ABSTRACT
in this chapter, the author presents a digression in content and thus warrants some explanatory comment. She deals with the discussions revolve around citizen participation in relation to consumer issues, whereas the focus elsewhere is on the distinctly different process of facility planning. Despite the apparent topical inconsistency, the author describes the Alpert article has generic significance by virtue of its focus on advisory boards, a vehicle for participation which has seen considerable application in various aspects of the utility business. Advisory boards can become targets of other consumer organizations and be scorned, along with the utilities, as unresponsive to the needs of the community, the poor, the minorities, or other disaffected groups. "Consumer Advisory Boards and Investor-Owned Utilities: Rhetoric and Reality" causes the author some concern. An unresearched article by Dr. Geraldine Alpert appears in the Public Utilities Fortnightly, and it threatens to seriously hamper this forward thinking with a one-sided view of the utility consumer advisory board issue.
