Board members present: Dorothy Anderson, Peter Bartel, Patrick Lanning, and Sandra Bishop.
Others present: Randy Berggren, Jim Origliosso, Laurie Muggy, Jean Meyers, JoAnn Andersen, Dick Helgeson, Marty Douglass, Roseanna McArthur, Jennifer Joule, Jim Wiley, Janet McClennen, Debra Smith, Dick Varner, and Krista Hince of the EWEB staff; Kim Young, City of Eugene Minutes Recorder; and members of the public.
OVERVIEW OF DRAFT OPERATING METRICS
General Manager Randy Berggren reviewed the materials sent out prior to the meeting, and called attention to the posted goals and support strategies, indicating they were there for reference during the meeting. He indicated that he would spend some time reviewing the proposed operating metrics to provide the Commissioners with information about the background indicators staff was recommending. Mr. Berggren said the metrics were a means of measuring the utility's output for the 80 percent of the budget that represented the "meat and potatoes" of what EWEB did.
Mr. Berggren indicated that, to get the Board involved earlier in the budget process, staff was asking the Board to look at the issues and work going on and to raise any concerns and priorities from the beginning so staff could begin to integrate those concerns into its work. He anticipated that by June or July, the staff work would be sufficiently advanced to assist the Board in developing its budget priorities for 2003.
Mr. Berggren said that later in the meeting the Board would brainstorm ideas, which staff would record on flip charts. Following that, staff would ask the Commissioners to indicate, using dots, their preliminary priorities.
Mr. Berggren noted that Commissioner-elect Ron Farmer was also in attendance.
Mr. Berggren distributed and reviewed the Corporate Operational Performance Metrics, noting that the information differed slightly from the information included in the packet materials.
Dick Varner, Fiscal Services Supervisor, presented the metrics related to the electric utility.
Dick Helgeson, Water & Steam Utility Director, presented the metrics related to the water utility. He also reviewed metrics for the Steam utility.
Using a graph, Mr. Helgeson discussed the water quality parameters used by EWEB around the following categories: 1) finished water turbidity, 2) chlorine residual, and 3) pH. He noted that all parameters were well within or greatly exceeded the ranges of interest to regulators.
Commissioner Lanning asked if the utility had ever not met its target goals for the categories discussed by Mr. Helgeson. Mr. Helgeson said that there may have been a time when EWEB did not meet the parameters of, for example, chlorine residual, at the 95th percentile. He said that the parameters were not generally something that one would see degrade over time. If the range for one of the parameters shifted one way or another, it would lead the utility to question its meaning in terms of plant operations or treatment strategies.
Commissioner Lanning acknowledged EWEB's good rating but said that it seemed that tracking system loss over time would be a way to gauge system health as a whole. Mr. Helgeson indicated that staff did track that factor and could report on it as well.
Commissioner Bishop noted complaints about water pressure but said she did not know how to address it. It seemed more noticeable in some areas than in others. Mr. Helgeson said that staff could look into that. It was not a question of system operations but was associated with the infrastructure as a function of elevation. There are zones fed by reservoirs and in those zones there tends to be higher pressure at the top of the zone and lower pressure at the bottom. It was not an operating metric that fluctuated over time.
Mr. Berggren called attention to the customer satisfaction metrics. He noted the fact that EWEB conducted an annual customer satisfaction survey and said staff proposed to measure customer satisfaction in several areas, including tree trimming practices, residential construction response, water conservation, new service installation, subdivision development, internet services, and payment options.
Mr. Helgeson described the approaches staff proposed to use to seek feedback on several of the services mentioned by Mr. Berggren that were not included in the annual survey. Among those approaches were telephone contacts and door hangers. He mentioned that staff had discussed measuring customers' internet service satisfaction with a pop-up screen. He anticipated that staff would return with information aggregated by service area.
Responding to a question from Vice President Bartel, JoAnn Andersen, Customer Services Director, said that staff was working on various security issues that would allow EWEB to offer customers the option of paying and viewing their bills over the internet.
Commissioner Lanning asked who at EWEB had the expertise to develop, executive, and manage a survey. Mr. Berggren said that EWEB had some in-house expertise but generally hired a consultant for the annual survey. Mr. Helgeson said that in terms of the work to be done, staff was working to ensure that its sampling techniques were statistically valid and the sample sufficiently large to provide a high confidence interval. He indicated that Lance Robertson, EWEB's External Communications Coordinator, was working on a formula for that process.
Commissioner Bishop determined from Jim Wiley, Director of Electric Division, that staff would work with contractors of business and industrial properties as well as residential developers in assessing satisfaction in the category of new services.
Commissioner Lanning asked if there was a way to consolidate the data the Board received after the end of each billing cycle into themes. Ms. Andersen said that the Board had the information presented in that manner in the past. Mr. Berggren indicated that staff would follow-up.
Ms. Andersen reviewed the customer service metrics. She briefly noted the jump in requests for meter reviews and its impact on the utility.
Responding to a question from Vice President Bartel, Ms. Andersen indicated that the average customer wait for a customer service representative call in March-April was 1.1 minute on average. Most people will wait up to 1-minutes. However, EWEB had so many calls coming in it did not have the personnel to handle the calls it received. When people were reassigned to answer calls, paperwork did not get done and needed adjustments were not being made.
Roseanna McArthur, Corporate Services Director, discussed variuous environmental regulatory issues that EWEB had experienced over the past five years and their ultimate resolution.
Tom Buckhouse, Facilities Services Director, reviewed employee safety metrics.
FITNESS SCAN - IDENTIFY ISSUES/GAPS NEEDING DISCUSSION
3. Issues/Gaps Needing Discussion
Mr. Berggren said this was the Board's opportunity to raise issues it wished staff to consider and research background for in preparation for the Board retreat in July and prior to budget development for fiscal year 2003. He said that staff was most interested in the issues of concern to the Board rather than solutions.
Mr. Berggren solicited comments on the Board's goals and additional issues from the Board, which staff captured on flip charts.
The Board took a meeting break.
4. Preliminary Priority Review
Mr. Berggren indicated that staff would take the information recorded by staff and summarize it. In addition, staff would provide additional detail on all the strategies with information on the milestones.
The meeting adjourned at 8:45 p.m.
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Assistant Secretary President