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Page 3 <br />Regular meeting of the Elk River Municipal Utilities Commission <br />April 13, 2010 <br />John Dietz wanted to say thank you to Theresa Slominski and Lorne Franz on doing a good job on <br />f nmeials and in preparing for the audit. The more information prepared for the auditors saves time <br />and money for the Utilities. <br />5.2 Review and Consider Reserves Policy <br />At the March 9, 2010, ERMU Commission meeting, the Investment Committee provided an <br />update on the need for a reserves policy. Staff was directed to draft a reserves policy and bring back <br />to the Commission for review. Staff has utilized the resources of MMUA, Ehlers and Associates, and <br />Abdo, Eick & Meyers to compile and compare reserve policies and reserve target criteria from other <br />Minnesota municipal utilities. <br />Troy Adams reviewed the reserve criteria. A six month operating revenue less the depreciation along <br />with the annual P & I for next year is the recommended reserve policy. Tim Simon discussed the <br />recommended reserve policy for the electric and water funds. John Dietz talked about the importance <br />of having a policy and that it should be reviewed yearly. Consensus was for Troy Adams, Theresa <br />Slominski, and Tim Simon to draft a formal reserve policy for adoption at the May ERMU <br />Commission meeting. <br />5.3 Review and Consider Credit Card Payment Options <br />For several years now it has been a goal to have credit cards as an option for customers to pay <br />their bills. ERMU customers were surveyed back in 2006 and 71 % of the respondents wanted this <br />service. The offering of credit cards comes at a cost for processing the payment, but so do the rental <br />of the drop boxes, and the staff for in house processing of payments. Depending on how you collect <br />the credit card payment, the cost varies from 2% to 4% of the transaction total. After researching <br />numerous credit card vendors, Paymentus is the credit card company that ERMU would like the <br />commission to consider working with for providing credit card payments to customers. They offer a <br />combination of services such as phone payments, web payment (through a link from our website), and <br />face to face. Additionally they allow you to set the processing cost at your comfort level by utilizing <br />the convenience fee at 100% or down to 0% to be passed on to the customer. The 0% would result in <br />a 2.75% transaction fee to ERMU. Discussion followed regarding transaction fees. Daryl Thompson <br />and Jerry Gumphrey preferred the customer pay the convenience fee. John Dietz said a time frame <br />should be established to revisit the convenience fees. <br />Daryl Thompson moved to proceed with the Paymentus credit card company, have customers <br />pay the convenience fee, and re-evaluate in May 2011. Jerry Gumphrey seconded the motion. <br />Motion carried 3-0. <br />5.4 Review and Consider Wholesale Power Supply Options <br />At the March 9, 2010, ERMU Commission meeting, the commission gave authorization for <br />Troy Adams to further explore whole sale power supply options. Troy Adams talked about the recent <br />power supply coalition meeting he attended which was organized by CMMPA. At this meeting there <br />