Electric $ 184, PIWS $ 7, WWWS $ 2,709.83

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Nigel Long
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1 April 21, 2015 The regular meeting of the Board of Commissioners of PUD No. One of Wahkiakum County, Washington was held on the above date with President Eugene Healy presiding. Also in attendance were Board Vice President Robert Jungers, Board Secretary Dennis Reid, Manager David Tramblie, Auditor Erin Wilson, Attorney Timothy Hanigan, Secretary Jennifer Lorenzo, and Wahkiakum County Eagle Newspaper Reporter Diana Zimmerman. Commissioner Healy asked if there was a motion to approve the agenda. Commissioner Reid moved to approve the agenda as submitted. Commissioner Jungers seconded. The motion passed 3-0. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: On a motion from Commissioner Jungers and a second from Commissioner Reid, the minutes of the board meeting held on April 7, 2015 were approved as submitted. The motion passed 3-0. APPROVAL OF FINANCES With regard to the following electric and water vouchers submitted by Auditor Erin Wilson, Commissioner Reid made a motion to approve the vouchers for electric and water as submitted. Commissioner Jungers seconded the motion. Commissioner Reid questioned the payment for leasehold excise tax. Auditor Wilson explained that the leasehold excise tax is for the PUD s pole contact rentals. The PUD is to charge the leasehold tax that is due to the state for those who have pole contact rentals. Discussion ensued. The motion passed 3-0. Electric $ 184, PIWS $ 7, WWWS $ 2, PUBLIC COMMENT: None. OPEN DESCUSSION PERIOD: Commissioner Reid reported that at the beginning of the year, the commissioners completed the manager s evaluation and began a discussion on the manager s salary. However, they were waiting for some information from the PUD attorney before moving on. The commissioners now have the information and Commissioner Reid would like the topic of the Manager s pay added to the agenda under action items for the next scheduled meeting. Discussion ensued. PUD Meeting Minutes 1

2 REPORTS: Attorney Hanigan: Attorney Hanigan reported that the Town of Cathlamet has picked up the PUD s latest proposal regarding the water contract and is in the process of reviewing it. Manager Tramblie: Manager Tramblie reported that he is scheduled to open the bids for the new excavator tomorrow morning. Manager Tramblie reported that he purchased 5200 feet of HDPE 4-inch pipe for delivery in late June. He made this purchase now because he was made aware that there will be a 5% rate increase effective May 1 on that pipe. Discussion ensued. Manager Tramblie reported that there were two outages last week. One of the outages occurred on the Puget Island feeder. The county road crew observed an osprey who flew over and dropped an eight foot limb on all three phases, which caused a cascade effect and tripped two reclosers. Manager Tramblie stated that two reclosers should not trip at the same time and he is working with the engineers to fix that. Discussion ensued. Manager Tramblie reported that he has taken care of some housekeeping items. The annual fire extinguisher maintenance was done last week. Maintenance on work vehicles has also been done. Annual weed control for all the substations has been scheduled. Lastly, water quality reports will be due later in the year so he will begin working on those soon. Discussion ensued. Manager Tramblie reported that BPA will have a 7% electric rate increase in October of this year. The PUD may want to evaluate how it charges its customers for power and may want to look at increasing the basic charge. Discussion ensued. Auditor Wilson: Auditor Wilson provided an overview on the March financials for the electric system and both water systems. Commissioner Reid: Commissioner Reid reported that this weekend a ratepayer asked him to pass on to the PUD how happy he is with the PUD s line crew. Every time this ratepayer has had a question or needed something, it was taken care of quickly and in a good manner. Commissioner Reid reported that Skagit PUD will pay $1.3 million to fix the water break in the mainline and will not be able to fix the problem until July. Discussion ensued. PUD Meeting Minutes 2

3 Commissioner Reid reported that Skamania PUD is in the process to rebuild five substations over the next 20 years, and will be using a bond issue to pay for that. Commissioner Reid reported that Kitsap County just recently had their state audit. While the utility has had a clean audit for the last 20 years, there were two findings this year. The first finding was for not explaining the state retirement benefits to the commissioners. Auditor Wilson stated that the last time she spoke to the commissioners regarding that was about two years ago and at that time the commissioners declined participation. She will bring new information to the commissioners to discuss and document for their files. Discussion ensued. Commissioner Reid reported that the second finding was that the state auditor s wanted the commissioners to have time cards, not just for keeping time for the meetings attended and traveling, but for any work the commissioners are doing at home. Discussion ensued. Commissioner Reid reported that Lewis County is raising their base rate from $0.55 per day to $0.75 cents per day. Discussion ensued. Commissioner Reid reported that Chelan County just signed their labor contract. The contract is only for two years instead of three years because of the unknown regarding the changes in healthcare. Also, Chelan County operates sewer systems in a couple small towns and the Department of Ecology found that the systems are causing pollution of some mineral, which will be costly to fix. Discussion ensued. Commissioner Reid reported that Mason County PUD is switching to automatic meters and it is costing them $8 million to install. Commissioner Reid reported that WPUDA is pushing hard against the legislative issue on the ability of counties to impose a utility tax of 6%. This tax would be directed to those who live outside the city limits. Discussion ensued. Commissioner Reid reported that Energy Northwest continues to work on the small modular reactors. ENW will have a full-scale model of the upper section to present shortly and will submit results in ENW hopes to have approval by Discussion ensued. Commissioner Reid reported that Bonneville continues to talk back and forth regarding conservation. As of currently, nothing will cause a rate increase, however down the road it is looking like utilities may be providing their own conservation programs and BPA will not be funding them or will be providing very little funding. Discussion ensued. Commissioner Jungers: Commissioner Jungers reported that he made reservations to attend the ENW quarterly Board of Director s meeting that is to be held tomorrow. However, he just recently PUD Meeting Minutes 3

4 received the agenda for the meeting and he found that there is nothing on the agenda he would be able to add any insight to or he could take away from that would be beneficial to the PUD, therefore he has cancelled his trip. Discussion ensued. Commissioner Healy: Commissioner Healy reported that he will not be attending the PPC meetings over the next couple of months, however he will forward pertinent communications to the board. Discussion ensued. PUBLIC COMMENT: Diana Zimmerman asked about Commissioner Reid s most recent promotion. Commissioner Reid commented that he is now chair of the education committee and Vice President of WPUDA. ACTION ITEMS: Renewable Energy System Cost Recovery Program Commissioner Jungers made a motion to adopt Resolution No. 1187, A Resolution Adopting the Renewable Energy System Cost Recovery Program Policy of the District, and Commissioner Reid seconded. Discussion ensued. The motion passed 3-0. NEW BUSINESS: Manager Tramblie stated that Mark Redimann will be attending the May 5 meeting. Discussion ensued regarding Bonneville s conservation program. ADJOURNMENT: The meeting was adjourned at 9:19 a.m. PUD Meeting Minutes 4

5 Approval of the minutes of the regular meeting of April 21, Eugene Healy, President Robert Jungers, Vice President Dennis Reid, Secretary PUD Meeting Minutes 5

Electric $ 188, PIWS $ 9, WWWS $ 2,406.52

Electric $ 188, PIWS $ 9, WWWS $ 2,406.52 June 16, 2015 The regular meeting of the Board of Commissioners of PUD No. One of Wahkiakum County, Washington was held on the above date with President Eugene Healy presiding. Also in attendance were