Board Members present: Dorothy Anderson, Susie Smith, and Sandra Bishop. Vice President Peter Bartel and Commissioner Patrick Lanning were excused.
Others present: Randy Berggren JoAnn Andersen, Tom Buckhouse, Deborrah Brewer, Ken Beeson, Chuck Dalton, Marty Douglass, Mike Logan, Dick Helgeson, Mat Northway, Jim Origliosso, Roseanna McArthur, Lance Robertson, Jim Wiley, Dick Varner, and Krista Hince of the EWEB staff; Joe Sams, City of Eugene Minutes Recorder, Scott Maben, Register-Guard, and members of the public.
AGENDA CHECK
President Anderson called the meeting to order. There were no changes to the agenda.
CONSENT CALENDAR
1. Minutes of August 21, 2001, Work Session, September 25, 2001, Special Session, October 16, 2001, Special Session
Business Service Agreements
2. E.D. Hovee & Company - Economic Analysis for EWEB Master Plan - $30,000
3. Preferred Aerial & Crane Technology - Areal Inspections - Shop - Facilities Services - $40,500 for a five-year renewable contract
4. Tyndale Company, Inc. - Fire Retardent Clothing - Electric Operations - Electric Division - $20,000 for a five-year renewable contract
5. R.W. Beck - EMT Development - Corporate Services - $12,000
Budget Amendment
6. Budget Amendment No. 8 - Residential and Business DSM Resource Programs - Energy Management Services - Customer Services Division - 581,222
Item 5 was eliminated from the consent calendar.
Commissioner Smith pulled the minutes of August 21, and the September 25, Special meeting.
Commissioner Smith, seconded by Commissioner Bishop, moved to approve the remaining items on the consent calendar. The motion passed unanimously.
ITEMS FROM BOARD MEMBERS
Commissioner Anderson suggested an op ed/response to a letter to the editor in the Register Guard regarding the rate increase and low income energy assistance.
Commissioner Smith stressed the need for the utility to be clear about its rates and have accurate information circulated about the utility's policies.
In response to a question from Commissioner Bishop regarding when Metro Television coverage would begin for Board meetings, Mr. Douglas said coverage was set for January.
President Anderson suggested scheduling a work session item around news coverage of EWEB.
CORRESPONDENCE
General Manager Randy Berggren noted there had been power outages due to the weather in the previous few days.
Mr. Berggren said there would be an upcoming update on the Wanapa project.
Mr. Berggren said there was a public hearing on the 2002 budget scheduled for the next regular Board meeting.
PUBLIC INPUT
Bob Cassidy, EWEB customer, expressed concern over the loss of money on power reserves. He said there was a perception that conservation efforts were actually causing rates to go up.
Mr. Berggren clarified that the power purchased on the open market was to replace lost generation due to the drought. He said the prices paid were due to the simultaneous energy crisis going on. He stressed that conservation efforts were very beneficial to the community.
2002 WORK PLAN & BUDGET
Dick Varner, Fiscal Services Supervisor, provided a presentation on the 2002 budget proposal. The presentation topics included:
In response to a question from Commissioner Smith regarding the decreased electric use assumption, Mr. Varner noted that the primary decrease was coming from Weyerhaeuser who were shutting down their No. 1 paper machine.
In response to a question from Commissioner Bishop regarding electric utility costs, Mr. Varner said staff were operating under an assumption of payment of debts and establishing an operating reserve in 24 months.
In response to a question from President Anderson regarding when budget approval action was needed, Mr. Varner noted there was another public hearing scheduled for December 4, and added that Board action was needed before the end of the year.
PUBLIC HEARING ON 2002 WORK PLAN AND BUDGET
President Anderson opened the public hearing. Seeing no one wishing to speak, she closed the public hearing and moved the meeting on to the next agenda item.
TROJAN ANNUAL BUDGET
Charles Dalton, Customer Relations Manager, called attention to the proposal included in the meeting packet. He said his proposal would serve 8000 low income households of the approximately 16,000 in the utility's service territory.
Mr. Dalton thanked Libby Henry, EWEB's Legislative Representative and President Anderson for bringing the need for LEAP emergency funds to the attention of congress in Washington, DC. He said it was due to their efforts that there was now action on that issue.
Mr. Dalton said four programs would be funded by his proposal:
Mr. Dalton said the energy share program was being changed by increasing the number of households served. He showed a graph of Energy Share projections for the upcoming year.
Mr. Dalton said he was requesting a transfer of some Universal Service Plan funds to Energy Share and to start using new level of assistance guidelines after the budget hearing in December.
Commissioner Smith urged Mr. Dalton to continue his strong outreach efforts for donations to the Energy Share Program.
Mr. Dalton said that 2001 saw the largest outreach effort in EWEB's history.
In response to a question from President Anderson regarding prioritizing slots in the REACH Program, Mr. Dalton said it was an open program that targeted reductions in use of kilowatt hours.
In response to a question from Commissioner Bishop regarding the amount of the fund transfer requested, Mr. Dalton cited an initial figure of $20,000.
Commissioner Bishop, seconded by Commissioner Smith, moved to allow the transfer of $20,000 in funding from the Universal Service Plan to Energy Share to allow the new program policy to go into effect in December. The motion passed unanimously.
STEAM RATE ADJUSTMENT
Dick Helgeson, Director or Water & Steam Divisions, and Dick Varner, Fiscal Services Supervisor, noted that Sacred Heart had been signed for three more years of steam service.
Mr. Varner said the fuels charge would be reduced by one dollar. He added that there were also two options for commodity rates:
1. Leave the rate structure alone but increase each of the blocks
2. Add an intermediate block to the rate structure
Mr. Helgeson noted that all steam customers would see a reduction in rates under either option. He said the reason for adding a third tier was that there were 60 customers that constituted less than five percent of the total system. He noted that it cost the utility more to serve the small customers.
In response to a question from Commissioner Smith regarding data on differing costs of service to different sizes of customers, Mr. Helgeson said staff examined the proportion of total costs tied up in distribution and direct costs for service calls to make the determination.
Commissioner Bishop, seconded by Commissioner Smith, moved to adopt the second option as presented by staff. The motion passed unanimously.
CITY OF EUGENE CHARTER REVIEW
Debra Brewer, Intergovernmental Affairs Coordinator, reported on the charter review process. She said the committee had reviewed the three amendments and recommend forming another committee including council members to examine EWEB issues.
She said that there was agreement at the staff level to include the short term borrowing item as a housekeeping matter.
Commissioner Smith suggested, to general consensus, to send a request to the City Council to put the suggested items into the final presentation to the City.
Commissioner Bishop commented that nothing would be gained by forming an additional committee. She suggested a polite letter in legislative format to the council requesting that EWEB's requests be included.
ITEMS REMOVED FROM THE CONSENT CALENDAR
Commenting on the minutes pulled, Commissioner Smith noted that she was not present at the September 25, meeting. On the other minutes she opined that "utility" should replace "facility" when referring to EWEB.
Commissioner Smith, seconded by Commissioner Bishop, moved to approve the items pulled from the consent calendar as amended. The motion passed unanimously.
The meeting adjourned at 9:30 p.m.
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Assistant Secretary President