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Home My WebLink About2018-05-16 RMLD Citizens Advisory Board Minutes rq Ili Town of Reading !,, Meeting Minutes r � i '" := i.: OV1 r- LRK 60 Board - Committee - Commission - Council: 281100 T 18 AM 9: 27 RMLD Citizens Advisory Board Date: 2018-05-16 Time: 6:30 PM Building: Reading Municipal Light Building Location: Winfred Spurr Audio Visual Room Address: 230 Ash Street Session: Open Session Purpose: General Business Version: Final Attendees: Members - Present: Mr. George Hooper, Chair (Wilmington); Mr. Jason Small, Vice Chair (North Reading); Mr. Dennis Kelley, Secretary (Wilmington); Mr. Neil Cohen (Reading); Mr. Vivek Soni (Lynnfeld) Members - Not Present: Others Present: Mr. Phil Pacino, Board of Commissioners Ms. Coleen O'Brien, General Manager; Mr. Hamid Jaffari, Ms. Wend Markiewicz, Mr. Tom 011ila, Ms. lane Parenteau, Ms. Kathleen Rybak • Minutes Respectfully Submitted By: Mr. Dennis Kelley, Secretary Topics of Discussion: 1. Call Meeting to Order - G. Hooper, Chair Chair Hooper called the meeting of the Citizens' Advisory Board to order at 6:30 PM and noted that the meeting was being audio recorded. 2. FY18 - Q3 Financial Report - M. Markiewicz, Director of Business, Finance &Technology Materials: Presentation Slides and Financial Statements for Period Ending 3/31/18 Ms. Markiewicz reviewed the presentation slides and graphs representing the financials for the period ending March 31, 2018. Highlights of the reporting period were outlined on Slide 1. Slide 2 is a pie chart showing Cash and Investments. Ms. Markiewicz noted that 33% is the Operating Fund (cash), which is what RMLD can actually use to operate and maintain the system day-to-day. Sixty-seven percent is restricted (for various reasons) and we cannot touch those funds. Slide 3 shows a seven-year comparison of base revenue as compared to operating expenses, using FY17 and FY18 actuals (YTD through March). These operating expenses do not included power. Slide 4 represents Operating and Maintenance expenses. Ms. Markiewicz noted that through March 31 we are 1% under budget. However, when presenting the FY19 Operating Budget, she had reported that we would likely be coming in at 2.7% above budgeted costs (as a result of the March storms). The discrepancy is due to the timing of payables. Mutual aid invoices were not submitted on time and are not included in the • March numbers; they were paid in April and May. Chair Hooper asked about the difference between "sick leave buyback" and "sick leave benefits". Ms. Markiewicz responded that they are one-in-the-same, but in two Page 1 1 separate funds (cash and Investments); combined, they represent the entire sick leave buyback liability. . Mr. Small asked about power expenses, which are $2.3m more than revenue. Ms. Markiewicz noted that IRD looks at that month to month and will recoup it with the next billing cycle. Ms. Parenteau stated that the deferred fuel cash reserve is used to balance that so there are not significant increases or volatility within the consumer billing. We have been ramping that up to recoup that difference without giving customers an increase. That was driven by January fuel costs, which were approximately $lm higher than forecasted due to the cold weather. 3. Reliability Study Update - H. laffari, Director of Engineering & Operations Materials: Booth and Associates - 2015 Reliability Study - Recommendations (dated 4/17/18) Mr. laffari reported that all projects are on target. Since the last report, Item #52 has been completed. At Station 3, we have completed automation, the auto transfer bus scheme as well as the old relays have been replaced, and the reactors have been installed to drop the incident energy to an acceptable level. For the remaining items, we chose to go a different route than what was recommended as those options are not viable (construction-wise). The new Wilmington substation will address a lot of these problems. Mr. Kelley asked about a recent outage in Wilmington. Mr. laffari responded that the outage occurred during required testing of the 115kv breakers and the lockout relays. When the technician injected the current to open up the breaker on the right, it opened the breaker on the left, which dumped the entire bus and we lost half of the towns for 5-10 minutes. We identified and fixed the problem, which is why we do the testing. • 4. Organizational Study Update - C. O'Brien, General Manager Ms. O'Brien reminded the group that since there are only a few outstanding items from the Organizational Study, she would focus on updates to those. The consumer satisfaction survey will be generated once the new RMLD website is rolled out. Customers will be asked to complete the survey on-line through the website. We are also working to put the employee survey on-line. Once we have the results of both surveys, a company-wide meeting will be scheduled to review those results. Surveys are an important feedback mechanism and the team is strategizing with the help of MEAM Communications. Ms. O'Brien reported that a high level re-organization has been completed and we are now at the granular level. A re-organization is currently underway for IT and Tech Services; the Line group and Facilities will be next. We continue to work with the unions as we transition. With retirements or attrition, we continuously look at the organizational chart to be sure it meets the needs of the company going forward and to keep up with technology changes. All Career Development Plans (CDPs) are being reviewed to be sure they are all formatted consistently, policies and procedures are being written on how CDPs should be updated, and they will all be put on Share Point. CDPs will be updated on a regular basis as things change within a division. Ms. O'Brien reported that she had attended a meeting at MEAM regarding OSHA • compliance. In February of 2019 all public employees must be compliant with OSHA. RMLD appears to be in good shape except for some logistics; for example, if we issue a policy and we put in on SharePoint, everyone gets an email notification that there is a new policy. We will need to take that another step and have printed copies signed by employees. Addendums will be needed to all of the contracts stating that contractors Page 1 2 have to be in compliance with OSHA. RMLD will undertake a three-day self-assessment with the support of an OSHA consultant and will have until February to make corrections. • Chair Hooper asked if staff would need to be certified in OSHA 30. Ms. O'Brien responded that (were applicable) we have OSHA 1910.259 as a required training. The APPA Manual that was adopted as one component of the Safety Program is OSHA based. Mr. laffari reported that RMLD has completed and passed a recent NERC audit related to physical and cyber security. S. NEPPA Annual Meeting - G. Hooper, Chair Materials: NEPPA Annual Conference (Website) Printout Chair Hooper noted that the NEPPA Annual Conference will take place on August 19-22 in Falmouth and asked if anyone was interested in attending. Mr. Soni and Mr. Small expressed interested in attending. The group agreed to authorize up to three members to attend. Mr. Soni made a motion that the CAB authorize up to three members to attend the NEPPA Annual Conference, seconded by Mr. Small. Hearing no further discussion, motion carried 5:0:0 (5 in favor, 0 opposed, 0 absent). 6. Scheduling: Upcoming CAB Meetings and Coverage for Commissioners Meeting - G. Hooper, Chair June 200 CAB meeting will be covered by Mr. Stempeck. The June 21st Board of • Commissioners meeting will be covered by Mr. Cohen. Chair Hooper will cover the July 19"' Board of Commissioners meeting. 7. Executive Session - G. Hooper, Chair Mr. Cohen made a motion that the Citizens'Advisory Board go Into Executive Session based on Chapter 164 Section 47D exemption from public records and open meeting requirements In certain instances, to discuss competitively sensitive issues, and return to regular session for the sole purpose of adjournment, seconded by Mr. Soni. Motion passed by roll call of members present, Mr. Soni, aye; Mr. Cohen aye; Mr. Small, aye, Chair Hooper, aye, Mr. Kelley aye. 8. Adjournment - G. Hooper, Chair Mr. Kelley made a motion to adjourn the meeting of the Citizens' Advisory Board, seconded by Mr. Small. Hearing no further discussion motion carried 5:0:0 (5 in favor, 0 opposed, 0 absent). Meeting adjourned at 7:40. As approved September 19, 2018. • Page 13