Board Members present: Sandra Bishop, Vice President; Dorothy Anderson; Susie Smith, Patrick Lanning. Commissioner Peter Bartel was excused.
Others present: Randy Berggren, JoAnn Andersen, Dean Ahlsten, Deborrah Brewer, Ken Beeson, Dick Helgeson, Cathy Hamilton, Mat Northway, Mark Oberle, Jim Origliosso, Dick Varner, Jim Wiley, and Krista Hince of the EWEB staff; and Joe Sams, City of Eugene Minutes Recorder.
President Bishop called the Regular Board Meeting of the Eugene Water & Electric Board (EWEB) to order.
AGENDA CHECK
There were no additions to the agenda.
APPROVAL OF CONSENT CALENDAR
President Bishop noted that the Consent Calendar included the following items:
Commissioner Smith pulled item Number 4 for further discussion.
Vice President Anderson pulled item Number 3 for further discussion.
Vice President Anderson offered a correction to the October 3, Work Session minutes. She noted that the word "vice" needed to be removed from the first line.
Vice President Anderson, seconded by Commissioner Smith, moved to approve the minutes of October 3, Work Session, (as amended), the Regular Board Meeting minutes of October 3, and number 2 on the consent calendar items. The motion passed unanimously.
CORRESPONDENCE
General Manager Randy Berggren reported that EWEB had completed its Forward Power Sale on the previous Monday. He noted that a summary memo would be distributed with more information.
Mr. Berggren reported that there had been a dedication and renaming of Water Board Park for Lloyd Knox on the previous Saturday. He complimented that the event went very well and expressed his pleasure in his association of the event. He noted that approximately 200 people attended. He thanked the Board for its timely response to the desires of the community.
Mr. Berggren reported that there were public meetings scheduled for November 16 at Clear Lake Elementary School, and the November 30 date is at Irving Elementary School. He noted that there would also be a public meeting, for interested parties, regarding EWEB's proposal to eliminate the electric revenue allowance investment credit that would also be held on November 30.
Mr. Berggren reported that Judy Johansson, BPA Administrator had resigned from Bonneville. He noted that Mr. Steve Wright would move into her position for the interim.
Mr. Berggren announced that there would be an update sent to the City Council regarding telecommunications right-of-way.
Mr. Berggren reported that EWEB had received a 10-year recognition award from the wind research cooperative.
ITEMS FROM BOARD MEMBERS
President Bishop reiterated Mr. Berggren's comments about the Lloyd Knox park dedication. She said that it was a great event and complimented staff for their work.
President Bishop expressed her pleasure that the content question was addressed in the telecommunications news letter.
PUBLIC INPUT
Mike Gleason, Fair Board Manager. "I wanted to come before the Board, not only to praise your staff, I know that, being in the role that you're in you don't get praise very often, but the strategies you have implemented over the years, and to give you some specific examples. It's nice to hear praise but I think it also helps to validate some of the strategies that you are implementing which I think are very foresighted but have actually impacted our city quite dramatically.
"About three years ago, I sat down with Randy and described this horror story about the electric facility over at the fairgrounds. We're one of your key account users--we use quite a bit of electricity and the system was...there are parts of the system that are 50 - 60 years old. We were trying to re-wire it and re-arrange it and trying to make it work correctly and, in fact, we had a 5000 amp station go to ground when someone was working on it and it came very close to killing the person. The room literally had a dirt floor. It was quite dramatic when it happened.
"Randy sat down and gave me some good advice...although the advice about having horses to make methane didn't work (general laughter). So Steve Hill, one of your key account managers, started working with us, just absolutely in the most graceful and tenacious way, and along with Will Price and many other people in your staff, we started walking through the 350,000 square feet of building we have there and working on the various dilemmas, not the least of which is the compressors in the ice arena and all manner of things.
"The short of the long is that after all of this work and substantial investment, from EWEB, not only in time but in knowledge, we will, literally, be using less than 50% of the electricity we would have been using.
"As equally important to that is that we have a safe installation and we have a working partnership where your staff and institution is using our facility to communicate with the public, not only some of the activities we're taking on, but other activities within your purview. To give you a specific example, one of the suggestions Steve made was to pull all of the fuses through one meter. That was quite a little piece of work and we ended up with 10 or 15 meter cans. Steve suggested wiring all of them together so that they could be read on a computer file. Well that's what we did, and I thought well...I don't know if this will help us, but the staff got into it and pretty soon they were asking why this was going up and this was going down and they were calling Will and Will is doing some math work and pretty soon we figure out that the adjustments, on a very fine level of detail that I could never figure out, but the compressors that make ice, which use about $60,000 of electricity a year, are very affected by the dehumidifiers that we have, and how that relates to the ambient air temperature and the over all humidity. So they ended up figuring out that they could shave off a $12,000 or $13,000 solution by just the communication that was going on.
"I am impressed by knowing how much that effects your ability to make rational choices in the future about facility purchases as well as energy purchases and, frankly, some sales that you have made. I think we are just starting down this path. We are probably going to be a part of the educational program you've discussed. We are moving the Lane ESD Planetarium on to the facility. It will not only be a planetarium, it will be a site location for the instruction and accreditation around science and other activities for the schools and Lane ESD itself will be connected with that.
"But excitingly, because we will be an observatory we will probably be able to see real time Hubble Telescope scenes from the observatory coming through your link, probably, and showing up on the screen.
"Anyway I went on too long... I just wanted to tell you I am very impressed by your strategy and impressed by your delivery and I am impressed by your staff. I mean what industry would figure out a way for us to save $50,000+ and give us the money to do it. I understand how it is supposed to end up in the end but I am very impressed, particularly because Bonneville and the rest of them have run away from this topic. This was a fine piece of work and excellent staff work."
2001 TROJAN BUDGET
Ken Beeson, Telecommunications Project Manager, asked for approval of the 2001 operating budget and the final operating budget for 2000. He noted that he had sent out written material with information on the subject.
Vice President Anderson, seconded by Mr. Lanning, moved to approve the 2001 budget and the revised final 2000 budget. The motion passed unanimously.
2001 BUDGET AND WORK PLAN
Dick Varner, Fiscal Services Supervisor, provided a presentation to the Board on the budget and work plan. He noted that he was asking for an exception to the balanced budget policy because they were pulling money from reserves from a Forward Sale and would not have positive net revenue and EWEB's slice for debt service coverage calculations did not get calculated as an operating expense because it was a "financing contract." He noted that there was still plenty of debt service coverage to meet bond covenants.
In response to a question from Commissioner Smith regarding whether the debt service ratio could be quantified, Mr. Varner said that the debt service coverage dropped from approximately 3 to 2.
In response to a question from Commissioner Lanning regarding a reference to telecommunications under the electricity budget, Mr. Varner said that telecommunications was still under the electric umbrella. Mr. Berggren added that electric utility revenues were pledged as part of the bond sale because it was tied into all of the substations.
NET METERING POLICY
Dean Ahlsten, Electric Engineering Manager, came before the Board to seek approval of the net metering facilities. He said that the policy was in direct response to legislation that came out in the last year. He went over the criteria for a facility to qualify. He said that the intent of the metering policy was to encourage development.
Vice President Anderson, seconded by Commissioner Smith, moved adoption of the net metering policy. The motion passed unanimously.
SURPLUS PROPERTY DECLARATION - A PORTION OF WILLAMETTE 1150 RESERVOIR PROPERTY
Mark Oberle, Property Manager, provided a presentation on the request for surplus declaration. He said that the first step or a future land exchange was to declare the parts of the property that EWEB did not need as surplus. He said that the reservoir was in the center to the south side of the property and the property west and north of the reservoir was not needed except for a few easements.
Mr. Oberle said that the purpose of the future exchange was to acquire property south of the current property line and dispose of unnecessary property north and west of the reservoir.
In response to a question from Commissioner Smith regarding the criteria for a declaration of surplus land, Mr. Oberle said that all the criteria had been met.
Vice President Anderson, seconded by Commissioner Lanning, moved to declare the land in question as surplus. The motion passed unanimously.
2001-05 RIGHT-OF-WAY VEGETATION MANAGEMENT
Jim Wiley, Director of Electric Operations, said that there would be public service announcements around trees and power lines, released periodically, emphasizing public safety.
Regarding compliance with code standards, Mr. Wiley said that EWEB would need 14 tree trimming crews to comply with the standard within one year and added that 10 crews would be needed to maintain that standard.
Mr. Wiley said that the purpose of the proposed resolution was to show EWEB's strong commitment to public safety by keeping trees trimmed in its right-of-ways.
Vice President Anderson, seconded by Commissioner Smith, moved approval of the resolution. The motion passed unanimously.
President Bishop said that she would help with the resolution in whatever way she could.
UPDATE ON MASTER PLAN
Deborah Brewer, Intergovernmental Affairs Coordinator, provided an over view of how the Master Plan, the Greater Downtown Vision, and the proposed new Federal Court house complimented each other.
Vice President Anderson expressed a hope that the City Council would allow EWEB to make comments before it when they approved the Downtown Visioning document on November 15.
President Bishop stressed the need for a clear statement, from EWEB, about its position on the Downtown Visioning document. There was discussion of presenting a letter to the City Council. President Bishop stressed the importance of EWEB not appearing as a partner in the process and not being viewed as buying off on its ideas.
In response to a question from President Bishop regarding what the nature of the Downtown visioning document, Ms. Brewer said that the document was not legally binding and only held conceptual ideas. She added that one of the concepts was to connect downtown to the river which would be done by going through EWEB property.
Commissioner Smith reiterated Vice President Anderson's statement and raised concern that the visioning process represented momentum that somehow looked like it had EWEB's approval.
Vice President Anderson said that EWEB was going to stay where it was and that the sooner that was realized by the City the better. She said that the letter could be written in a cooperative spirit that acknowledged the Downtown Visioning document and would express a willingness to accommodate the ideas expressed however possible but reiterated that EWEB would not be moving its location.
Commissioner Smith suggested that the letter to the City Council make a statement about EWEB's importance in Eugene's history and mention EWEB's master plan goals. She added that the letter should mention that EWEB's master plan was not done without consideration of the Downtown Visioning document and had come to the conclusion that moving the EWEB site did not appear feasible. She stressed the importance of stating that EWEB was not consenting to a redevelopment concept of its property.
President Bishop reiterated concern that EWEB would be listed as a partner in the Downtown Visioning document and be viewed as approving of its contents.
Vice President Anderson volunteered to draft a letter to the City Council.
ITEMS FROM CONSENT CALENDAR
Item 4: Commissioner Smith raised concern over the amount of money involved in the item and called for a full staff memo and presentation of the item. There was general consensus to postpone the item to another meeting.
Item 3: After a minor clarification, Vice President Anderson, seconded by Commissioner Lanning, moved to approve item 3 of the consent calendar. The motion passed unanimously.
The meeting adjourned at 9:45 p.m.
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Assistant Secretary President