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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes_GTEU_03.24.2022Minutes of the Meeting for the Georgetown Electric Utility Board Thursday, March 24th at 4:00 PM at the Community Room at Georgetown City Hall, 402 W. 8th St. Georgetown, TX 78626 Board Members Present: Robert Case - Chairman, Rick Woodruff- Vice-Chairman, Sam Jones- Secretary, Ben Butler, Mike Triggs Board Members Absent: Butler (Excused) Staff Present: Daniel Bethapudi, Daniel Potter, Daniel McReynolds, Mike Westbrook, Leticia Zavala, Cindy Pospisil, Kress Carson, Jennifer Flor, Jose Torres, and Richard Pajestka Public Attendees: None Regular Session (This Regular Session may, at any time, be recessed to convene an Executive Session for any purpose authorized by the Open Meetings Act, Texas Government Code 551.) A. Call to Order -- Robert Case, Board Chairman • Meeting called to order at 4:00 pm by Case. B. Roll Call of Board Members -- Robert Case, Board Chairman. • Butler absent C. Introduction of Visitors -- Robert Case, Board Chairman D. Public Wishing to Address the Board • None present Legislative Session E. Election of Vice Chair and Secretary • Vice Chairman Election o Jones nominates Woodruff for Vice Chair; no other nominations for Vice Chair; Triggs seconds the nomination o Vote passes 4-1 (Butler absent); Woodruff is elected Vice Chair • Secretary Election o Triggs nominates Jones for Secretary; no other nomination for Secretary; Woodruff seconds the nomination o Vote passes 4-1 (Butler absent); Jones is elected Secretary F. Review and Approval of Minutes- Kress Carson, Board Liaison • February 17th Meeting- Motion to approve by Jones; seconded by Woodruff • Minutes approved as read 4-1 (Butler absent) Regular Session (cont.) G. General Managers Monthly Report- Daniel Bethapudi- General Manager of Electric Utility • Customer Service and Billing- Leticia Zavala- Customer Care Director o 31,922 Available Services o 30,094 Electric customers/accounts, 188 estimated “bad meter reads” o 30,390 Billed Electric Meters o Overall Residential February 2022 bills nearly identical compared to January 2021 as there hasn't been a change in rates o Average monthly and YTD electric bills for February 2022 compared to February 2021 are roughly the same. ▪ Billing numbers lower than last year due to a combination of higher monthly temperatures and reduced PCA o Electric Revenue Breakdown and Receivables presented- roughly 31% of yearly budgeted amount collected o 93% of 1st Quarter billings (Oct, Nov, Dec) collected and 45% of 2nd Quarter (Jan, Feb, Mar) billings collected o $16,000 decreased total in Aged Receivables o Roughly $112,000 collected in outstanding bills since the collection agency commenced collections in May to collect the bad debt o Case asks if there is a process for temp meters in Sun City. ▪ Zavala answers that that is true for most of Sun City. ▪ Bethapudi adds that the City is trying to move away from the temp meters, particularly for residential customers. In the future, more infrastructure will have meter pedestals in which both temp and permanent power can be utilized. This cuts down man hours to switch meters. Sun City is only area where meter pedestals can’t be used. o Case then asks how does the Utility know where to install the pedestal? ▪ Bethapudi answers generally it is installed next to the transformer and then it is up to the electrician/ builder to run the secondary line to the house. o Case asks for clarification on the amount of total debt handed off to the collection agency ▪ Zavala confirms the amount is $1.9 Million • Electric Operations Report- Mike Westbrook- Electric Operations Manager o Electric Reliability (SAIFI)- .403 (Good Metric) o Electric Outage Duration (CAIDI)-61.137(Good Metric) o Training- 100% (Good metric) o Safety, 100% attendance o Service Order Completion, 100% o Preventative Maintenance, 99% o Corrective Maintenance, 100% o Top 5 Outages Report ▪ No major outages, primarily typical; largest was due to a car hitting a pad mount transformer. o In recent wind storm, Georgetown Electric customers experienced zero outages. • Electric Employee Safety and Development Report- Eric Pouncey- Electric Operations Supervisor o Electric received an the APPA Safety Award of Excellence for 2021 in its division o 22 Safety Inspections conducted throughout the month o 1 safety incident in which there was short circuit within a transformer. Certain safety tools were implemented to help further prevent this from happening again. o Hurt Man Rescue- average department time was two minutes and 26 seconds; the industry standard is four minutes • Electric Warehouse Outsourcing Update o Bethapudi gives update on the Electric Warehouse Outsourcing RFP o Recent supply chain issues have revealed the critical need to have an expert electric material provider and how that mitigates the risk for Georgetown while also creating a competitive advantage. o An RFP was issued and the City finalized the proposals down to four vendors. The City has now singled that list down to one vendor, and are currently working on a contract with the vendor. o Bethapudi describes a situation in which a developer in dually certified area was denied by Oncor due to such supply chain issues, in turn the developer asked Georgetown to be the provider. o Westbrook further explains that the vendor has demonstrated expertise on supply chain issues and describes that due to their foresight in the market, they were able to secure a large amount of material before such issues and were able to provide to developers when other vendors could not. o Woodruff asks if the vendor has a local warehouse ▪ Bethapudi answers that they have a hub and spoke model in which the hub is close proximity of Georgetown. As apart of the transaction, the vendor will purchase the inventory as well. o Case asks are they familiar with watching the commodity markets in which such commodities make up the electric material. ▪ Westbrook confirms that the vendors are experts at looking at such commodities, of which helps them establish their competitive advantage. o Jones asks is it still the case that the majority of transformers are still manufactured out of the country. ▪ Bethapudi answers that in last few years, some of the manufacturing has moved back to the US, but most of the manufacturing is still done out of the country. • FY2021 Audit and Annual Financial Report- Leigh Wallace- Finance Director o Wallace gives the background and terms to the report, and describes the requirements of which an independent auditor is hired to ensure that the City is following policy and standards issued by GASB (Governmental Accounting Standards Board) o Case asks how does the City select e who the external auditor will be. ▪ Wallace answers they can offer up to five year contract and then the contract has to go back to bid. They can select the same firm, but the usual practice they ask for different staff review, but with the same auding firm. The firm the City uses is Weaver and Tidwell. o Highlights to the Electric Fund include increases in both assets and liabilities, increases in capital contributions, and increases in debt. The total net position was an $11.9 million increase from 2020. o Ending balance fully finding 30.5 million in reserves o Total net operating income was a loss of 395k of which was partially a result of the PCA reduction by 1 cent in January 2021, which caused a $5 million decrease to sales revenue, a depreciation expense of $6 million; this was partially offset by REC sales of $4.1 million o This also features debt issuance and regulatory asset accounting regarding Winter Storm Uri in February 2021 o A clean opinion was given by the auditor • Quarterly Financial Report- Leigh Wallace o Background includes the CIP rollforward and operational amendment; reorganization of Electric cost centers effective January 2022; year-over- year comparisons of the past two years are beginning to normalize from impact of COVID-19 o Case asks what is causing the use of the money already used in Developer Growth ▪ Bethapudi answers that this purely driven by customer growth in the City o Electric Sales Revenue represents 92% of the budgeted Electric Fund revenue. 21% of which was collected in the First Quarter. o Expense budget for the Electric Fund is $109 Million, 50% of which is purchased power related expenses; bond proceeds are 11.23%; Electrical Engineering is 17% (includes CIP expense), non-departmental (Transfers, debt service etc.) is 16% o Purchased power makes up 77.4% of operating expenses; 26% of the budget was used in the quarter H. Credit System International Agreement Renewal - Leticia Zavala- Customer Care Director • In 2021, the City entered a contract with Credit Systems International, Inc.(CSII), a 3rd party collection agency, to pursue collections of closed utility account balances. The current balance of accounts submitted to CSII is $1,796,372.83 • The City has sent to CSII 3,501 accounts totaling $1,928,570.91 ranging in age from 90 days to 4 years. Through 2/28/22, collections of $112,122.27, or 5.8% of the submitted account balances, have been received at a cost of $18,686.15. Adjustments of $20,075.81 have also been applied to various accounts based on additional information discovered during the collection process. • Case asks how many personnel are committed to serve Georgetown. o Zavala is not certain of that, but will return with an answer • Case asks does the City have a way of reviewing their calls with customers o Zavala answers that they do, they have reviewed their call scripts and they are able to contractually listen in on their calls with customers. • Case asks where the call center is and if it has been visited? o Zavala says no, at the time of the original contract they were not able to visit, but the call center is located in Dallas • Motion to approve made by Woodruff; seconded by Triggs; vote passes 4 -1 (Butler absent) I. Electric Just-in-Time Agreement Renewal- Mike Westbrook- Electric Operations Manager • Westbrook explains update to the current renewal to ensure that material is able to continue to be ordered as the new development budget has been used a larger rate than expected. This will ensure that jobs are still going to be performed until the warehouse outsourcing contract is complete. • The contract has a not to exceed amount of $5 ,000,000 • Triggs asks if $5 million will be enough to make it through o Westbrook confirms, this should be good enough until the new vendor is in agreement with Georgetown o Bethapudi adds that there is hope that particular contract will be in place by the start of May • Westbrook also confirms that there are no changes to the contract itself, it is simply a renewal. • Motion to approve by Jones, and seconded by Triggs; vote passes 4 -1 (Butler absent) Board moves into Executive Session at 5:32 PM Executive Session In compliance with the Open Meetings Act, Chapter 551, Government Code, Vernon's Texas Codes, Annotated, the items listed below will be discussed in closed session and are subject to action in the regular session. J. Section 551.086: Compe titive Matters • Purchased Power Update Board moves back into Regular Session at 5:58 PM. Adjournment MOTION by Triggs, seconded by Jones to adjourn the Board Meeting APPROVED 4-1 (Butler absent) Electric Board Meeting Adjourned at 5:58 PM.