5.3. ERMUSR 07-17-2012 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Elk River , II Municipal Utilities UTILITIES COMMISSION MEETING TO: FROM: Elk River Municipal Utilities Commission Al Nadeau—Trustee John Dietz—Chair Troy Adams, P.E. —General Manager Daryl Thompson—Vice Chair Theresa Slominski—Finance and Office Manager MEETING DATE: AGENDA ITEM NUMBER: July 17, 2012 5.3 SUBJECT: American Public Power Association 2012 National Conference Update BACKGROUND: Elk River Municipal Utilities recently had representation in attendance at the American Public Power Association(APPA) 2012 National Conference and the Pre-Conference Seminars. This APPA event is public power's largest annual gathering. "The APPA National Conference helps utility leaders and policymakers connect with industry leaders, partners and peers while learning about the complex issues facing public power utilities. The program features leading political, economic, business and public policy thinkers addressing the critical issues shaping our industry's future." DISCUSSION: Elk River Municipal Utilities is known for our excellent safe and reliable utility services. We are financially strong and in a great position for future growth. We have adopted policies and implemented practices to protect our customers and community now and into the future. Our staff, Commission, City, customers, and community should take great pride Elk River Municipal Utilities and what an excellent utility we have grown to be. Even with all our accomplishments there are always opportunities for improvement because our industry is always undergoing change. When attending industry events, staff is always looking for new ideas that may help ERMU improve our services. During this event and the pre- conference seminars, there were many opportunities to engage other public power management and policy makers to discuss issues facing Elk River Municipal Utilities. There were a number of reoccurring discussion points and takeaways from those conversations, the pre-conference seminars, and the conference break-out sessions. As follows in no particular order are the top five topics from the APPA National Conference for ERMU Commission discussion: Communication—One of the reoccurring discussion points was the critical need for public power to share our story. When public power utilities provide safe and highly reliable service,our owner(our customers) can become complacent with the excellent services and not ever really PONEREO ar RIJ Page 1 of 3 NATURE Reliable Public Power Provider P o w r a r o To $ r n v r