3.2 ERMU MINUTES 02-09-2010ELK RIVER MUNICIPAL UTILITIES
REGULAR MEETING OF THE
UTILITIES COMMISSION
HELD AT UTILITIES CONFERENCE ROOM
January 12,2010
Members Present: John Dietz, President; Jerry Gumphrey, Vice Chair;
Daryl Thompson, Trustee
ERMLi Staff Present: Troy Adams, Director of Operations;
Theresa Slominski, Finance Director/Office Manager;
Mark Fuchs, Line Superintendent; David Berg, Water Superintendent;
Wade Lovelette, Technical Services Superintendent;
Judy McSpadden, Recording Clerk; Richard Wagner
City Staff Present: Lori Johnson, City Administrator
Others Present: Peter Beck, Attorney from Gray Plant Mooty Law Firm;
Ron Touchette, EDA Commissioner
1. Call meeting to order January 12, 2010
John Dietz called the January 12, 2010 meeting to order at 4:00 p.m.
2. Consider Utilities Agenda
Jerry Gumphrey added two items to discuss under Other Business.
Jerry Gumphrey moved to approve the January 12, 2010 Utilities Agenda. Daryl Thompson
seconded the motion. Motion carried 3-0.
3. Consider Consent Agenda
John Dietz had questions on the check register, staff responded.
Jerry Gumphrey moved to approve the Consent Agenda as follows.-
3.1
ollows:
3.1 December Check Register
3.2 December 15, 2009, Minutes
3.3 Financial Reports
3.4 Designate First National Bank official depository for 2010
3.5 Designate Elk River Star News official newspaper for 2010
John Dietz seconded the motion. Motion carried 3-0.
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Regular meeting of the Elk River Municipal Utilities Commission
January 12, 2010
4.1 Review State Fuel Contract Pricine
In October the City of Elk River submitted their numbers for the state diesel and gas bids. The
numbers submitted included Elk River Municipal Utilities (ERMU) request for 3,600 gallons of diesel
and 7,800 gallons of gas. This is approximately 75% of the 2010 projected usage for ERMU. This
will require staff to fuel up at the City garage most of the time. The recent upgrade of the fuel system
pumps at the City and Utilities location should make for easier tracking and billing.
The contract price in 2010 for 87 Octane unleaded is $2.0989 and B5 diesel is $2.2354. Compared to
current pricing at the pumps, this will result in an approximate $6,000 savings.
5.1 Review 2009 Electric Reliability Resort
The Minnesota Energy, Security, and Reliability Act requires electric distribution utilities to file
an annual outage report to their governing bodies, which in our case, is the ERMU commission. A
spreadsheet of the 2009 outage history was reviewed. Animals and branches continue to cause the
greatest number of outages, and underground faults were also a contributing factor. The single
greatest incident impacting the report was a car accident where a vehicle hit a pole. The statistics from
the report are very good compared to other utilities.
5.2 Review 2010 Tariffs
At the December 15, 2009, Elk River Municipal Utilities Commission meeting, the 2010 budget
was approved. This budget included a number of rate increases. The updated tariff sheets with
changes were reviewed.
5.3 Review and Consider 4 I Quarter Write -Offs
Fourth quarter write-offs were presented for review. Theresa Slominski discussed the list of
write-offs and the need to clean up old accounts and move forward. John Dietz asked Peter Beck if he
has completed revising the customer deposit policy, Peter responded he is still fine tuning it.
Daryl Thompson moved to approve the fourth quarter write-offs totaling $159,429.60 as
presented. Jerry Gumphrey seconded the motion. Motion carried 3-0.
6.1 Staff Updates
Troy Adams shared a comment he received from the Fire Department giving thanks to the
ERMU crews for their quick response when needed.
Theresa Slominski responded to an inquiry about the auditors onsite for the preliminary audit.
David Berg presented a memo regarding the Gary Street, Hillside, and Foster Tower lease.
David said he has talked with Peter Beck and they both felt it was in the best interest to have KLM
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Regular meeting of the Elk River Municipal Utilities Commission
January 12, 2010
Engineering do the antenna inspections and oversee the installation process. Sprint will be doing a
walk through of the towers on Thursday. David Berg said Peter Beck was going to have the rest of
the contracts finished. Peter Beck responded "One of these days".
Jerry Gumphrey informed the Commission and ERMU staff that he has asked for EDA
Commissioner Ron Touchette's resignation due to the way he has treated employees. Jerry
Gumphrey encourages anyone that had contact with Ron Touchette to submit a statement to the Elk
River City Council by February 3, 2010. The Elk River City Council will be doing an investigation
into this matter.
Jerry Gumphrey directed staff to acquire bids on phone services that would answer the phones
with a pre-recorded message stating the calls will be recorded, and have recording of all calls to
protect employees.
John Dietz recognized Ron Touchette and asked him if he had anything he would like to say. Ron
Touchette said he did. Ron Touchette said he is a Real Estate Broker and specializes in troubled
assets. He asked the Commission to formally look in to accounts that are taken over by other parties
and the policies regarding this.
6.2 Set Date for Next Meeting
The next regularly scheduled meeting of the Elk River Municipal Utilities Commission will be
Tuesday, February 9, 2010, at 4:00 p.m.
6.3 Adiourn Regular Meeting
President John Dietz adjourned the regular meeting of the Elk River Municipal Utilities
Commission at 4:25 p.m.
Minutes prepared by Judy McSpadden.
John Dietz
President, ERMU Commission
Tina Allard
City Clerk