04-25-2018 HUCMMINUTES
Regular Meeting — Hutchinson Utilities Commission
Wednesday, April 25, 2018
Call to order — 3:00 p.m.
Vice President Anthony Hanson called the meeting to order. Members present: Vice
President Anthony Hanson; Commissioner Mark Girard; Commissioner Robert Wendorff,
Commissioner Don Martinez; General Manager Jeremy Carter; Attorney Marc Sebora
Absent: President Monty Morrow
Conflict of Interest
2. Approve Consent Agenda
a. Approve Minutes
b. Ratify Payment of Bills
Motion by Commissioner Girard, second by Commissioner Wendorff to approve the
Consent Agenda. Motion carried unanimously.
3. Approve Financial Statements
GM Carter presented the financial statements. HUC is trending well through 1St
quarter. Electric Division loss in March increased by $63K. Other Revenue is down
due to timing for when HUC is buying materials and then waiting to be reimbursed.
Operating Expense is down due to the Software System Implementation payments
and additional miscellaneous expenses that were paid in 2017. Debt interest is
going to be higher than 2017 due to having bonds out there accruing interest.
Overall, consistent in all the areas. Natural Gas Division is trending high due to the
colder weather as well as no fuel credits being issued. Customers could expect to
see credits on the May billing. On the Balance Sheet, Pack Gas liability is still there,
HUC did not make payment until April.
Motion by Commissioner Martinez, second by Commissioner Girard to approve the
financial statements. Motion carried unanimously.
4. Open Forum
5. Communication
a. City Administrator — Matthew Jaunich
i. Starting bridge work on 2nd Ave
ii. Century Ave work has been pushed back to end of May beginning of June.
b. Divisions
i. Dan Lange, Engineering Services Manager —
1. Contractors are at HTI Substation making repairs that caused outage.
Should be completed this week or next.
2. Work continues down at the plants. Lots of projects; moving gas lines,
moving Unit 2, cement sawing, and control room is almost complete.
ii. Dave Hunstad, Electric Transmission/Distribution Manager —Absent
iii. Randy Blake, Production Manager - Absent
iv. John Webster, Natural Gas Division Manager -
1. All operators are down at plant 1; working on units 3, 4, and 8. Looking to
finish projects in next couple weeks.
2. Recently provided an Abstract to Emerson, and was notified that I was
approved to attend the Global Users Exchange in October at San Antonio.
Will now have to deliver two presentations while there.
v. Jared Martig, Financial Manager- Absent
c. Human Resources - Brenda Ewing —
i. In the process of filling a Plant Operator Position. Mike Gabrielson who was
a plant operator was hired back in February as a mechanic.
ii. Angie currently coordinated with the Police Department to have Eric Killian
come in to go over Workplace Violence and Active Shooter Training. Will
now be working with Angie to coordinate another training that was done at
the City Center recently, which is Respectful Workplace Training.
d. Legal — Marc Sebora — Nothing to report
e. General Manager — Jeremy Carter
i. Received preliminary COS Rate Designs from the consultants. Will be
reviewing these and will get information out to the Board. Will try to
coordinate a Special Meeting in May to discuss.
ii. Staff has been working on the BP Pre -paid agreement. The two concerns
Staff -had were 1) The termination of the agreement between BP and PEAK
would cause the termination of the Gas Supply contract between HUC and
PEAK and 2) If the Gas Supply Contract with PEAK would have any bearing
on existing bonds or future bond financing. Staff did learn that if terminated,
HUC's gas volumes would resort back to HUC. In addition, Gas Supply
Contracts do not have any bearing on existing bonds or future bond financing.
Staff talked with Ehlers and Dorsey on this topic and these are considered
operating costs. Operating costs have to be covered by pledged receivables,
which are accounts receivables before any additional dollars can be used
towards bonds. HUC will work on bringing this topic forward with a Special
meeting along with the COS Study.
iii. Jared is working on finalizing the audit, continuing to work on inventory issues
with BS&A. Need to get this process done so City Center can complete their
audit. HUC also needs to do the Schedule O report for MISO.
iv. Acceptance testing on units 6 & 7 will be completed in May. Have four HUC
employees going to Germany to watch and check off all the boxes for
emission standards and making sure all technical data is satisfied.
6. Policies
a. Review Policies
i. Membership/Dues/Conventions- Exempt Only
K
ii. Locating Customer's Underground Utilities- Electric
iii. Temporary Service- Gas
No changes recommended at this time.
b. Approve Changes
i. Employment of Relatives — as noted, grammatical changes
ii. Data Practices Advisory- as noted, clarifying position titles
iii. Tree Removal or Trimming — as noted, grammatical changes
iv. Natural Gas Service Requirements and Changes — as noted, grammatical
changes
v. Credit Cards- Under Purchase Policy — as noted, grammatical changes
Motion by Commissioner Girard, second by Commissioner Martinez to approve the
policy changes as recommended. Motion carried unanimously.
7. Unfinished Business
8. New Business
a. Approval of Requisition #7552 — Conductor for Uponor Project
GM Carter presented Requisition #7552. Currently Uponor is using HTI's
Conductor as a loan. HUC needs to upsize so Uponor can continue to move
forward.
Commissioner Hanson inquired the financial impact, if this will be reimbursed.
GM Carter explained that this will not, however Uponor is looking to purchase
up to four transformers in the future to have as their own pieces of equipment
and Uponor will reimburse HUC for those.
Commissioner Girard inquired what type of customer class Uponor would be.
GM Carter stated Uponor would start out as a Large Customer and migrate into
an Industrial Customer. Staff will monitor the usage and make the change
when needed.
After discussion, a motion by Commissioner Wendorff, second by
Commissioner Martinez to approve Requisition #7552 — Conductor for Uponor
Project.
9. Adjourn
There being no further business, a motion by Commissioner Girard, second by
Commissioner Wendorff to adjourn the meeting at 3:21 p.m. Motion carried
unanimously.
ATT ESL.
Mo'ntyf 6rrow, President
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