Board Members present: Dorothy Anderson, Peter Bartel, Susie Smith, Patrick Lanning, and Sandra Bishop.
Others present: Dick Helgeson, JoAnn Andersen, Tom Buckhouse, Dick Helgeson, Roseanna McArthur, Jim Origliosso, Lance Robertson, Scott Spettel, Brenda Sirois, Dick Varner, Jim Wiley, and Krista Hince of the EWEB staff; and Joe Sams, City of Eugene Minutes Recorder.
AGENDA CHECK
There were no changes to the agenda.
CONSENT CALENDAR
1. Minutes of June 19, 2001, Work Session and Regular Session
2. Oregon Environmental Council - 2001/2002 Forums for Business and the Environment - General Manager's Division - $2,500.
Business Service Agreements
3. Cable Huston Benedict Haagensen and Lloyd - Legal Services for Leaburg - Walterville Relicensing - Electric Division - $25,000.
4. Gail Greely - Leaburg-Walterville Relicensing - Electric Division - $35,000.
Load Curtailment Contracts
5. Companies that have changed participation in the load curtailment program:
Commissioner Smith pulled the June 19, 2001, Work Session and Regular Board Meeting minutes.
Commissioner Bishop, seconded by Commissioner Lanning, moved to approve the remaining items on the Consent Calendar. The motion passed unanimously.
ITEMS FROM BOARD MEMBERS
Commissioner Bishop mentioned an article in The Register Guard regarding the settlement of a lawsuit by the City of Eugene for $3.95 million. She noted that most of the money came from
the facilities fund. She stressed the importance of proceeding quickly with the Board's proposal to the City Council. She suggested forming a subcommittee and volunteered to work on it herself.
Commissioner Bishop reported that Bill Sizemore was starting an initiative that would prevent the issuing of General Obligation bonds and suggested that EWEB take a proactive action in lobbying the legislature.
Commissioner Smith noted that EWEB did not issue General Obligation bonds.
In response to a request for an updated employees handbook from Commissioner Bishop, Commissioner Smith noted that the information was available on-line.
Commissioner Bishop raised concern that a letter had been sent regarding EWEB's telecommunications project by a single Board member that was not the president and stressed the need for Board approval on all important letters.
Commissioner Bishop noted that there was a memorandum on conflict of interest that was included in the Board's meeting packet. She called for a discussion of the meaning of the memo and opined that she thought that it was triggered by the fact that she had, a month or two previously, announced a potential conflict of interest. She stressed that she did not, in any way, have a conflict of interest or a potential conflict of interest and added that she was just trying to get on the record that she had some contractual involvement with the business associations being discussed. She said that she wanted an explanation of memos in the future.
Commissioner Bishop called for an update on the City Charter review process and stressed taking a proactive stance in communicating with the Charter Review Committee.
In response to a question from President Anderson regarding a letter received from a customer expressing concern over rate increases, Joanne Andersen said that the customer was concerned over rates in general and was not unable to pay his own bill. She noted that the customer in question had an excellent bill rating.
Commissioner Smith said that the letter raised an issue of how well the utility communicated with customers about low income programs.
In response to a concern from Commissioner Lanning over the cost of televising Board meetings on the public access channel, Commissioner Smith noted that it would be an effective way to reach the public with information on issues the Board was addressing. Roseanna McArthur, Director of Corporate Services, suggested that the item be discussed at the next goals/strategies session.
Commissioner Lanning said that he had received a call from a concerned community member over the proposed use of a tiered rate billing system. He stated, for the record, that the Board had not made a final decision to use tiered rates.
CORRESPONDENCE
Dick Helgeson, Acting in the Absence of the General Manger, reported that staff felt the public hearing on telecommunications had gone very well and appreciated the Board's participation.
Mr. Helgeson noted that Hynix Corporation was going to shut down its Eugene facility for six months to install new equipment. He said that there would be less water and electric use for that amount of time and added that he would keep the Board posted on new information.
Mr. Helgeson encouraged the Board to speak with Marty Douglas if they had any questions regarding the Contributions-in-lieu-of-tax issue and low income concerns.
Mr. Helgeson reminded the Board that their raft trip was scheduled for the upcoming Friday.
Mr. Helgeson noted that the next goals/strategies meeting was on July 23, and would run for four hours.
Mr. Helgeson reported that the next Regular Board Meeting had been postponed until August 14, to insure that there would be a quorum of Board members attending.
Mr. Helgeson reported that there were two open houses scheduled for August 1, from 3-5 p.m. and from 5:30-7:30 p.m. that would provide information to the public on the water shortage contingency plan. He said the first meeting would be with the utility's larger customers and the second meeting was for a more broad section of the public.
PUBLIC INPUT
There were no members of the public wishing to speak.
BORROWING AUTHORITY FOR POWER SUPPLY
Jim Origliosso, Treasurer, said that the meeting packet contained a copy of the proposed resolution. He said that the issue had taken on more urgency due to the refund issue discussed earlier.
Commissioner Bishop, seconded by Commissioner Smith, moved to adopt the resolution as recommended by staff. The motion passed unanimously.
PRIEST RAPIDS & WANAPUM RESOURCE - CONTRACT RENEWAL
Scott Spettel, Power Management and Planning Manager, noted that the situation had become more complicated and asked for Board direction in terms of what information and direction the utility should take over the next month regarding EWEB's shares in the Priest Rapids and Wanapum Hydro Electric facilities.
Mr. Spettel provided an overhead presentation reviewing the history of the contracts. He said that the benefits of the project had skyrocketed over the recent years. He said that the current costs of the projects were on the order of $6 a megawatt hour for Priest Rapids and $8 a megawatt hour for Wanapum. He noted that this was substantially below market cost and added that even if the costs doubled in a new contract the projects would still have substantial value to the utility.
Commissioner Smith commented that the costs could triple and still be a good investment.
Mr. Spettel stressed that the projects were a long term and low cost hydroelectric renewable investment.
Mr. Spettel said that the license for Priest Rapids expired in 2005, and 2009 for Wanapum. He noted that the licensee would get 70 percent of the capability of the projects and the remaining 30 percent had to be marketed to regional participants pursuant to market principles. He said that the utility would get less power than it received currently for more money, but it was still a better deal than going to market.
Mr. Spettel reported that the Yakima Tribe, in cooperation with PacifiCorp had submitted a competitive license application for the projects. He said that the Yakima Tribe would take the lead in developing environmental and cultural measures for the projects and PacifiCorp would take the lead in the power management aspect of the projects. He said that they had offered the opportunity to purchase power, at cost, to EWEB and four other utilities.
In response to a question from Commissioner Smith regarding why they had made that offer to EWEB, Mr. Spettel said that they had said it was because of EWEB's good relationship with PacifiCorp, EWEB's reputation of making good business decisions, and a strong environmental reputation in decision making.
Mr. Spettel said that, in order for them to submit a strong application, they needed to have a broad distribution of public benefits. He opined that they would like to have an Oregon utility to make the public benefit seem even more broad. He said that they would allow EWEB to hold on to its existing shares at the eventual cost.
Mr. Spettel outlined the choices that the Board could choose;
Mr. Spettel noted that if a signed contract offer was not submitted to Grant by September, then they would interpret that as waiving EWEB's right to first refusal. He added that part of the contract would be that EWEB had to support their license application. He asked for feedback from the Board over the next month.
Commissioner Bishop stressed the need to know whether there were any more license competitors.
Commissioner Smith said that she was intrigued by a deal with PacifiCorp and interested in the potential pursuit of one.
President Anderson expressed her interest in a deal with PacifiCorp but stressed the need to know potential losses before pursuing a deal.
Commissioner Lanning called for a summary of staff's best opinion on the issue.
PROPOSED NEW LARGE SINGLE LOAD POLICY CHANGE
Mr. Spettel said that the item was a regional policy issue that the Board needed to provide input on. He noted that EWEB's two largest customers could be impacted by the policy and that their interests could differ from the customer base at large. He said that Bonneville Power Administration, (BPA), was proposing to make three clarifications in its policy;
Mr. Spettel called for input from the Board on the staff positions as outlined in the meeting packet.
There was general consensus to follow staff's positions on the issues.
ITEMS REMOVED FROM THE CONSENT CALENDAR
1. Minutes corrections as summarized by Commissioners:
Commissioner Smith had changes on the June 19, 2001 Work Session minutes:
Page 4, paragraph 1, second sentence: Include "not" after the word "refer" so it would read: Mr. Berggren said that there would have to be some notification, but would prefer not to have the notification built into the plan.
Page 6, last paragraph, 4th sentence: change the word "Committee" to "Commission" so it would read: Once the relicensing agreement was sent to the Federal Energy Regulatory (Committee) Commission (FERC), FERC would ...
On the June 19, 2001 Regular Board Meeting minutes, there were several changes:
Commissioner Bishop:
Page 1, 5th paragraph, 1st sentence, change "Norris" to "Lawrence Street"
President Anderson:
Page 2, first paragraph under Items From Board Members, second sentence: She said the tour stopped at Helfrich Landing, Eagle Rock Lodge, Leaburg Lake, and Gossler Farms.
Commissioner Smith:
Page 3, 1st paragraph, 1st sentence: Change the name "Noel" to "Mel"
Page 3, 1st paragraph, add at the end of the paragraph: "It was agreed by the Board that a letter from the Board would be sent to Mr. Erikson clarifying the load curtailment agreement."
Commissioner Bishop:
Page 3, 5th paragraph, add at the end of the 1st sentence: "In response to a concern expressed by Commissioner Bishop, Mr. Berggren suggested that Board Members should call dispatch or they could call the Board room directly when delayed or were unable to attend a Board meeting.
Page 3, last paragraph: Change it to read: (President Anderson) Commissioner Lanning and Commissioner Bishop requested (that a presentation be given) a meeting with staff on this topic and Mr. Berggren agreed to (queue) set it up.
Commissioner Bishop:
Page 4, 1st paragraph: "Mr. Berggren noted that long time employee and historian Bill Eaton had passed away and commended the work he had done as the curator of the EWEB museum of electrical history.
Commissioner Smith:
Page 5, 1st paragraph: Commissioner Smith encouraged (staff to have an elevated manner to respond to complaints so as to) to ensure that follow-up enforcement on a complaint basis occurred in order to voluntarily be effective. Mr. Damewood said that this program would largely rely on the good will of the customer.
Commissioner Bishop
Page 5, 2nd paragraph, add at the end of 1st sentence: Commissioner Bishop questioned the need to convene the Board in an emergency situation. Commissioner Bishop stressed the importance of timely communication with Board members during a crisis, but felt emergency action was appropriate when left to staff under the guidelines of detailed emergency plans.
Page 7, 8th paragraph, replace the first sentence to read: Commissioner Bishop expressed concern about the timing of the Telecom Technology consulting contract. Her concern was that a contract was being put into place before the Board made a decision whether or not to further expand the EWEB Telecommunications infrastructure. Mr. Berggren said that it was not uncommon to proceed in this manner.
Commissioner Bishop, seconded by Commissioner Lanning, moved to accept the minutes of June 19, 2001, Work Session and Regular Board meeting as amended. The motion passed unanimously.
The meeting adjourned at 8:40 p.m.
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Assistant Secretary President