04-10-2018 ERMU SPECIAL MIN ELK RIVER MUNICIPAL UTILITIES
SPECIAL MEETING OF THE
UTILITIES COMMISSION
HELD AT UTILITIES CONFERENCE ROOM
April 10,2018
Members Present: Chair John Dietz;Vice Chair Al Nadeau; Commissioners Paul Bell,
Mary Stewart,and Matt Westgaard
ERMU Staff Present: Troy Adams,General Manager;
Theresa Slominski,Finance and Office Manager;
Mark Fuchs,Electric Superintendent;
Eric Volk,Water Superintendent;
Tom Sagstetter, Conservation&Key Accounts Manager;
Michelle Canterbury,Executive Administrative Assistant;
Jennie Nelson,Customer Service Manager;
Tom Geiser,Assistant Electric Superintendent;
Others Present: Cal Portner,City Administrator;and Peter Beck,Attorney
1.0 CALL MEETING TO ORDER
The special meeting of the Utilities Commission was called to order at 2:30 p.m.by Chair Dietz.
2.0 ANNUAL COMMISSIONER ORIENTATION
Mr.Adams began with an overview on the principals of policy driven governance,also referred
to as the Carver Model. Mr.Adams presented the recently developed Governance Policy
Manual and touched on the following sections:
• Authority and Purpose Policies
• Governance Policies
• Commission—Management Policies
• Delegation to Management Policies
• Results Policies
Ms. Canterbury presented the Commission Reference Guide which included the following:
• Mission,Vision,Value,Fundamentals and Planning Themes
• 2018 ERMU Organizational Chart
• Utilities Commission Member Listing
• ERMU Website and Employee Intranet Demonstration
• City of Elk River Laserfiche WebLink Demonstration
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Special Meeting of the Elk River Municipal Utilities Commission
April 10,2018
• Open Meeting Law Training Video
• Guidelines for Electronic Communications Between Members of the Board
• Data Practices Training Video
• Conflict of Interest Policy and Best Practices
• 2018 Utilities Commission Meeting Schedule
There was discussion on the Open Meeting Law relating to serial meetings and how those may
occur through telephone calls,email or social media;this then lead to discussion on the
Guidelines for Electronic Communications between Members of the Board. Ms. Canterbury
cautioned board members on which email account they use to receive emails relating to utility
business,as such emails would likely be considered government data that is subject to a public-
records request under the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act(MGDPA). She explained
that the best option is for each board member to use their individual email account that the utility
or city has provided for them.Attorney Beck concurred. There was additional discussion.
In reference to Data Practices,Commissioner Westgaard had two questions;one regarding the
archiving of his emails and the second regarding where to archive electronic meeting packets
containing his notes. Commissioner Westgaard shared that he's running out of storage space for
his city email account which contains co-mingled city and utility emails and inquired if there
was a formal archive folder he could use.As there is currently no folder,Ms. Canterbury
indicated she would work with IT to get one set up for him. In an effort to cleanup email files,
staff noted that 75%of the emails we receive are considered non-records or transitory which can
be deleted. In reference to the archiving of electronic meeting packets with notes,Mr.Portner
offered some suggestions on how this could be handled.
3.0 ADJOURNMENT
There being no further business,Chair Dietz adjourned the special meeting of the Utilities
Commission at 3:25 p.m.
M' utes pr-.ared,by Michelle Canterbury.
1 A
Jo 1.1. D.•tz
Ch.• ,ERMU C "i'!' ion
Tina Allard
City Clerk
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Special Meeting of the Elk River Municipal Utilities Commission
April 10,2018