A state legislator has intervened in two South Bay cities' ongoing disputes with Southern California Edison.

El Segundo and Manhattan Beach city officials are slated to join Assemblyman Ted Lieu and Edison executives this month to discuss the frequent outages, equipment malfunctions and slow response time both cities have complained of in recent months, officials said.

El Segundo Mayor Kelly McDowell hoped the discussion would lead to the utility committing to improving communication and response time, and repairing its equipment.

Edison officials representing both cities did not return calls for comment.

The powwow comes shortly after Lieu wrote the utility's lobbyist in Sacramento, complaining of frequent service disruptions and poor communication with his district.

"I believe it would be helpful for Edison to create a standard procedure to notify local governments when an outage happens, why it happened, and what actions are being taken to correct the problem," he wrote June 19.

El Segundo has long complained of outages leaving residents without power for up to 12 hours, transformers crashing into front yards and little information from Edison.

But officials' recent requests for equipment repair and improved communications were met with "a canned corporate response seeking to assuage our issues with (Edison)," El Segundo City Manager Jeff Stewart wrote in an e-mail to the utility.

El Segundo's most recent utility upset occurred June 21, when firefighters discovered a transformer ablaze near Franklin Avenue and Nevada Street around 1:30 a.m.

Battalion Chief John Bibee said the early-morning air was so charged with electricity that his arm hair stood on end when he got out of his car at the scene.

The flames burned out in about half an hour, but an electrical surge traveled down the pole, igniting a fire on the ground below and electrically charging a nearby chain-link fence, Bibee said.

It took about two hours for Edison crews to arrive, the Fire Department said.

"It's time for a commitment from them," McDowell said. "Words are not going to work if a transformer falls on somebody's head. We need a commitment from Edison."

Manhattan Beach has endured similar problems recently, including a pole fire that disrupted power for more than 1,300 customers on the west side of town.

The community also butted heads with utility executives in 2005, after Edison delayed residents' efforts to underground utility wires for almost a year.

"It's just one thing after another," Mayor Nick Tell said. "Then we hear about

El Segundo having a similar issue. It becomes clear the real issue is that Edison is not investing in its infrastructure."

andrea.woodhouse@dailybreeze.com