6.1. ERMUSR 09-10-2013 - Laserfiche WebLink

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A:4-h 111 Elk River t Municipal Utilities UTILITIES COMMISSION MEETING TO: FROM: Elk River Municipal Utilities Commission Theresa Slominski — Finance and Office Manager John Dietz—Chair Al Nadeau— Vice Chair Daryl Thompson—Trustee MEETING DATE: AGENDA ITEM NUMBER: September 10, 2013 6.1 SUBJECT: Staff Update DISCUSSION: We had 2,206 credit card payment transactions in August, compared to 2,197 in July. The fee for August should be $4,963.50 The software research team has been active in exploring the NISC iVUE software as an option for Elk River Municipal Utilities. We have had a number of conference calls and website demos, have made reference calls, and have visited a utility in Albert Lea, MN to see the software in action and ask questions of the users. We are having an onsite demo on September 4`h and 5th to expose more staff to its functionality, and then assess if it truly is a good fit. If this is determined to be the software of choice, we want to send four staff to the annual conference to be able to ask more questions of their current users, as well as NISC team members, to best prepare for the conversion. (We would be sending staff to this conference in place of the PMan Users Group conference we usually attend in September.) We received our health insurance renewal for 2014. We have had minimal increases the past four years, at 4.5%, 0%, and 0% and even a 9.5% decrease in 2012 (see graph attached). However this year, with some increased utilization and all of the changes in the industry, our rates are going up 22%. (As a bit of history, we had a 20.6% increase in 2005.) Our insurance broker is working with Blue Cross and Blue Shield to gather information for our options. I should have that this week and then the Wage and Benefit Committee will need to meet and review this information to bring back to the Commission. In July, the City issued an RFP for Financial Advisory Services to commence on October 1st. Interviews were held on Friday, August 19th with the three finalist firms: Ehlers (the current provider), Northland Securities, and Springsted. Participating in the interviews was a committee of Cal Portner, Tim Simon, Lorrie Ziemer, Brian Beeman, Stuart Wilson and myself. The committee decided upon Springsted and this will be going the City Council on September 16`h. O. 1IrfAEO it rtiTha Page 1 of NATURE Reliable Public Power Provider P OW FRED To SEeVE 102