6.1b ERMUSR 02-13-2018 Elk River
Municipal Utilities UTILITIES COMMISSION MEETING
TO: FROM:
ERMU Commission Theresa Slominski—Finance & Office Manager
MEETING DATE: AGENDA ITEM NUMBER:
February 13, 2018 6.1b
SUBJECT:
Staff Update
ACTION REQUESTED:
None
DISCUSSION:
• As a follow-up from last month, the running PCA balance at December 31, 2017 was a
credit of$150,405. We had a large credit of$485,625 at the beginning of 2017 with the
balance brought forward from the prior year. We decided to retain part of it to offset
2017 anticipated PCA charges and returned $245,799 to customers in March 2017.
Accumulated PCA charges and credits for 2017 totaled a charge of$89,421.
• Our first full month of cycled billings completed and we are now in our second month.
The processes occurring each week have gone smoothly and staff seems to be settling in
well to the change. The biggest hurdle was the volume of phone calls from customers
who were unaware of the change, and therefore, confused, or who were just upset that the
change was occurring and their payment date was moving. We did also hear from some
individuals who were pleased with their billing and related payment date(s) moving. This
has been a long planning process of almost a full year to implement the change to cycled
billing, and a huge commendation goes to Jennie Nelson for its success upon rollout.
MANY people helped with the implementation and so efforts of Michelle V., Michelle
M., Mike Tietz,the CSR group, and the metering group should also be commended.
• With the cycle change, it was noticed that the payments outstanding at the due date were
much higher than normal (almost twice) in the early cycles. We speculated this was due
to the short duration between billings, and given the heightened sensitivity to the change
in payment dates, decided to not apply penalties this month. Penalties average around
$20,000 per month and so that will be a slight change in January's financials when
comparing year to year.
• Melissa, our Accountant, had a baby boy January 24, 2018 and will be out on maternity
leave for twelve weeks. Our Purchasing Specialist, Geri, has given her notice and so we
will be bringing in a temporary staff member until that position is replaced.
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