2.2 ERMUSR 04-11-2017 - Laserfiche WebLink

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5.1 Organizational Growth On February 23, 2017,the ERMU leadership team held an introductory meeting with the two new Commissioners. During that meeting, it became apparent that there were some frustrations among the leadership team regarding the Technical Services Superintendent vacancy, anticipated retirements, and current staffing levels. Mr. Adams shared that he wanted to let the other Commissioners know about these issues that came to the surface so that we can address them with short term actions as well as long term strategic planning. There was lengthy discussion on the open Technical Services Superintendent position, current staffing levels, and succession planning. The Commission offered some suggestions on how to work through some of the more immediate challenges. Commissioner Westgaard shared the importance of determining the right sizing; for a utility of this size, how many people should you have? He suggested trying to benchmark this against one of our peer groups. There was further discussion. Chair Dietz didn't want staff to panic, and suggested waiting for further analyzation until after the interviews were held. He felt that at that point we'd have a better understanding of what we have to work with and what else we may need. Chair Dietz also noted that there were a lot of unknowns with the territory acquisition and if staff underestimated the amount of work involved, and the manpower it would require, than that should be discussed with the Wage&Benefits Committee. (At 4:55 p.m. Commissioner Thompson excused himself from the remainder of the meeting.) 5.2 Landfill Gas Plant to Electric Generation Facility Performance for 2016 At their discretion, Elk River Municipal Utilities can provide bonus payments to Sherburne County and Waste Management/Elk River Landfill on an annual basis provided the financial means and plant capacity factors are met. The bonus payments are not guaranteed and can change or be eliminated based on certain factors. Mr. Sagstetter shared that 2016 was a challenging year; production was down, expenses were up,therefore no bonus payments were made to Waste Management or Sherburne County. 5.3 2016 Electric Reliability Report Minnesota Rules Chapter 7826 Public Utilities Commission Electric Utility Standards cover safety, reliability, service, and reporting requirements. Per 7826.0100(A), municipal utilities are exempt from these requirements. However,the ERMU Commission adopted a number of parts of this chapter as a Distribution Reliability Standard policy requiring annual reporting on system reliability. Mr. Fuchs presented the APPA eReliability Tracker Annual Report for Elk River Municipal Utilities. In 2016, our reliability numbers remained excellent. Mr. Fuchs went over the reliability indexes and explained how those results tie into our Performance Page 5 Special Meeting of the Elk River Municipal Utilities Commission March 13,2017 40