6.1.a. ERMUSR 10-11-2016 Elk River
Municipal Utilities UTILITIES COMMISSION MEETING
TO: FROM:
Elk River Municipal Utilities Commission Troy Adams, P.E.—General Manager
John Dietz—Chair
Al Nadeau—Vice Chair
Daryl Thompson—Trustee
MEETING DATE: AGENDA ITEM NUMBER:
October 11, 2016 6.1a
SUBJECT:
Staff Updates—General Manager
DISCUSSION:
• The Board of Directors of the Minnesota
Municipal Power Agency(MMPA) met
on September 27, 2016 in Shakopee,
Minnesota. `
Construction continues to move ahead on "y
MMPA's 46 MW Shakopee Energy Park ..
project. The project remains on schedule
fora Q2 2017 in-service date. After the ; 1 $
meeting, Board members had an - r,.
opportunity to tour the construction site.
This facility is visible from US Hwy 169
near Canterbury Park. The facility,
pictured to the right, has a consistent
design to MMPA's Faribault Energy Park.
The Board also discussed the status of
MMPA's renewable contracts for both wind and solar power.
The Board selected the member communities of Anoka, East Grand Forks, Le Sueur, and
North St. Paul as Hometown Solar grant recipients for 2017. The Hometown Solar grant
program is an extension of MMPA's Energy Education program and provides 5 kilowatt
solar installations to educational facilities in MMPA member communities. The purpose
of the program is to provide MMPA member communities with an educational asset to
help teach our youth first-hand about how sunlight is converted into electricity, and the
unique characteristics of solar power.
• On October 4,the Minnesota Municipal Utilities Association (MMUA) Board of
Directors formally approved the 1Q2017 launch of their executive leadership
development program. This program has been renamed the MMUA Leadership
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Academy. The program was designed with input from existing and past Minnesota utility
leaders to include essential leadership, governance, finance, and management core skills.
The program will consist of eight sessions over a two year commitment. The session
titles are:
o Year One Sessions
• Building Great Teams
• Political Intelligence and Conflict
• Communications—Presence of A Leader
• Building the Toolbox of Leadership
o Year Two Sessions
• Character—Mind of a Leaders and Human Resource Strategies
• Behaviors of a Leader—Organization and Administration
• Financial Leadership and Stewardship
• Seeing the Big Picture—Strategic Planning
This program will rival other leadership programs for content,provide essential
Minnesota municipal utility industry connections creating peer forum opportunities, and
be offered at a price point lower than anything similar. Although this program was
designed with municipal utility leadership in mind, it has become evident that the
concepts covered in the program transcend the municipal utility industry. Depending on
demand,this program will likely be offered to city government employees and
cooperative electric employees. The board approved a$600/session fee and approved a
limited number of MMUA scholarships. MMUA staff will be working to get third party
scholarships as well.
I will look at 2017 training budget for a way to include this program either through
displacement or adjustment of other existing line items. The 2017 training budget will
come back for Commission final approval in December.
• On September 28, I met with the General Manager of Minnesota Valley Electric
Cooperative (MVEC)to learn about their pre-paid meter program. Our billing and
accounting software company had suggested that MVEC would be a great source of
information if we were considering implementation of pre-paid meters. The meeting was
extremely productive as our discussion expanded beyond the primary topic. Our utilities
have similar challenges and similar organizational goals. Our leaderships have similar
vision. MVEC should prove to be a good sounding board for us in the future. We will
have follow-up conversations with MVEC as we analyze the potential operational
challenges, implementation costs, potential return on investment, and additional value
additions of pre-paid meters.
• We have a meeting scheduled with Dave Berg for October 10 to review the rate study
work he is performing for us.
• Work with John Miner on the governance policy and by-law update continues. The
Commission should be receiving a brief survey with a completion deadline of October
14. We have a conference call scheduled with John Miner for Monday, October 17,to
review the survey results.
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• I have been in discussion with Stu MacGibbon the previous owner of 1437 Main Street
property which the utilities have recently purchased.He is exploring opportunities to
move the house to a new lot within Elk River. This is one of the options that ERMU had
been considering regarding that structure. Eric Volk had been in communication with a
house moving company that is willing to move that structure. If the MacGibbons are
interested in moving the house off of the 1437 Main Street property, staff would
recommend that this be at no cost to ERMU.
• I am working with an HR consultant on updating our employee performance evaluation
process and forms. Due to the years of use,the current evaluation process and forms are
producing stagnant and therefore inaccurate feedback. My intention is for the new
process to be more behavior and character based. Once completed,this will be used for
all employees. With the new process and forms,we will be doing performance evaluation
training for the management team so the implementation and ongoing use is consistent
from one department to another. I have been in discussion with the city regarding this
project and will be sharing the results with them when completed.
In addition to the employee performance evaluation process, I look to develop an
employee engagement survey tool. I would like to start using this engagement survey tool
annually starting in 2017. This engagement survey will be based on the fundamental
concepts of the Gallup Organization's Q-12. The results of survey should help assess the
health of the organizational and indicate communication and/or departmental
coordination gaps. This feedback is important as employee engagement has great impact
on safety culture, customer service excellence, and productivity. This should provide
constructive feedback highlighting opportunities for organization development and
growth. I intent to share this work product with the city as well.
• Theresa Slominski and I attended the Central Municipal Power Agency/Service
(CMPAS)Annual meeting on October 4 in Mankato, MN. ERMU purchased an
ownership share in the CAPX2020 Brookings transmission project through CMPAS,
formally CMMPA. We also use CMPAS to file our MISO Attachment O.
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