2.2 ERMU MINUTES 08-12-2014ELK RIVER MUNICIPAL UTILITIES
SPECIAL MEETING OF THE
UTILITIES COMMISSION
HELD AT UTILITIES CONFERENCE ROOM
July 15, 2014
Members Present: John Dietz, Chair; Daryl Thompson, Trustee
Members Absent: Al Nadeau, Vice Chair
ERMU Staff Present: Troy Adams, General Manager;
Theresa Slominski, Finance and Office Manager;
Mark Fuchs, Line Superintendent;
Eric Volk, Water Superintendent;
Wade Lovelette, Technical Services Superintendent;
Tom Sagstetter, Conservation & Key Accounts Manager;
Michelle Canterbury, Executive Administrative Assistant
Others Present: None
1.0 CALL MEETING TO ORDER
John Dietz called the July 15, 2014 meeting to order at 3:30 p.m.
1.1 Pledee of Alledance
The Pledge of Allegiance was recited.
1.2 Consider Utilities Aeenda
There were no questions on the agenda.
Daryl Thompson moved to approve the July 15, 2014 Utilities agenda. John Dietz seconded the
motion. Motion carried 2-0.
2.0 CONSENT AGENDA (Approved By One Motion)
John Dietz had a few questions on the financials and the insurance renewal. Staff responded.
Daryl Thompson moved to approve the Consent Agenda as follows:
2.1 June Check Register
2.2 June 10, 2014 Previous Meeting Minutes
2.3 Financial Statements
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2.4 Renewal Premium for LMCIT Property/Casualty Insurance
John Dietz seconded the motion. Motion carried 2-0.
3.0 OPEN MIC
No one appeared for open mic.
4.0 OLD BUSINESS
There is no old business.
5.0 NEW BUSINESS
5.1 Second Ouarter Delinquent Items
Theresa Slominski presented the delinquent items for the second quarter. Our budgeted
amount for collections and write-offs are $105,000 or .32% Uncollectible Accounts per Revenue
Dollar. According to the American Public Power Association's most recent published standard
ratios (2012), the industry standard is between .10% and .41%. Our write-offs for the year are
well below the standard, at a total of $12,225.08 or .035%. Theresa also included a color -coded
recap comparison with last year, identifying the various categories and running totals. The
commissioners had a few questions. Staff responded.
Daryl Thompson made a motion to accept the 2014 second quarter delinquent items. John
Dietz seconded the motion. Motion carried 2-0.
5.2 2014 American Public Power Association National Conference Update
Troy Adams summarized on some of the top topics from the 2014 American Public
Power Association (APPA) National Conference that he and Al Nadeau attended. The
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ruling on Proposed Carbon Dioxide Emissions
Guidelines for Existing Fossil Fuel -Fired Power Plants is going to cause rates to go up. There
will be a comment period before the rule goes into effect, and through MMUA we'll participate
in those comments to try to lessen the impact the best we can. The rule will go into effect
sometime in 2015 and will be phased in over the next 15 years. Another major discussion point
was cyber and physical security. Staff has discussed these presentations with City IT and will
look to propose policies and adopt practices to better protect our customers from cyber and
physical attacks. Based on the seminar that Al Nadeau just attended on governance, and from
what Troy has been told would be helpful, staff is working on coming up with some type of
Commissioner 101 book. Based on the MMUA manual, staff is working on developing an
ERMU Commission Handbook for the Commission to consider for adoption. This handbook
should help new and existing Commissioners be informed on their fiduciary responsibilities and
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legal requirements for things like conflicts of interest, open meeting law, and data practices. The
draft of this handbook is currently being reviewed by Peter Beck. We'll bring the draft back next
month to the Commission requesting feedback to help develop a handbook for consideration by
the Commission. John Dietz shared that they had a similar discussion on the city council level,
he expressed to the staff that there have been people on other boards and commissions that would
like more training on what the expectations are. Next year, the APPA will hold their National
Conference June 5`h — 10 h in Minneapolis, MN.
6.0 OTHER BUSINESS
There was no other business.
6.1 Staff Updates
Troy Adams added that National Night Out is coming up on Tuesday, August 5`h. John Dietz
and Daryl Thompson will be going out and participating in the event. Rick Schaust our Security
Technician will be involved as well. Troy Adams addressed Daryl Thompson's inquiry on where we
were at with the printing bids. Due to employee transitions we've not yet had a chance to get back to
the printing bids. With the NISC conversion a lot of the printing costs will be eliminated as envelopes
and bill stock will be done through them. We'll be down to bill stuffers, the Connector, and maybe
some brochures. Troy would like to schedule a date with the Wage and Benefit Committee, sometime
in July or August, to talk about positions and take a fust stab at pay equity.
Theresa Slominski gave an update on PCA's that we'll be getting in July's bill; it will be
another $12,000. We'll be passing 2 mils along to our customers on the bills that go out this month.
Daryl Thompson asked if we had any irate customers. Tom Sagstetter responded that the ones he's
dealt with were not irate, just unhappy. With the larger customers the PCA's can cause a huge swing
that they haven't budgeted for. He's been proactive and once he gets the mil rate from Theresa for the
upcoming month, he communicates that to those customers so it's not just showing up in their bill
unannounced. Tom said that people really do appreciate the fact that we had $500,000 set aside, and
tried to prevent them from taking on all of the costs.
Mark Fuchs said they had some weather related outages. Last week we received notice from
the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that stated they would be sending someone out from the
Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) to do an inspection at the storage shed at our
substation. The MPCA was here yesterday to conduct the inspection. They were here more for
compliance versus enforcement. One thing they look at is if the transformers being stored there
contain Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCB's). Mark shared that our documentation was pretty good but
there were a few things that were missing. At this point we're not sure if there will be any fines
associated with it. The EPA will be sending a report to Commission Chair John Dietz. Mark wanted
the commission to know that Mike Thiry had just gone to a class on this and had already begun
implementing changes at the site based on what he had learned. John Dietz had a question on how
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long we keep bad transformers. Staff responded that we have a year to dispose of them. We're
working towards getting them completely out of the system.
Wade Lovelette said that the Sherburne County Parade is Saturday morning and we're going
to have a truck in the parade. John Dietz had a few questions about the CMMPA meeting that Wade
attended. Staff responded.
Eric Volk wanted to add that he invited MPCA to come out and take a look at our cooling
pond to make sure we're in compliance. MPCA came out and did a courtesy inspection and we're in
compliance. Eric explained a little more about the missing curb stop ties Pete Neilsen has been
working on. It's a daunting task that involves going through every single account, finding out which
ones are missing, driving out to the house, finding the curb stop, measuring the curb stop, and
recording it in our curb stop catalog. An update on the private hydrant program was given and a
picture of a hydrant that had been serviced was provided. The commissioners had a few additional
questions on the hydrants. Staff responded. There was some graffiti on the Jackson Street water
tower that Eric and Mike Langer covered up with paint. John Dietz mentioned that he could check
with the city to see where they are at with filing for a grant for the water tower.
Tom Sagstetter had nothing additional to add. John Dietz asked if we ever resolved our
territory situation with Wright Hennepin. Tom sent something over to them last week and we're still
waiting to hear back from them.
6.2 Set Date for Next Meeting
The next regularly scheduled Commission meeting will be on August 12, 2014.
The Commission recessed the regular meeting at 4:02 p.m.
6.3 Closing of Meeting: "Meeting to be Closed pursuant to MN Statute 13D.05. Subd.
3(c)(3) to develop or consider offers or counteroffers for the purchase or sale of real
or personal property."
a. Call Closed Session to Order
b. Discussion
c. Adiourn Closed Session
6.4 Adjourn Regular Meeting
Daryl Thompson moved to adjourn the regular meeting of the Elk River Municipal
Utilities Commission at 4:12 p.m. John Dietz seconded the motion. Motion carried 2-0.
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Minutes prepared by Michelle Canterbury.
John J. Dietz
Chair, ERMU Commission
Tina Allard
City Clerk
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