HomeMy WebLinkAboutElectric Board - Minutes - 06/15/1994Minutes to be Approved by the Board at the August 17, 1994 Meeting.
FORT COLLINS ELECTRIC BOARD
MEETING MINUTES
June 15, 1994, 5:00 - 7:30 P.M.
BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT:
John Allum, Mark Fidrych, Barbara Rutstein, Richard Smart, and Jim Welch.
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Jeff Eighmy
STAFF PRESENT:
Ellen Alward, Don Botteron, Delynn Coldiron, Bob Kost, Bob Nastan, Tim Sagen, Rich Shannon
and Dennis Sumner.
OTHERS PRESENT:
Jay Hopper
BOARD LIAISONS:
Council Liaison -- Alan Apt
Staff Liaison -- Don Botteron
1. APPROVAL OF MINUTES:
A Motion was made by Board Member Allum to approve the Minutes as submitted. Board
Member Rutstein seconded the Motion. The Motion passed unanimously and the Minutes
from the May 18, 1994 meeting were approved.
2. BUDGET:
Don answered Board Member's questions regarding the proposed 1995 budget. Council
members have inquired about the IRP process and the DSM programs but, otherwise, have
had no concerns with Light and Power's proposed budget. In September, the first line -
item budget work session will be held. Staff will review any necessary changes with the
Board. Once the work sessions are completed and any changes have been reviewed with
the Board, the Board Chair will prepare a memorandum from the Board, to Council,
recommending adoption of the final proposed budget document.
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3. IRP:
A. Open House:
Dennis reported that there were approximately 40 people who attended the open
house. Those who attended seemed to be pleased with the information that was
made available to them. The displays were also well received. Board Members
commented that the open house was well advertised, that the ad for the open house
was well done and that the event was well organized. Dennis gave a brief
overview of citizen comments.
B. Board's Role in IRP Process:
Chairperson Smart reviewed the charge of the Board -- to report back to and advise
Council on policy matters. Rich agreed that most boards and commissions are
geared around an advisory role to Council. Don read the duties and functions of
the Electric Board from the Enabling Ordinance.
Board Member Rutstein mentioned that if Council chooses to hold a public hearing
or community meeting on this issue there is a chance that Council will ask the
Board to participate. With this type of involvement, the Board would be acting in
response to Council's request, not acting on its own. Board Members felt
comfortable with this approach.
There was some discussion on whether the Board is addressing only the Ft.
Collins' DSM Program. Staff mentioned that the Board should advise Council on
the Ft. Collins' DSM Program, and should consider giving Council an opinion on
Platte River's recommended IRP. The Board could inform Council of the facts,
which in turn could influence the votes of the two Council Members who sit on the
Platte River Board. Consensus was that Council would be interested in receiving
a response from the Board on both of these issues and the Board plans to proceed
based on this.
The IRP timeline was briefly discussed. Dennis mentioned that the Integrated
Resource Study was meant to give citizens background on the situation and share
some of the obstacles and options/alternatives. It does not give conclusions. The
Integrated Resource Plan will look a lot like the Integrated Resource Study, with
the addition of two sections: 1) Public input process; and 2) Options -- Current
options will be expanded, followed by a recommendation. Platte River plans to
present the Integrated Resource Plan at their August 25 board meeting. Platte
River will have another board meeting in September, followed by a public meeting
in October. Platte River will not be taking action on the Integrated Resource Plan
until October.
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There was consensus among Board Members that they will readdress the issue of
reporting to Council, etc., sometime after the Integrated Resource Plan is made
available in late August. The Board potentially has two meetings to respond to the
the Integrated Resource Plan after it has been made available before the Platte
River Board takes action on it in October.
C. IRP Questionnaire:
Platte River has asked staff, who in turn asked the Board, for feedback on the
questionnaire. This is not an action item for the Board, staff is merely trying to
collect informal feedback for Platte River to send back to the consultant. The
current schedule is to begin telephone surveys on Friday, June 17. The plan is to
survey approximately 400 people. Each survey is expected to last for
approximately 20 minutes.
Chairperson Smart has been professionally involved in surveys and his reaction to
the survey was that it was done very well; it appears as though there is a competent
consultant involved.
Phil Friedman, Board Member from the Natural Resources Board, received copies
of the questionnaire at the request of Council Member Apt. Dennis reported the
comments Phil had forwarded to him. Overall he was pleased with the
questionnaire. He did have some concern with a number of places in the
questionnaire where energy conservation is used as opposed to energy efficiency.
He suggested that energy efficiency would have a more positive connotation.
There was also a conceptual error on question 52 -- "smaller rate increases" should
be "larger rate increases."
Dennis highlighted some of the more notable changes that had already been made
to the draft questionnaire. Comments/suggestions were provided:
- On question 62 it was suggested that "identify consider" be changed to one or
the other of these words, or that an "or" be inserted in between these words.
- Background information is critical in order for people to understand the
problem. It was suggested that as much educating as possible should be done
during this process. Questionnaire could have included more education on
energy efficiency and the types of things the community has been involved with
to date.
- There has been some concern with the time required to answer the survey. The
survey could easily take much more time to administer, but in an attempt to get
accurate data, and to be respectful of citizens' time, many things have been
eliminated. A series of questions on believability have been removed and other
questions have been simplified.
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The issue of demographics was discussed. There was some concern that only
certain types of citizens would agree to spend the required 20 minutes on the
phone to answer the questionnaire and that having only this small representation
of the populous responding would invalidate the questionnaire. Dennis
mentioned that identifying the survey with the City will add credibility and
hopefully will affect citizens' willingness to participate. There was brief
discussion on phone number grouping and the call process that will be used by
the people conducting the survey. There was also discussion on the green index.
- The issue of externalities was briefly discussed. There was some feeling that
this issue is being adequately addressed in the questionnaire.
- Question 33 -- What does "in your area" mean? It could mean different things
to citizens. Might want to change this to "community" or add the word
geographic so it would read "in your geographic area."
Other comments and suggestions were previously given to staff in writing.
It was noted that the Platte River survey would not differentiate between cities --
responses would be representative of the four cities as a composite. Board
addressed the idea of doing a survey specific to Ft. Collins sometime in the future.
As a City Government it is important that we develop more experience and
increase our comfort level with surveys, market research, customer feedback, etc.
This would enable the Utility to pursue our customers' interests and collect
accurate, scientific, baseline data on issues such as DSM. Board Members plan to
explore this opportunity further.
D. Natural Resources Involvement:
Dennis reported that he and Jay Hopper gave a presentation at the last Natural
Resources Board Meeting.
4. STAFF REPORTS:
A. CLIP:
Don mentioned that the CLIP Resolution passed on the June 7 consent calendar, so the
Utility is now in the CLIP business and will be analyzing any applications that are
received. Council accepted the recommendation that CLIP I be restricted to City -owned
facilities during the test period. Staff is moving forward to develop necessary details, etc.,
for the program.
5. INFORMATIONAL REQUESTS:
A. Board Member Welch requested a copy of the comments that were received at the
IRP open house.
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B. Board Member Welch is interested in receiving data on energy use per customer
over the last five years (energy and demand). He is also interested in any
meaningful data that can be provided on energy efficiency trends for commercial
customers.
C. Board Member Welch requested information about the Utility's demand rate.
6. OTHER BUSINESS:
A. July Meeting:
Board Members discussed the July meeting. At this point there are no pressing agenda
items. Board Members agreed to take a summer break and cancel the July meeting.
7. CRITIQUE MEETING/NEXT MEETING'S AGENDA:
Staff will contact Chairperson Smart to discuss agenda items for the August meeting.
ADJOURNMENT:
Meeting adjourned at 6:50 p.m.
Delyn R. Coldiron, Board Secretary
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