WARREN — Trumbull County commissioners on Wednesday approved moving the county’s electric aggregation and gas facilities plan to Palmer Energy Company in a 2-1 vote.

Commissioners Denny Malloy and Tony Bernard voted to approve moving to Palmer to negotiate rates for the county. The company is negotiating utility rates for the County Commissioners Association of Ohio. Commissioner Rick Hernandez was noticeably caught off guard when Malloy asked for a vote.

“I did not realize we were going to vote on this… today,” he said. “I’m going to abstain from the motion. It is my personal choice.”

“It is a change,” Malloy said. “Fifty-three other counties in the state of Ohio use this company. We’ve had the same person and the same company for six or eight years. We did switch over our facilities, our county buildings, last year on gas and we did get a better rate than what the market was showing.”

Malloy said he has faith in the county commissioners association, which is made up of a board of commissioners.

“These are the people who will be making the decisions on what aggregation programs to go with,” he continued. “They will offer options for us to vote on.”

“As we know, utilities have gone up like crazy, between electric and gas.” he said.

Hernandez said the aggregation is a bonus for seniors. However, he expressed concern that the county has two other suppliers — NOPEC and Buckeye Energy — that were not provided the opportunity to present their plans.

“That was the reason for my abstention,” Hernandez said.

Bernard emphasized this is a 14-month contract they are signing.

“I think we have to trust the CCAO,” he said. “The residents have the right to opt out on this. They can go out and get their own rates.”

Bernard said he likes the buying power of the 53 other counties.