Your electric bill rises 27.6 percent over five years. It passed on consent, no discussion, and no minutes are posted.
A five-year electric rate plan, 7.5 percent in year one and 5 percent a year after that across all customers, went to the council on May 12, 2026 as item three of a seven-item consent agenda, between the pool hires and a food-truck license. The published record of the meeting is the agenda and the packet.
Kenyon owns its electric utility. Under Minnesota Statute 412.361, subdivision 4, the three-member utilities commission fixes the rates, not a state regulator, and the plan then goes to the council. The largest such decision in years reached the council on May 12, 2026. It came as consent agenda item three.
The plan
The packet attachment is "Kenyon 5-Year Rate Design," prepared by Bob Blank, an analyst at Utility Financial Solutions of Holland, Michigan, for Kenyon Municipal Utilities. The staff note says: "The KMU Commission approved the 5-year electric rate increase plan on April 21, 2026. The plan is attached." The commission at the time was Doug Henke, Don Kirchmann and Jerry Houglum.
The summary table projects total revenue from rates rising from $1,875,816 under current rates to $2,452,333 in year five, an increase of 7.5 percent in the first year and 5.0 percent in each of the next four. For residential customers the path is 7.0 percent, then 4.5 percent a year, which compounds to about 27.6 percent over the plan. The residential page shows how it lands on a bill: the monthly facilities charge goes from $15.00 to $17.00 in year one and $26.00 by year five, and the energy charge from 11.3 cents a kilowatt-hour to 13.32 cents. Commercial customers rise 8.1 percent then 5.6 percent a year, lighting 8.2 then 5.7, and large commercial 8.0 then 5.5. A cost-of-service column shows why: the study found rates 21.4 percent below cost overall and residential rates 15.8 percent below.
Monthly Facilities Charge: All Customers, $15.00, $17.00, $19.25, $21.50, $23.75, $26.00.Kenyon 5-Year Rate Design, residential page, May 12, 2026 packet.
Where it sat
The May 12 consent agenda, in order: approve the Memorial Day parade; approve twelve municipal pool hires; approve the five-year electric rate increase plan; Resolution 2026-16 terminating the Midwest Municipal Gas Agency agreement; a mobile merchant license for the Chick-fil-A Tri-State food truck; payment of checks; the April 14 minutes. The agenda's standing language explains the category: items "considered routine and non-controversial by the Council" that "will be approved by one motion. There will be no separate discussion of these items unless a Council member, City staff or citizen so requests."
The administrator, Scott Lehner, assembles the agenda. Nothing in the packet marks the rate plan for presentation or discussion. The administrator update that night listed the KMU job posting, police staffing and the May 18 work session on tax increment financing for the Sunset Home site, a project the council would debate at length six days later. The electric plan, which reaches every meter in town for five years, was not on that list.
The KMU Commission approved the 5-year electric rate increase plan on April 21, 2026.Agenda item summary, administration, May 12, 2026 packet, source
What the record holds
The meeting ran about twenty minutes and the city recorded it. At 1:26 Council member Mary Bailey asked whether the consent agenda should be folded into the agenda motion, and the administrator advised handling them separately. At 1:44 he clarified that one motion approves every item on the consent agenda. The motion was made and seconded. No member pulled the rate plan for discussion. The June 9, 2026 packet lists "City Council Meeting Minutes of May 12, 2026" among the items for approval, so minutes were prepared, but their text does not appear in the packet's published pages. The recording is the record.
The utility commission had discussed the plan. A rate study had been done. The numbers may well be right; the cost-of-service gap the study found is real. What did not happen is the part that belongs to the council: a public airing, by the people residents elected, of a 27.6 percent five-year increase in what a Kenyon household pays for electricity. The place for that was a regular agenda item with the analyst on Zoom. The place it went was between the lifeguards and the chicken sandwiches.
Before and after
- Apr. 21, 2026The KMU Commission of Doug Henke, Don Kirchmann and Jerry Houglum approves the five-year plan.
- May 7, 2026Utility Financial Solutions dates the cost-of-service study: rates 21.4 percent below cost overall, residential 15.8 percent below.
- May 12, 2026The plan goes to the council as consent item three; at 1:44 on the recording the administrator explains that one motion approves every consent item. The meeting runs 20 minutes.
- May 18, 2026The council spends an hour and 45 minutes on tax increment financing for one apartment project.
- June 9, 2026The packet lists the May 12 minutes for approval; their text is not in the posted pages.
What the statute says
The commission shall have power to fix rates and to adopt reasonable rules and regulations for utility service supplied by the municipally owned public utilities within its jurisdiction.
By statute the utilities commission fixes the rates. The council's consent vote was the only moment elected council members, as a body, had the plan in front of them in public.
People in this story
- Scott LehnerCity administrator, on the payroll since December 14, 2024
- Doug HenkeKMU commissioner, former mayor
- Don KirchmannMayor and KMU commissioner
- Jerry HouglumKMU Commission president
- Mary BaileyCouncil member; asked how the consent agenda should be handled
- Bob BlankAnalyst, Utility Financial Solutions, Holland, Michigan
Sources
- May 12, 2026 agenda and packet, consent item three and the attached rate design, packet page; meeting page.
- Staff note on KMU Commission approval, April 21, 2026, same packet.
- June 9, 2026 packet, listing the May 12 minutes for approval, packet page; meeting page.
- KMU Commission membership, from the August 6, 2026 meeting record.
More from the record
Lehner noticed a closed meeting. The city attorney opened it back up: there was nothing to close.
The city's own advisor said $800,000. The council gave the developer $1,855,000 and asked questions later.
The Messenger has an office in Kenyon and asked for the legal-notice contract. The council gave it to the Leader without a word.
All 27, in order · The open letter · Every packet and recording