09-27-2017 HUCMMINUTES
Regular Meeting — Hutchinson Utilities Commission
Wednesday, September 27, 2017
Call to Order — 3:00 p.m.
In the absence of President Monty Morrow, Vice President Anthony Hanson called the
meeting to order at 3:00 p.m. Members present: Vice President Anthony Hanson;
Secretary Mark Girard; Commissioner Robert Wendorff; and Commissioner Don
Martinez. Others present: General Manager Jeremy Carter; Attorney Marc Sebora.
1. Conflict of Interest
There were no conflicts of interest noted.
2. Approve Consent Agenda
a. Approve Minutes
b. Ratify Payment of Bills
Motion by Girard, second by Martinez to approve the Consent Agenda. Motion
carried unanimously.
3. Approve Financial Statements
General Manager Carter presented the financial statements.
Jared Martig mentioned the Natural Gas division is very similar to last year.
However, Electric division was down. He also stated that we are still learning the
BS&A software, there was a wire transfer that did not post in July before the financial
statements were created so the July financials showed an increase in cash of
roughly $1 M and it should have been around $600k. The breakeven cash for
August as shown on this financial statement should be roughly $400k higher but
year to date is correct.
General Manager Carter noted Electric division was down 12%. There was a day
difference in consumption days from August 2016 compared to August 2017. Gas
consumption is up 7% over the same period in 2016. Balance sheet is looking good.
We are trending as we should. TransAlta sales were down due to the cooler
weather.
Dave Hunstad reviewed Work Order section on Capital projects with the School
Road and Roberts Road project. We doubled the budget on the school road bridge,
it was not supposed to happen but there were issues that needed to be addressed.
Since we doubled, we are now forgoing others. We were still able to hit bottom line.
Commissioner Hanson asked about Plant 1 Door and Window Replacement. Mr.
Blake stated that it was cancelled for now.
Motion by Martinez, second by Wendorff to approve the financial statements.
Motion carried unanimously.
4. Open Forum -none
5. Communication
a. City Administrator— Matt Jaunich
i. Mr. Jaunich communicated that the hotel project is to start middle/end of
October.
ii. High Field Apartments, phase 1 is 80% complete and scheduled to be open
November 1. Half of the complex is already rented out.
b. Divisions
i. Dan Lang, Engineering Services Manager —nothing to report
ii. Dave Hunstad, Electric Transmission/Distribution Manager — nothing to report
iii. Randy Blake, Production Manager — Jeremy, Marc, Jim Booty and I are
working on the contract, hopefully in a week will have it finalized.
Commissioner Hanson inquired if we are still on schedule. General Manager
Carter assured him and the board that we are still on track even with the
contract delays. We are working on the contract language and we still have a
few clean up items. Final contract should be ready within next few business
days and will send it out to the commission to have a special meeting to move
forward.
iv. John Webster, Natural Gas Division Manager -nothing to report
v. Jared Martig, Financial Manager — Working on touching up our billing
process. Thought we would send bills out on time this month but we had
problems with our bandwidth. Last month we mentioned to shrink the bills by
taking off the graphs; this is something we are going to be working on. As far
as the mail delivery, not sure what happened, all bills were postmarked
September 11 but customers were not receiving their bills until late that week.
Commissioner Hanson inquired if billing department has received any calls
from customers on receiving their bills late. General Manager Carter stated
that we have. There seemed to have been many things going on with the
delivery of bills, making payments and website issues. We did send a letter
to the Hutchinson Leader to let our customers know that we apologize for any
inconvenience and that customers are our number 1 priority. We also have
not charged any late fees. However, we did have conversations with the
Leader because the apology was not included in the Press Release just that
we are working on resolving the issues. We also did post on our website
letting our customers know they are our Number 1 priority, that we apologize
for any inconvenience, and we are working on resolving the problems and
making changes in a timely fashion. General Manager Carter added that the
staff has been talking about the need to create a buffer to get the bills out
sooner. We are working through changing some of our calendar dates and
due dates and making sure they are not the same due date as the City bills.
General Manager Carter asked the Board if you do receive any calls from our
customers to let them know we empathize with them and we understand how
it effects the families.
E
General Manager Carter added that we did talk to our bill printing company
and they reassured us that all the bills were placed in the mail on November
11. We have checked into a local printing company but we will still have a 2-3
day lag because all mail goes through the cities.
Commissioner Hanson inquired if there is a way we can electronically send
out bills. General Manager Carter explained that we do have that option, but
not everyone has signed up to receive his or her bills electronically. The
people that are signed up receive their bill as soon as we create it. We are
going to be promoting E -Bills during our Open House Appreciation Dinner
next Tuesday October 3.
c. Brenda Ewing, Human Resources — Nothing to report
d. General Manager — Jeremy Carter
i. Working through Generator contracts
ii. Followed up with Cost of Service study this week, they are getting close.
October information should be coming out soon. Prompting them to give us
more of a timeline since they are not giving us an exact date
iii. Updating PILOT information. Talked with committee and need to get more
information together. Need to think about how this is going to impact the Cost
of Service study with an October/November timeline. Sooner we can get
information out and back the better. Need to have the Board think about
dates
iv. Attending different webinars on battery storage, electric vehicles..etc
v. Had rating call with Moodys this week. Went well, they asked a lot of general
questions- could tell they still have to go back through information and look at
financials. Our rating is an Al. They had us in the upper level but the
downgraded HUC a notch because of the high concentration of consumption
by two customers. It was brought up the third company coming to town will
help diversify the load portfolio. Question was raised what happens when
one leaves? We feel we are still stable. 3M is not going anywhere and
HTI/TDK is more financially stable, they are in a better position from before
the acquisition. We have three big players that are taking our concentration
but we also have many other commercial companies in town. It will take
about a week on our rating. We think they will at least reaffirm our Al rating,
but are hopeful it will be graded up a notch to the Aa3 rating. All positive but
when I hear I will share info with you.
e. Legal — Marc Sebora —Working on generator contracts.
6. Policies
a. Review Policies
i. Automatic Bill Payment Plan
ii. Required Clothing
iii. Small Hand Tools
iv. Safety Glasses
3
b. Approve Changes
i. Errors in Billing —as noted
ii. Payment of Your Bill — as noted, but also added more modifications under
Payment Methods; remove old payment center phone number and will list
our local phone number, add E -check, add savings/checking account, add
online reoccurring credit card payment.
iii. Recognition Policy -Service Awards and Retirement Gifts - as noted.
Motion by Girard, second by Wendorff, to approve the policy changes as
recommended. Motion carried unanimously.
7. Unfinished Business
a. Update of Pack Gas Discussions
General Manager Carter noted there is no new information to report at this time.
8. New Business
a. Approval of Bond Resolution
Mr. Carter noted this is the final step for the Commission. Commission has to give
authorization for bond sale on October 10th for City Council. We have a resolution
out here of $17,455,000. This also calls for 2003 redemption of bonds. There is a
point in the process where we can deny the bids. We will have a sense to that by
knowing how many have come in and who the players are going to be. If we get
indication at that time, we can pull the bond offer off and table until the following
month. We will have time along the process to see if things look good and will
communicate them. We do not foresee that happening, everything that seems to be
in the market looks good.
Motion by Wendorff, second by Girard, to approve the Bond Resolution. Motion
carried unanimously.
b. Declare Surplus Items
Mr. Carter noted this is more or less housekeeping. We have new fleet that has
come in so we are asking the board to approve declaring surplus items. Staff is
estimating $30-$40K in sale proceeds that will go back into the fleet program.
Commissioner Wendorff inquired if these have already been replaced. Mr. Hunstad
verified they have and that the bucket truck just came in last week.
Motion by Martinez, second by Wendorff, to approve the Declare Surplus Items.
Motion carried unanimously.
9. Adjourn
There being no further business, a motion was made by Girard, second by Wendorff, to
adjourn the meeting at 3:37 p.m. Motion carried unanimously.
4
v
f 64",A'N �AwSo N
ATTEST: S
Monty M row, President