You have more faith in the public opinion than I do Kathy.    

Either 1)  the public isn't, or can't be, well informed on business practices 2)  Very few of the public vote and no 'consensus' can be known.   (do 50% of Eugene's eligible votes turn out for local votes?  I doubt it).    What you get is a pretense of a 'public' referendum that is actually a display of a minority activist group.  (activist on Either end of political ideology, but that's mostly liberal in Eugene).  

Sometimes the pretense of being 'for the people', is just serving the opposite cause, rewarding active special interest.

I like Oregon's moves to make registration and voting easier and more widespread.  I'm not sure results are confirming it turns out more voters yet?

We completely agree that a public utility should remain public, not sold to private interest.