6.1.b. ERMUSR 07-12-2016 Elk River
Municipal Utilities UTILITIES COMMISSION MEETING
TO: FROM:
Elk River Municipal Utilities Commission Theresa Slominski—Finance and Office Manager
John Dietz—Chair
Al Nadeau—Vice Chair
Daryl Thompson—Trustee
MEETING DATE: AGENDA ITEM NUMBER:
July 12, 2017 6.1b
SUBJECT:
Staff Update
DISCUSSION:
The visit last month from Eric Minard of NISC to review some Customer Care &Billing issues
went well. He was able to offer some advice for optimizing reporting options to identify billing
errors, identified some changes to improve sales tax functionality, and worked through the new
setup for commercial water meter sizes(previously this had to be programmed by NISC.) We
still have some things to test and evaluate for their incorporation in the system but the three items
mentioned are the big"wins" from his visit.
Additionally last month, a two-person team from a new software platform through NISC (called
iVUE Connect)was here and worked with staff one-on-one to observe the utilization of this new
test platform. Staff were taken individually and shown the platform and were asked to perform
certain tasks in the software and asked to provide feedback upon its completion. The staff were
also video recorded during process to help iVUE develop the platform to best serve the users.
Given we have so many services and it always presents additional challenges, we are grateful
that they reached out to us for this testing.
Last month I was asked to bring back some numbers and information on the increased cost of a
full-time (FT)versus a part-time (PT)Accountant for the remainder of the year. In planning for
the future, our projected Organizational Chart anticipated hiring a FT Accountant when the
position of the PT Accountant was vacated, although this date was an unknown. Changing from
a FT to PT Accountant is warranted due to increased responsibilities created with our software,
and ongoing projects that are placed on hold or take that much longer to complete with 1.5
Accountants. Taking into consideration employer taxes, PERA, assuming participation in the
health insurance plan at the family level, and adjusting for avoided cost for a month's time of the
hiring process where we will have no second accountant, the increased cost ranges from$8,700
to $18,400, depending on the wage at hire. (Although unknown at the June Commission
meeting, the savings with our liability insurance renewal noticed this month will help offset most
of this unanticipated cost.)We advertised this position in the Star Tribune newspaper June 19th,
E.
POMEDED 11
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and the Star News newspaper June 25th. We will be accepting applications through July 1St and
will be interviewing July 15th, 18th, and 19th.
Meridee Romie attended the 2016 Wright-Hennepin International Response Center Dealer
Symposium June 23 in Minneapolis,MN. Her education report is attached.
ATTACHMENT:
• Meridee Romie Education Report
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ELK RIVER MUNICIPAL UTILITIES EDUCATION /SEMINAR REPORT
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