THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, August 16, 1994 TAG: 9408160346
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TOM SHEAN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Short : 49 lines
A weeklong effort by Dominion Resources Inc. and its Virginia Power subsidiary to resolve their differences over Virginia Power's management continued Monday.
Meanwhile, the State Corporation Commission postponed for a second time its public hearing on Dominion's dismissal of three Virginia Power directors.
The SCC hearing, which had been scheduled for Thursday, was pushed back to next Monday at the request of Dominion and Virginia Power, a spokesman for the commission said Monday.
Representatives of Richmond-based Dominion and its electric utility subsidiary began discussing a settlement of their differences Aug. 7.
Spokesmen for Dominion and Virginia Power said the talks were still under way Monday. They declined to say how many negotiators were involved, or to discuss the range of topics.
Negotiators for Dominion and Virginia Power initially had set Aug. 15 as a target for reaching an agreement. However, ``I don't think that was established as a hard-and-fast deadline,'' said Carl Baab, a Virginia Power spokesman.
Dominion's full board of directors met last Friday for the first time since June 16. The meeting had already been scheduled and did not result from the companies' pending negotiations, Baab said.
Five of Dominion's directors boycotted a meeting on July 15, saying they opposed a sudden expansion of the company's board from 12 seats to 15 at a meeting in mid-June.
A dispute between two groups of Dominion directors over the management of Virginia Power became public in mid-June when the SCC ordered an investigation into relations between Virginia Power and its parent.
Their differences sprang partly from a strained working relationship between Dominion chairman and chief executive Thomas E. Capps and Virginia Power president and CEO James T. Rhodes.
When Dominion ousted three of Virginia Power's directors in late July, the utility asked the SCC to block the dismissals until the commission had finished its investigation.
The SCC had been scheduled to hear the Virginia Power motion on Aug. 11, but Virginia Power and Dominion asked the commission last week to postpone its hearing until Aug. 18. With the second postponement, the hearing was set for Aug. 22. by CNB