutes p. 3

He said Mayor George has petitioned PUCO to return the $3 million forfeiture in the 2026 notice directly to Lakewood customers. minutes p. 4

FirstEnergy's Sally Thomas, VP of Distribution Engineering, said a long-term plan will be submitted to PUCO at the end of the year. minutes p. 7

What the documents say the reasons are

Resolution 2025-74 cites outages that are increasing in frequency and duration, residents trapped in high-rise elevators, traffic signals without power, and lost refrigerated medicine and food. resolution p. 99

President Kepple said PUCO's 2025 and 2026 investigations found that most of Lakewood's outages came from equipment or line failures. minutes p. 1

The minutes say thousands of residents lost power over multiple days in summer 2026 because of failures at the Lauderdale substation. minutes p. 2

The debate

Sally Thomas apologized for the hardship the service disruptions caused and said FirstEnergy is committed to reducing how often outages happen and how long they last. minutes p. 4

She said FirstEnergy plans an additional $6.5 million of work and that August circuit inspections found more than 360 deficiencies. minutes p. 5

Vice President Baker spoke about his interest in exploring municipalization of the power grid if things do not improve. minutes p. 6

Councilmember Bullock suggested the Law Department try to negotiate a voluntary economic development program with FirstEnergy for businesses and residents harmed financially by outages. minutes p. 4

Councilmember Strebig asked FirstEnergy to provide batteries and generators, repay customers for spoiled goods and refund customers for outages. minutes p. 7

Councilmember Hamilton Steiner asked for a report on the reasons for the historical neglect of Lakewood's electrical system and said Lakewood residents should not pay for the upgrades. minutes p. 7

At public comment on Sept. 8, a resident raised concerns about rate hikes and decreasing reliability. minutes p. 6

What residents can do

Watch the Sept. 28 hearing in the City's video archive. ▶ 0:00:22

Comment online on Council agenda items through the City's eComment portal. eComments

Speak during public comment at a Regular Council meeting, as residents did on Sept. 8. minutes p. 2

Not in the public record we found

The July 27, 2026 Committee of the Whole minutes PDF has no readable text layer, so this page does not summarize that meeting; the official video is linked instead. minutes ▶ 0:00:31

FirstEnergy's Sally Thomas said she was not the right person to answer whether the company would offer customers direct financial assistance. minutes p. 6

Every meeting where it came up

  1. Sep 28, 2026. Committee of the Whole: Communication from President Kepple regarding litigation with First Energy. minutes ▶ 0:00:22 Meeting recap →
  2. Sep 28, 2026. Committee of the Whole: Communication from President Kepple regarding First Energy before Committee of the Whole and Rate Case. minutes ▶ 0:00:22 Meeting recap →
  3. Sep 8, 2026. City Council: FirstEnergy to appear before Committee of the Whole. Outcome: Referred. minutes ▶ 1:09:50 Meeting recap →
  4. Jul 27, 2026. Committee of the Whole: Communication from President Kepple regarding litigation with First Energy. minutes ▶ 0:00:31 Meeting recap →
  5. Jul 20, 2026. City Council: Kepple seeks a briefing on litigation with FirstEnergy. Outcome: Referred. minutes ▶ 0:37:29 Meeting recap →
  6. Dec 1, 2025. City Council: Mayor asks Council to back the city's FirstEnergy case at PUCO. Outcome: Received & filed. minutes ▶ 0:26:51 Meeting recap →
  7. Dec 1, 2025. City Council: Supports Lakewood's challenge to FirstEnergy's reliability standards case. Outcome: Adopted. minutes ▶ 0:33:35 Meeting recap →

News coverage

Every sentence links to its public source. Where the record is silent, this page says so. The meeting list is curated; new matching agenda items are flagged for review before they are added. How this is made