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HomeMy WebLinkAboutElectric Board - Minutes - 12/05/2007Fort Collins Utilities Electric Board Minutes Wednesday, December 5, 2007 Electric Board Chairperson City Council Liaison John Morris, 377-8221 Wade Troxell Electric Board Vice Chairperson Staff Liaison Dan Bihn, 218-1962 DeEtta Carr, 221-6702 Roll Call Board Present Chairperson John Morris, Tom Barnish, John Graham and Steve Wolley Absent Dan Bihn, John Harris and Jeff Lebesch Staff Present Kraig Bader, Patty Bigner, Terri Bryant, DeEtta Carr, Joyce Grenz, Brian Janonis, Bob Micek, John Phelan, Tom Rock and Dennis Sumner Guest Lynn Adams of R.W. Beck Meeting Convened Chairperson John Morris called the meeting to order at 5:40 p.m. Citizen Participation No citizen participation. Minutes of October 17, 2007 Board Member John Graham motioned to approve the minutes from the October 17, 2007, meeting. Board Member Steve Wolley seconded the motion, with the motion passing unanimously. Executive Director Update Customer and Employee Relations Manager Patty Bigner gave an update on the search for the Utilities Executive Director. There are four qualified candidates that will interview on December 11 and 12. Selected panels will interview the candidates on Tuesday, December 11, 2007, with a community reception from 4:30 to 6:00 p.m. in the Columbine Room at the Lincoln Center. An employee forum will be held from 8:00 to 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, December 12, 2007, Electric Board Meeting Minutes Wednesday, December 5, 2007 Page 2 at City Hall. Employees will be invited to attend or watch via video, and then submit their comments. City Manager Darin Atteberry will meet with the candidates Wednesday afternoon. Mr. Atteberry is looking for a candidate who is a strategic planner and will help Utilities with the significant issues we will be faced with in the next few years. He's looking for a strategic thinker, rather than an operational thinker, and someone with a demonstrated track record at the executive level. He is very interested in someone with a commitment to sustainability and to operating a green utility. The characteristics Mr. Atteberry is looking for include someone who is proactive, energetic and collaborative. Mr. Atteberry wants someone who can serve at the VP level and provide executive consultation to him, and not necessarily on just the utilities level, but also on upper - management issues. Mr. Atteberry is trying to develop a team of top level managers in his management team and would like the person to be relationship and results oriented. He wants attention to benchmarking and understanding of best practices in the industry, while staying on top of the quality improvement curve. Customer Survev Lynn Adams from R.W. Beck has been doing research in Fort Collins for quite sometime. This is the last round for market research and the first round for benchmarking. The criteria looked at were primarily "Customer Facing Functions", which included Customer Satisfaction, Customer Service and Customer Communications. Systematic sampling of Fort Collins Utilities' database of current, residential electric customers was done via a telephone survey from January 31 and February 27, 2007. A series of questions was asked of 402 residential and 400 general business and commercial customers, excluding Key Accounts. This method provided a sampling error of 4.9 percent with at 95 percent confidence. Customer satisfaction is the standard market research that has been done every two to four years since 1999. This creates a good track record of trends as they develop. R.W. Beck looked at customer information in electric, water, wastewater, and stormwater, as well as attitudes toward renewables and conservation, customer interest in new products and tracked trends different from the last survey. Ms. Adams stated it's really significant that Fort Collins Utilities is doing this kind of work. In the world of municipal utilities, this is best -of -class performance to do this type of research regardless of the findings, which are very good for Fort Collins Utilities. This kind of work puts Utilities in the top tier of utilities. The desired response for customer service beyond the utility world is world -class, best -in -class service, which is generally defined as 80 percent top tier ratings, or A and B ratings. Overall, customers ranked Fort Collins Utilities as high to very high (with 90 percent or more grading these programs as A or B) classifying at "world -class" levels of satisfaction. There is one exception, stormwater, that is not quite there. This is partially due to a serious stormwater fee. Satisfaction with stormwater service lags the others with respectable, but not world -class ratings. Customers perceive a higher level of "green" than exists and want even more renewables. -2- Electric Board Meeting Minutes Wednesday, December 5, 2007 Page 3 Conservation is at the correct level although almost 25% prefer more conservation. This presents a challenge both in terms of communicating the Utilities existing commitment and actions to sustainability and "green" practices, and in identifying and implementing further efforts as appropriate. In the future, Utilities will be providing more information to the public. There will be more effort put into educating the public on programs that will help them understand Fort Collins Utilities is an environmentally conscious organization. Customers need to know what the Utilities stands for. Some of the recommendations are to continue high- performance by monitoring and anticipating customer needs and to remain proactive, implementing effective programs that address energy and water conservation efforts. Benchmarkina Lynn Adams from R.W. Beck stated that Fort Collins Utilities wanted to benchmark best practices in marketing and customer service to be in a position for continued excellence. Benchmarking is of great interest in high -performing utilities. The alignment of understanding customer perception, having a foundation for optimal performance, benchmarking to peer utilities and defining strategic direction creates a solid foundation. The methodology of benchmarking is to establish practices to be researched , including a design survey instrument; identifying electric, water, and wastewater participants; identifying stormwater participants; contacting participants from April/July of 2007; creating interest; building high levels of interest and analyzing data/draft report. When compared to other high- performance participants, Fort Collins Utilities is among the smallest, yet performs at a high level that meets or beats peer utilities, with stormwater performing at industry standards. This is no cause for concern. Staffing ratios show that Fort Collins Utilities is outperforming its peers. Overall customer service costs were at or below the averages reported, in comparison with other participants, showing Utilities is very cost effective. Under Products and Services, many of the study participants offer an array of additional services. There seems to be a gap in Internet -based services in comparison with the other participants. Internet -based services are essential, and Fort Collins Utilities needs to work on getting these services for account information, electronic account access and bill payment, on-line energy usage and online service requests. This is a gap that is being addressed right now. In the area of Market Research, Fort Collins Utilities reflects the survey norms with two exceptions, including regular transactional surveys and Internet -based research. In the area of Key Accounts, the majority have such a program with some having a program for mid -size customers. A few of the recommendations are to introduce Internet capabilities in customer functions for both residential and commercial customers; evaluate offering a Key Accounts program for mid- sized customers by sending an electronic newsletter and educational seminars; provide customer service training for employees with cross -training opportunities; develop a recognition program to reward teams/departments for outstanding performance; develop and implement the tracking of customers to make sure satisfaction targets are being met; and develop action plans to achieve the defined targets. Fort Collins Utilities has positioned itself in a "stretch" group of peer -3- Electric Board Meeting Minutes Wednesday, December 5, 2007 Page 4 organizations and that's really good. Benchmarking and best -practice efforts are hallmarks of industry leaders. Routine Updates PRPA — Dan Bihn: Did not meet. Climate Task Force — Steve Wolley: The Climate Task Force is narrowing in on several chosen items to put forth proposals to City Council to try to save carbon. Some of the items will fall back on the Electric Board as soon as they are accepted by City Council. There are some City programs already in place to try to meet the 2010 goals, but they are not enough. To meet the goal in the year 2010, aggressive measures must be considered by City Council along with how to fund these measures. Energy Supply Sub -Committee — Dan Bihn and JeffLebesch: No new update. Capital News — Steve Wolley: No new update. Other AEenda Items Annual Report — Needs to be turned in by January 30, 2008. Legislative Policy — This is the final version from City Council included in the packet. Future Aeenda Items At the January 16, 2008, meeting, Customer and Employee Relations Manager Patty Bigner said a presentation could be given on the Green Building Roadmap, which is the result of several months of meetings and numerous focus groups. The Electric Board would like to have this presentation in January. The 2008 Work Plan was forwarded to City Council on December 5, 2007. Adjournment The meeting was adjourned at 7:45 p.m. after a motion to adjourn was made by Tom Barnish. oy e 4enz, Electric Boa� Secretary H