6.1b ERMUSR 05-09-2017 - Laserfiche WebLink

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./j Elk River Municipal Utilities UTILITIES COMMISSION MEETING TO: FROM: ERMU Commission Theresa Slominski—Finance & Office Manager MEETING DATE: AGENDA ITEM NUMBER: May 9, 2017 6.l b SUBJECT: Staff Update ACTION REQUESTED: Discussion on signatures. DISCUSSION: We had 65 shut-offs on April 18 and of those only three are still off, and one "skip" (determined to be vacant and the responsible party absent.) Most people paid within two days and staff did a great job at handling each situation! We had some unwanted excitement when a customer who missed the deadline to be turned on the same day became very angry and went out and sat in his truck in the parking lot rather than leaving the premises. A call was placed to the police department and they quickly came over, talked to the individual and helped remedy the situation. The officers were also present at the site for the turn on the next day. We are extremely grateful for the over-the-top support we receive from the police department on a regular basis. In addition to helping out during shut-offs they also help with fraud situations, angry customers, investigating complaints, safety training, and general information when we need advice on suspected criminal activity. As follow-up to our audit discussion at last month's commission meeting, I spoke with our audit partner, Andy Berg, regarding Power Cost Adjustment (PCA) recognition. It was decided that we have proper recognition of the PCA in our financial statements without utilizing a separate account. There were three considerations given to arrive at this determination: • 1) There is no requirement placed on ERMU to charge or credit the PCA back to the customers (although this has historically been our practice), and so there is no requirement to recognize an asset or a liability. • 2) The question "What is the benefit of recording the PCA differently?" was evaluated. It was determined that there would be perhaps increased transparency when it covers multiple years,however it is an infrequent occurrence that the distribution of a charge or credit would not be in the same year and cross multiple years. Given that, if we were to have the same situation again, we may record it differently and the end of the year, however, monthly recording would remain the same. • 3) In terms of the audit, even an item of$500,000 is an insignificant amount for a$35 million revenue company. Page 1 of 2 147