3.0 ERMU MINUTES 11-13-2008 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Page 5 Regular meeting of the Elk River Municipal Utilities Commission October 14, 2008 Connexus Energy has elected to terminate this agreement to be effective September 30, 2018. This is purely a financial decision on Great River Energy and Connexus' part. They have indicated they can make more money selling power and energy on the open market than selling it to us. Several options for fixture power and energy were discussed. John Dietz asked if something needed to be done now or if it would be better to wait. Jerry Takle replied that the existing contract will remain in effect for 10 years. John Dietz asked if it would be better to go through GRE directly. Jerry Takle said we are a big customer and could possibly deal directly with GRE. Further discussion followed. Troy Adams remarked no matter what the future decision is it will cost more money. 5.5 Review Staff Restructurine At the last Elk River Municipal Utilities Commission meeting, a proposed workload redistribution within the electric department was discussed. The reason for this restructuring is to balance the workload, due to the lack of new developments staff is doing substantially more maintenance. Staff has discussed the proposed shifting of duties with the affected employees and staff has started the cross training process. John Dietz voiced his confusion as to why the restructuring process was started prior to the meeting, and why it was needed. Previously when Glenn's retirement was discussed it was stated that a new lineman would not be hired and would not be necessary because of the slowdown in workload with little construction happening. John also stated that he had heard there was a potential of layoffs and that had never been discussed at the commission level. At the September Elk River Municipal Utilities Commission meeting staff was directed to return to this months meeting with employees involved in this restructuring. John Dietz asked Mark Fuchs why this was already underway. Mark Fuchs stated he felt like he was caught in the middle and that as he moved into his position there was some work to be done. Staff responded it was due to the lack of projects involving subcontractors, and the need for additional lineman to complete some projects prior to frost. At this time Commissioners asked for Mike Thiry to speak. Mike Thiry provided the Comrnissioners with a listing of duties he performs along with a letter. Mike Thiry said the discussion he had with staff was that lay-offs would happen if this restructuring was not done. John Dietz asked if any other employees involved in this restructuring were present? Line Foreman, Wade Lovelette informed the Commission he has started working on the MSDS sheets that Mike Thiry was previously doing, (which is very time consuming), basically everything that is used needs to have an MSDS sheet and some are very hard to find. He said Mike also took care of the permits required for the State and County road projects. Another part of his job was to direct the tree trimming crews to the areas that are in need of this and to notify affected homeowners. Michael Price said he has been assigned the job of taking oil samples from the transformers for PCB analysis. This is very time consuming and he has enough to do in the metering department already, but when asked if he could do this he felt obligated to say yes.