10-13-2015 ERMU MIN - Laserfiche WebLink

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discussion. Troy Adams distributed and went over a map with the different areas and the timeframes we'll be acquiring them from Connexus. There was further discussion. Mike O'Neill shared that at 9:00 a.m.this morning,600 customers were transferred over from the Connexus 1B area and that it went outstanding. The outage lasted just three minutes and the meter technicians were able to install over 200 meters. All of the employees,across the board, gave it their all and worked together to help ensure everything went as smooth as possible. There was further discussion. Daryl Thompson made a motion to approve a$2.00 per kW temporary demand rate reduction to begin with the November 2015 billing and continue through the 2016 calendar year,to be re-evaluated at that time. Al Nadeau seconded the motion. Motion carried 3-0. 4.2 Payment in Lieu of Taxes(PILOT)and Other Donations to the City of Elk River On September 8,2015,the commission reviewed proposed changes to the PILOT Policy that would delay PILOT for the areas acquired from the recent Connexus electric service territory transfer agreement. Based on commission direction, staff has strengthened the language to be specific to the March 20,2015,electric service territory transfer agreement. Staff recommended the commission adopt effective immediately the proposed October 13,2015,revision to ERMU Policy 8.13. Troy Adams pointed out that currently the PILOT Policy outlines in section 3.0,Donated Electricity,that ERMU shall donate all electricity to the City of Elk River for all of their facilities not associated with enterprise funds of the City of Elk River. Since the September meeting,staff have had discussions with the City about an option to maintain the level of donation to the city and reduce the extremely burdensome administration process involved to do so. Jennie Nelson and Theresa Slominski went over the process involved with recording and posting the donations through the billing system and general ledger. The process requires significant staff time and due to its manual nature is also subject to human and keying errors. Troy Adams explained that ERMU and city staff have been evaluating increasing the PILOT percentage contribution from 3%to 4%,and eliminating the donated electricity not associated with street lights and signal lights. An increase in the PILOT of 1%with an offsetting reduction for the elimination of donated electricity(with the exception of street and signal lights)would be nearly a cash neutral policy change. Due to the 2016 budget approval process,utilities and city staff agree that a January 1,2016,implementation would be best. However,to allow city staff to incorporate the proposed change into their budget, staff is recommending the commission adopt the second proposed policy language change to be effective January 1,2016. There was further discussion. Page 3 Regular meeting of the Elk River Municipal Utilities Commission October 13,2015