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