5.7. ERMUSR 02-12-2019 Elk River
Municipal Utilities UTILITIES COMMISSION MEETING
TO: FROM:
ERMU Commission Troy Adams, P.E.—General Manager
MEETING DATE: AGENDA ITEM NUMBER:
February 12, 2019 5.7
SUBJECT:
Strategic Plan and 2018 Annual Business Plan Results
ACTION REQUESTED:
Discussion on effectiveness of the Strategic Plan and the Annual Business Plan as organizational
health assessment and planning tools; discussion on ongoing improvement and progress
toward organizational mission and goals.
BACKGROUND:
In August 2017, the commission adopted a comprehensive manual of governance policies
based on the Carver Model of governance. Included in those governance policies is Governance
Policy G.2c Agenda Planning.This policy notes that in the first quarter "The Commission and
Management will review ERMU's current Strategic Plan along with the results of the Annual
Business Plan for the preceding fiscal year."This annual review was confirmed and scheduled
through the Commission's adoption of the 2019 Governance Agenda, which is included in the
monthly commission meeting materials, and which is available to the public.
DISCUSSION:
The Strategic Plan consists of Governance Policies G.1c-g.These policies are summarized on the
attached mission, vision,fundamentals, values, and planning themes handout. Additionally, the
• Strategic Plan includes a dashboard of initiatives, a management tool used to track project
preparation for consideration in the budget, oversee the status of currently implemented
projects, track future priorities currently on hold, and to track overall productivity and
organizational resources.The Annual Business Plan consists of the budget and the schedule of
rates.
The purpose for the Strategic Plan is to establish the long term direction and goals for an
organization and develop the plan to get there. A good strategic planning process incorporates
assessing risks and developing contingency plans based on risk mitigation in the journey toward
the long term direction and goals.The purpose of the Annual Business Plan is that of a tool. It is
a tool used to measure organizational performance and provide usable information to take
corrective actions and needed to move the organization toward the long term direction and
goals established by the strategic plan.The Strategic Plan is a long term forward looking tool.
The Annual Business Plan contains the budget and the schedule of rates.The budget is a
financial tool used to forecast and quantify expected business performance.This financial tool
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contains both known or fixed components as well as variable or unknown components.To
measure performance, ERMU uses a monthly financial report.This report is a tool used to
gauge performance, collect data needed to make corrective actions as needed to move the
organization toward the short term goals established by the budget and Annual Business Plan,
but also to move the organization toward the long term goals and direction established by the
Strategic Plan. Monthly reports provide information for what has already happened. Their value
comes from the interpretation of the data applied toward achieving the annual short term goals
and the farther out long term goals and vision. The Annual Business Plan is a short term
forward looking tool dependent upon backwards looking data analysis.
Review of the Strategic Plan
All policies, decisions, initiatives, and tasks by ERMU on behalf of our consumer owners should
be in direct line to the ERMU Mission. All planning is conducted through a process which
categorizes initiatives under commission adopted planning themes aligned with our mission,
vision, fundamentals, and values.This framework clearly defines how ERMU is expected to
operate.This process is intentionally transparent to our consumer owners.
The following include highlights, challenges, and results from the 2018 initiatives as well as
forward looking initiatives and goals:
Theme 1: Communication —Improve the effectiveness of our communications inside the
organization, with our customers, and with the community.
• Branding Plan —Staff successfully developed a comprehensive Branding Plan which
included a style standards guide identifying approved fonts, colors, logos, and taglines.
The plan is currently being implemented. The completion of this initiative leads into a
2019 initiative to develop a Communication Plan with a messaging guide.All of these
initiatives build the foundation for a forecasted 2020 initiative to completely update the
ERMU website.
• Customer Satisfaction Feedback Tools—Staff evaluated existing processes for customer
feedback and developed new methods for soliciting usable feedback to improve
services. New methods were implemented concurrent to existing methods for
evaluation. Unfortunately, this initiative did not improve the feedback data. Rather,
overall feedback diminished substantially. And, the data received was in a comingled
format blending feedback for ERMU and city service.The blended feedback made it
nearly impossible to separate ERMU relevant data for evaluation and action.This has led
to a 2019 initiative to develop improved bill presentation clearly identifying ERMU and
city services, and to develop improved customer satisfaction feedback tools which will
separate feedback to the appropriate service buckets.
• 2017 Annual Report—Staff successfully developed a "short" version template for the
annual report.The short version allows for economical distribution to our customers in
a format more likely to be read. This template was well received and is being used for
the 2018 Annual Report.
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• Disaster Recovery Plan —Staff has established a 2019 initiative to update our disaster
recovery plan and perform disaster drill tabletop exercise.The work will be coordinated
with the City of Elk River Fire Chief.
Theme 2: Personnel and Governance—Develop our most valuable and vulnerable assets...our
commissioners, employees, leaders, and future leaders.
• Governance Manual and Annual Training—Staff successfully completed the manual
which was approved in 2017 and developed and implemented the annual training
procedure in 2018. The successful completion of this initiative leads into a 2019
initiative to systematically go through the old policies, identify with the commission and
legal counsel what is policy overseen by the commission and what is procedure
overseen by management. Then, establish a plan to work through all of those old polices
and separate governance policy and management procedure.
• Data Management & Records Retention Policy—Staff successfully developed a data
management and records retention policy and procedures. Staff has trained the
departments, and implementation has begun.
• Succession Planning Procedure—The initiative to develop a succession planning and
staff addition procedure for use by the Wage & Benefits Committee (W&BC)was not
started in 2018 and had been tabled for 2019 due to leadership bandwidth. Related to
this initiative,the commission directed staff and the W&BC to implement an initiative to
benchmark the manager pay group with the assistance of a third party consultant.This
initiative is work in progress.
Theme 3: Strategic Thinking—Create a culture of strategic thinking and ensure line of sight from
mission to vision.
• Power Provider Migration Plan —Staff successfully developed and implemented
migration plans for the transition from Great River Energy (GRE) to Minnesota Municipal
Power Agency(MMPA). Included in the migration was addressing the Landfill Gas-to-
Electric Generation Facility power sales agreement with GRE, addressing emergency tie
points for operational and billing considerations, working with MMPA on the
development of load management programs, and substation metering and equipment.
The amount of planning and work that went into this initiative was significant.The
results for all sub-items for this initiative were highly favorable for ERMU. Only a few
minor action items remain for this major initiative including the completion and
execution of the substation metering equipment asset transfer agreement and bill of
sale for which the terms and details have already been agreed upon by both parties. The
load management programs sub-initiative has become a stand-alone 2019 initiative.
• Conservation Improvement Program (CIP) Redevelopment—Staff has been working with
Minnesota Municipal Utilities Association (MMUA) and the Minnesota Rural Electric
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Association (MREA) in a joint effort to modernize CIP. The proposed improvements to
CIP would allow for local flexibility to achieve savings mandates while providing
statutory approval to incorporate beneficial and efficient electrification into the
program.
• System Forecasting—Staff had an initiative to develop improved five and ten year
forecasting models for water and electric system growth and related resource planning.
This project was not started in 2018 and was tabled until 2019. Related, staff has added
a new 2019 initiative to work on updating the water hydrology model for use in system
forecasting and planning.
Theme 4:Technology—Implement the prudent use of technology to improve efficiency and
increase customer choice, communication, and value.
• ESRI GIS Mapping—Staff has been working to complete the implementation of the
mapping system including GPS data collection.The goal is to transition all field staff over
to the ESRI map.This project has been a work in progress for years and will carry over
through 2019.
• Cyber & Physical Security and IT/OT Support—Staff has worked with the city and a third
party consultant to evaluate cyber and physical security for ERMU and the city. A joint
committee was created.A small work group with the third party consultant developed
the framework for a comprehensive cyber, physical, and information security policy.
Progress stopped when the refinement of those policies exceeded staff resources.The
initiative was tabled until the budgeted ERMU Operational Technology Supervisor was
hired. ERMU was unable to fill the position, and staff will re-evaluate the position and
re-post in early 2019.This initiative is a high priority for 2019.
• Electric Vehicle—Staff had researched EV options for a go/no-go budget decision in
2017.The purchase of an EV was approved for the 2018 budget.The purchase of a
Chevy Bolt was done through the State bidding process. Additionally, public charging
stations had been purchased and installed.The work on the Branding Plan overlapped
with work on the EV initiative as the vehicle, public charging stations, and marketing
materials aligned with the new branding. ERMU received a grant from the American
Public Power Association which covered a portion of the costs for the EV initiative.This
initiative has received solid national attention because of the fleet assessment and the
time-of-use rate design for public charging stations.The success of this initiative lead
into a 2019 initiative to develop a program for EV charging stations at local businesses.
• Utilities Conference Room Technology Upgrade—Approved in the 2019 budget were
resources to update the technology primarily used for the commission meeting.The
increase in remote participation in meetings and the aging of the current equipment has
increased the priority to evaluate current and future needs and implement a solution
this year.This initiative had been delayed because of the setbacks in filling the budgeted
vacant OT Supervisor position.
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Theme 5: Growth—Assess the growth curve to make decisions regarding organizational change.
• Electric Service Territory Expansion Plan—Staff successfully developed and
implemented a plan to safely transfer 337 customers in Areas 5&6 per the 2015
Connexus electric service territory transfer agreement. The processes for these transfers
have become highly refined and efficient.The coordination and communication with
Connexus has exceeded all expectations making these transfer safer, quicker, and more
cost effective. Staff also successfully filed with the Minnesota Public Utilities
Commission (MPUC) a request to change the electric service territory boundaries to
reflect the 2017 transfer of Areas 3&4. Additionally, staff began working ahead on
system improvements to facilitate the transfer of Areas 7&8 in 2019.
• Field Services Expansion Plan &Site Preparation—Staff continued to plan for the future
field services expansion.The building construction is forecasted for 2023.The next sub-
initiative is the construction of a tempered storage building to be located on ERMU land
adjacent to ERMU's West Substation and the City Public Works Facility.This is budgeted
for construction in 2019.Then forecasted for 2020, site preparation work could begin at
the Field Service Facility which will include the relocation of the power plant substation,
electrical feeders, and other underground facilities.
• MnDOT HWY 10 bridge project—Staff successfully provided oversight to the new water
main installation to facilitate the bridge improvements. Staff also successfully relocated
electrical facilities as required for the project.
• Well #5 project-Staff successfully provided oversight to a complete rehabilitation to the
pressure filter at Well #5. Staff used the opportunity to update, repair, clean , and
perform general maintenance on the other water filtration and treatment facilities
within the Well #5 filter building while this well was off line.
• Well #8 control building project—Approved in the 2019 budget. Staff is working on bid
documents for this project to be constructed in 2019.
• Auburn Street Water Tower Rehabilitation —Approved in the 2019 budget.This project
will be overseen by staff in 2019.
Theme 6: Process, Measurement, and Financial Health—Improve processes and measurement
to better determine and report efficiency and effectiveness of organization and to ensure
financial and organizational health.
• Implementation of multi-cycle billing—The planning for this initiative was conducted in
2017 and then implemented in 2018. Although the initiative generated some negative
feedback from the community,the results were highly successfully.The implementation
of multi-cycle billing resulted in significant efficiency improvements and allowed ERMU
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the opportunity to reduce staffing levels through attrition.These saving contributed to
ERMU being in a position to lower rates in 2019.
• Front Counter Evaluation—This employee suggested initiative has been under
evaluation for a few years and was successfully implemented in late 2018.The work
involved fortifying the existing front counter and adding bullet proof glass on the
existing counter.The initiative was planned with multiple considerations in mind
including employee safety, customer friendliness, and cost. Staff did an outstanding job
maximizing employee safety, balancing with customer friendliness, and considering
value verses cost.The work was planned and performed with significant input from the
City of Elk River Building Maintenance Department, the Police Department, and the IT
Department.
• Office Furniture Evaluation—This employee suggested initiative was implemented in
conjunction with the front counter fortification.The initiative goal was to improve
employee safety at the front counter by improving sightlines through the office. A
secondary goal was to improve office work flow.This initiative was implemented using
existing office furniture and equipment for minimal cost.The City of Elk River Building
Maintenance Department and IT Department provided significant assistance in the
implementation.This success of this initiative lead to a new initiative to evaluate and
implement improvements to the accounting office area to improve working
environment and work flow.This new 2019 initiative should be able to be completed
with low to no cost impact and yield positive workspace improvement value.
• City of Elk River Local Option Sales Tax(LOST)—The successful referendum to create a
LOST has an operational and financial impact on ERMU because of our billing system.
The LOST will apply to some, but not all sales through ERMU.To implement this, ERMU
will need to work with our billing system provider to create custom software updates.
Staff has added this as a high priority 2019 initiative should the ER LOST be approved
through state legislation.
Review of the 2018 Annual Business Plan
The purpose of reviewing the 2018 Annual Business Plan is to evaluate the budget as a tool in
addition to performance. By evaluating the usefulness of the tool, staff will be better able to
provide monthly information and reports to help the commission evaluate the organization
health and direction. Understanding and exploring the areas of risk and sensitivity factors
improved the governing body's ability to set policy redirecting an organization toward the short
term and long term goals.The Annual Business Plan review should help the commission identify
areas of higher risk, evaluate options to mitigate risk, establish their comfort level with risk, and
help the commission clearly communicate expectation in handling the risk.
Overall Electric Utility performance for 2018 was strong. Unaudited financials indicate that
electric margins significantly outperformed budget ($1,045,274 budget, $2,898,258 actual). And
while revenue performance was higher than budgeted, the annual expenses were within
$15,765 on a $35,513,799 expense budget, 0.04%above budget for the year. Within the
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expense budget,there were areas where expenses were higher than budget and areas where
expenses were lower than budget. But overall, the expenses were controlled and met all
reasonable expectations for compliance with the budgeting goals.
Overall Water Utility performance for 2018 was also strong. Unaudited financial indicate that
water margins significantly outperformed budget (-$394,245 Budget, $830,069 Actual). Annual
water expenses were down by more than 10% ($2,971,960 Budget, $2,673,262 Actual).
An overview of 2018 budget verses actual (unaudited)for both electric and water is provide in
the attached summary.
While both electric and water performed well and as expected, there were a number of
reoccurring areas of discussion over the past year. Are there areas of opportunity to improve or
change reporting to provide usable data to appropriately evaluate these areas on a monthly
basis?Are those areas of discussion high risk or low risk?What are the triggers and sensitivities
for those areas of discussion that would cause concern? Staff looks for discussion on these
topics to improve and refine future Annual Business Plans and reports to better service the
commission in evaluating organizational health and leading the organization toward the future
vision and long term goals. Areas for discussion:
• Review budgeting and forecasting for 2018, challenges modeling growth.
• Review notable accounts like maintenance with tree trimming, WAC, PCAs, etc...
• Capital projects and equipment.
Summary
The Strategic Plan and the Annual Business Plan are long term and short term tools for the
commission to use in governing the organization, establishing policy to clearly communicate
goals, and helping the commission lead ERMU toward the organizational vision.These tools
should evolve with the commission's needs to effectively evaluate and govern. It is important to
annually discuss these tools for their function, separate from the review of the data they
contain.
The results and progress from the organization's 2018 initiatives were positive, and it is good to
recognize our successes. Does the commission have what they need to govern ERMU to
sustainable success?Are these tools providing the information the commission needs to
effectively evaluate the organization?Are these tools clearly identifying the areas of highest
risk enabling the commission to effectively monitor, evaluate, and take corrective action when
needed?Are these tools providing the information needed for the commission to effectively
lead the organization toward our mission and vision? Staff looks for commission discussion
regarding the 2018 results and for discussion regarding the effectiveness of the tools used to
provide the commission with meaningful and timely information.
ATTACHMENTS:
• ERMU Mission/Vision/Fundamentals/Values/Themes
• ERMU 2018 Overview Summary of Budget vs Actual (Unaudited)
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Elk River Municipal Utilities
OUR OUR
MISSION VALUES
To provide our customers with safe,reliable,
cost-effective and quality long-term electric INTEGRITY
and water utility services.To communicate Honest,accountable and
and educate our customers in the use of united in all that we do.
utility services,programs,policies and
future plans.These products and services
will be provided in an environmentally and QUALITY
financially responsible manner. Services that reflect excellence,
dependability and expertise.
OUR
VISION COMMUNICATION
Respectful and engaged interactions
Provide exceptional services and that are timely and clear.
value to those we serve.
SAFETY
OUR 0 A culture that protects our
FUNDAMENTALS customers,employees,and assets.
Safety, Reliability and Quality of Utility Services.
Customer Service and Employee Development. COMPETITIVE
Competitive Rates,and Financial and Provide the best value for the
Organizational Health. services we deliver.
ERMUMN.COM I 763.441.2020 I 13069 ORONO PARKWAY I PO BOX 430 I ELK RIVER, MN 55330-0430
:1
Elk River -�-^
Municipal Utilities
OUR
PLANNING THEMES
THEME 1 I COMMUNICATION
Improve the effectiveness of our communications inside the organization,with our customers
and with the community.
THEME 2 I PERSONNEL AND GOVERNANCE
Develop our most valuable and vulnerable assets-our commissioners,employees,leaders,
and future leaders.
THEME 3 I STRATEGIC THINKING
Create a culture of strategic thinking and ensure line of sight from mission to vision.
THEME 4 I TECHNOLOGY
Implement the prudent use of technology to improve efficiency and increase customer choice,
communication and value.
THEME 5 I GROWTH
Assess the growth curve to make decisions regarding organizational change.
THEME 6 I PROCESS, MEASUREMENT AND FINANCIAL HEALTH
Improve processes and measurement to better determine and report efficiency and effectiveness
of organization and to ensure financial and organizational health.
ERMUMN.COM I 763.441.2020 I 13069 ORONO PARKWAY I PO BOX 430 I ELK RIVER, MN 55330-0430
ELK RIVER MUNICIPAL UTILITIES
SUMMARY OF YEAR 2018
BUDGET vs ACTUAL(UNAUDITED)
ELECTRIC BUDGET SUMMARY 2018 Budget 2018 Actual
ELECTRIC REVENUE $ 37,952,480 $ 39,831,783
ELECTRIC EXPENDITURES (36,907,205) (36,933,521)
ELECTRIC NET FOR CAPITAL 1,045,275 2.75% 2,898,262 7.28%
DEBT RETIREMENT (720,000) (720,000)
PROMISSORY NOTE TO COUNTY (198,252) (198,474)
MMPA BONDING (708,778)
LESS DEBT PRINCIPAL PMTS 127,023 1,271,010
CAPITAL EQUIPMENT/CONSTRUCTION (3,143,817) (2,762,082)
FUND FROM RESERVES 350,000 * Area 5&6 Plant 308,482 *
511,117 * Area 1&2 Loss Rev 570,725 *
NET (2,155,677) (611,865)
DEPRECIATION 2,183,821 2,297,348
NET TO RESERVES 28,144 * 1,685,483 *
WATER BUDGET SUMMARY 2018 Budget 2018 Actual
WATER REVENUE $ 2,588,215 $ 3,503,331
WATER EXPENDITURES (2,982,460) (2,673,262)
WATER NET FOR CAPITAL (394,245) -15.23% 830,069 23.69%
DEBT RETIREMENT (255,000) (255,000)
GROSS (649,245) 575,069
CAPITAL PROJECTS (559,800) (197,309)
FUND FROM RESERVES
FUND FROM WATER TRUNK FUND
BONDING - -
NET (1,209,045) 377,760
DEPRECIATION 1,228,866 1,193,745
NET TO RESERVES 19,821 * 1,571,505 *
*Currently,target reserves are met.
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