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3.0 ERMU MINUTES 02-06-2006ELK RIVER MUNICIPAL UTILITIES REGULAR MEETING OF THE JAN 13 1006 UTILITIES COMMISSION January 10, 2006 Members Present: Jerry Takle, President; John Dietz, Vice Chair; Members Absent: James Tralle, Trustee Staff Present: Bryan Adams, General Manager; David Berg, Water Superintendent; Theresa Slominski, Office Manager; Judy McSpadden, Recording Clerk Others Present: Lori Johnson, City Administrator Call meeting to order January 10, 2006 President Jerry Takle called the January 10, 2006, meeting to order. 2. Consider Utilities Agenda John Dietz moved to approve the January 10, 2006, Utilities Agenda with the addition of one item for discussion under Other Business. Jerry Takle seconded the motion. Motion carried 2-0. 3. Consider Consent Agenda John Dietz questioned the overtime hours in December. Staff responded it was from various outages outside of normal working hours or occurrences including vehicles hitting poles. He then asked about the electric and water profit and loss report, staff responded. Jerry Takle wanted clarification of where the connection fees for electric and water originated from, and staff responded. John Dietz moved to approve the Consent Agenda as follows: Designate First National Bank official depository for 2006 Designate Elk River Star News official newspaper for 2006 December Check Register December 13, 2005, Minutes Financial Reports Jerry Takle seconded the motion. Motion carried 2-0. 5.1 Staff Up -dates Bryan Adams informed the Commission of another data center possibly locating in Elk River. The location they are looking at is by the Target Data Center site. The Bond Sale is scheduled for February 6h and Commissioner approval will be needed before City Council consideration. A special meeting was scheduled for February 6", at 12:00 at the Elk River Municipal Utilities conference room. Theresa Slominski presented a rough draft of the new utility bill form that will be used with the outsourced printing. The utilities received a check of $3683.78 from the tobacco settlement and staff would like to ask the employees for input on its distribution. Lori Johnson Page 2 Regular meeting of the Elk River Municipal Utilities Commission January 10, 2006 said the City also received a settlement and was planning on using it for a wellness program. Commission authorized that the utility money be used for an employee wellness program as well. Glenn Sundeen reported on the four poles that were hit in the past month. The overhead work for West Elk River Feeder is complete and the underground work will start in the spring. Crews will start tree trimming in a week. David Berg reported there were 90 security systems sold in 2005. Staff has been flushing hydrants and doing well maintenance. Wells #4 and #6 will be taken off line for maintenance next week. 5.2 Review Auditors Report Theresa Slominski updated the Commissioners on the ongoing IRS and Sales Tax issues. Discussion followed with questions and response from staff. 5.3 Review Electric Outage Report The Minnesota Energy, Security and Reliability Act enacted in 2001, contains a distribution reliability section. One section of this legislation requires, on an annual basis, an outage report be submitted to their governing bodies, which in our case is the Elk River Municipal Utilities Commission. At this time the outages for 2005 were reviewed. Weather and vehicles hitting poles account for over 95% of outages. The number of branch outages is down which indicates our tree trimming efforts are successful. 6.1 Review & Consider Wire Bids The electrical wire bids for 2006 were opened Monday, January 9"' at 2:00 p.m. The bid tabs were reviewed and staff recommends awarding the wire to the lowest responsive bidder. John Dietz moved to approve staff recommendations for awarding 2006 Wire Bids to the lowest responsive bidder, Border States for the primary cable, and Resco for the secondary wire. Jerry Takle seconded the motion. Motion carried 2-0. 6.2 Review & Consider Substation Materials Our 2006 electric budget contains an item to add a second bay to our Station 14 Substation. This substation is located at Great River Energy's facility. This substation addition is required to support Elk Rivers load growth, including the new Data Center. Staff recommends award to the lowest responsive bidder. John Dietz moved to approve the lowest responsive bidder, L & L Substations, supply electric substation material for the Station 14 Bank 2 project. Jerry Takle seconded the motion. Motion carried 2-0. Page 3 Regular meeting of the Elk River Municipal Utilities Commission January 10, 2006 6.3 Review & Consider New Position The personnel projection of the 2006 budget reflects the addition of a supervisor for the metering, security, locator, and CAD operator areas. Discussion followed regarding the need for this department head instead of continuing to utilize the existing department heads. John Dietz would like the Commission involved in the final interviewing process. John Dietz moved to approve the search for hiring a "Supervisor of Engineering Services" Jerry Takle seconded the motion. Motion carried 2-0. 6.4 Review & Consider 2005 Write -Offs A list of the 2005 write-offs was reviewed. John Dietz asked about the possibility of filing the water write-offs with the County for assessments. Yearly the City files with the County the unpaid garbage fees that are assessed on taxes, and they do not pay a fee. Staff will look into any filing fees associated with this and proceed. Staff will also verify that conciliation court is being utilized for one customer with a $7000 debt. John Dietz moved to approve the 2005 write-offs. Jerry Takle seconded the motion. Motion carried 2-0. 6.5 Review Proposed Annual Report to City Council The annual report to City Council was reviewed. The City desired a more condensed version of the report. Commissioners liked the condensed version. Other Business John Dietz asked that in the future when ordering machines such as in the recent case of the chipper, we consider sharing the equipment. He would like to schedule a meeting with both department heads (City and Utility) when large equipment purchases are proposed to discuss the possibility of sharing this equipment. The next regularly scheduled meeting of the Elk River Municipal Utilities Commission will be Tuesday, February 14, 2006. President Jerry Takle adjourned the regular meeting of the Elk River Municipal Utilities Commission at 5:05 p.m. ectfully submitted, o Judy McSpadde Recording Clerk