IN THE EARLY 1970s the Sacramento Municipal Utility District built a nuclear power plant. Big mistake: Rates went up, public safety was compromised, and the reputation of one of the nation's top publicly owned electric companies was badly damaged. So a group of community activists responded. They ran a slate of candidates for the SMUD board, and when a majority of the reformers won, they shut down the nuke.

One of those reformers was a guy named Ed Smeloff, who now works for Mayor Willie Brown. Smeloff ought to know how important it is to have a district-elected board run the local power agency: If SMUD's board weren't elected officials, he and his allies might never have been able to turn the utility around, restore its reputation, and turn it into a model of environmentally conscious energy policy.

So why, as Rachel Brahinsky reports on page 16, is Ed Smeloff arguing that San Francisco should leave the present Public Utilities Commission (by all reasonable accounts an utterly failed, irresponsible board made up of mayoral cronies) in charge of the city's energy policy?

Well, Smeloff isn't in any position to undermine his boss – and Brown has made it very, very clear over many, many years that he has no interest in taking on Pacific Gas and Electric Co. In fact, Brown was PG&E's private attorney for a while when he was a state legislator and has received thousands in campaign contributions from the private utility and its allies.

Brown didn't become one of the most powerful politicians in California by being stupid. He knows that it's very likely some form of public power measure will be back on the ballot this fall, that a sweeping measure (Proposition F) lost by only a few hundred votes last fall (some of those votes perhaps resting at the bottom of the bay), and that, with the high voter turnout that will result from a contested governor's race, it's entirely likely a measure similar to Prop. F will pass this fall.

He also knows that, as long as he can control the agency that sets power policy, he can make sure San Francisco never does what PG&E fears most. A Brown-controlled agency will never take over PG&E's distribution system (or build its own) and put the company out of business in this city. Which is, of course, exactly what the city ought to do.

Brown has helped block public power for 30 years. The supervisors should make sure he has no role today in setting the agenda for the city's energy future.