07-14-2020 ERMU MIN - Laserfiche WebLink

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Commissioner Westgaard encouraged all members to be comfortable asking for more time to come to a decision on their vote. For Question 7 — One Voice there was a vote of "neither agree nor disagree" with the standard that the commission members support the majority decision even without a unanimous vote. There was also a comment that stated, "On occasion it was not a unanimous vote, but it was upheld as one." Chair Dietz commented that this can be challenging when members of the public want to know how specific commission members voted on an item, and how important it is to communicate that regardless of how they voted they support the decision of the board. For Question 8 — One Employee, there was a "disagree" vote on the standard that the Commission as a body never gives direction to any ERMU staff member other than the general manager. Chair Dietz shared that he disagreed with the perspective that the Commission only has one employee, rather that all employees are responsible to the Commission as the governing body of the company. Commissioner Stewart contributed her perspective that the standard was suggesting that it was the general manager's responsibility to disseminate the commission's requests to staff. Ms. Slominski concurred. Commissioner Westgaard suggested a wording change to clarify that the general manager is the commission's single direct report staff. There was agreement to change the wording in future surveys. The survey included five open-ended questions regarding the Commission's performance and asked what, if anything, they should start or stop doing, as well as what they should do more or less of. The Commission went over the open ended questions, and had discussion on the following comments from the survey, "During the financial review, does the commission desire higher sales and profits month -to -month or a balanced approach of conservation and reliability at an affordable cost and rate?" Commissioner Westgaard noted that this was his question and that he was seeking to understand the Commission's expectation between improving sales and profits month -to -month and delivering services at a lower rate. Commissioner Westgaard noted that the Commission is running a business that needs to complete projects, replace equipment, and compensate staff. Commissioner Stewart responded that ERMU is a not -for - profit business so the focus should be on reasonable rates and reliability. She noted that the recently completed rate study gives the Commission information on how much revenue is required for operations. There was discussion. Chair Dietz commented that there is a fine line between providing reasonable rates and fulfilling debt obligations. Chair Dietz commented that he thinks ERMU is doing a good job with this balance, noting that at the end of the projections from the rate study, ERMU will have only raised electric rates about 1.5% over six years. There was discussion. For next year, Commissioner Stewart requested analysis and year-to-year comparisons of the evaluations to see if there are changes that should be identified and discussed. Elk River Municipal Utilities Commission Meeting Minutes July 14, 2020 Page 3