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HomeMy WebLinkAboutLIGHTCOMM MIN03042009 Mansfield Municipal Electric Department Minutes of Light Commissioners Meeting March 4, 2009 -~!' ~r; ;'\ '~lr~ i \ -.-'-' ')~'1'1 I':: 1 \: 2 \ Present: Chairman Ann Baldwin; Vice Chairman Jess Aptowitz; Coillmissioner Sandra Levine; Commissioner George Dentino; Commissioner Kevin Moran; Director Gary Babin; Engineer Chris Cox; Engineer Ann Langille; Line Foreman Gary D' Ambra; Staff Accountant Ken Thomson; Town Manager Secretary Karen Dumont and Town Manager John D' Agostino Light Commissioners Meeting The meeting was called to order at 7:00 PM followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. Chairman Baldwin opened the meeting at 7:02 pm. She said they would begin by addressing the complaint made by citizen William Clemmey regarding Clinical Science Laboratory and asked if everyone had the opportunity to read the supplemental material Mr. Clemmey had given them. When everyone said they had, she opened the floor to any questions. Chairman Baldwin then invited Mr. Amoruso to join them to address any questions being asked. Commissioner Dentino questioned title and mortgage information on the utility easement. He maintained that the entire problem centers on the easement. He pointed out that in the first transfer of the property to Mr. Amoruso's LLC that the title was transferred with easements. Commissioner Dentino then noted that the mortgage also made references to the utility easements as well. Director Babin said he believes that when the title transfer document refers to easements, it refers to those in the public way, not a private way. Mr. Amoruso wondered why anyone would buy property if it didn't have access to public utilities in the public way. Commissioner Dentino then pointed out that the purchase and sales document also made reference to easements. Mr. Amoruso believes that refers to any easement to the public utilities in the road. He thinks it refers to the public way and does not refer to private land. Commissioner Dentino then referred to a sketch of the property from 2005 which showed the high voltage line well within the 25 ft. drainage easement. He commented on how similar it was to the sketch that was included in the MMED report. Mr. Amoruso wondered where Commissioner Dentino was going with his questions. Commissioner Dentino said he was showing that the high voltage cable coming out of the switch, as well as from Switch #1, have been within the confines of the drainage easement since the industrial park was built. 11 Chairman Baldwin questioned Mr. Clemmey as to what information had been sent to the State Ethics Commission. He stated he did not send the whole packet of information to them. He said he couldn't remember exactly what was sent. Mr. Clemmey then stated that he gave his complaint and the packet of information to the Board and that it was now their responsibility to decide whether to forward it to the State Ethics Commission or the Attorney General's Office. Discussion ensued amongst the Board on investigating the report and whether or not it should be sent to the State Ethics Commission. Commissioner Levine made a motion to send the MMED report to the State Ethics Commission and let them decide if there is something wrong. Commissioner Dentino seconded the motion but the vote did not take place. Town Manager D' Agostino noted that ifthe State Ethics Commission did find something warranting an investigation, they would share that information with the Attorney General's office. Commissioner Dentino was against limiting the information to the State Ethics Commission only. He believed it should be sent to both. Commissioner Levine was opposed to the Board sending any of the information anywhere as she believed it was the responsibility of Mr. Clemmey since it was his complaint. She said the Board had already handled this matter and if the plaintiff didn't like the way it was handled, he could take it to the next level himself. Commissioner Dentino disagreed, saying he didn't believe the Board had handled this matter as of yet. Vice Chairman Aptowitz said he agreed with a little of what everyone had said. He commented that they were just the Light Commissioners, not judge and jury. He added that he believed the Selectmen shouldn't even be Light Commissioners. He reminded the Board that they agreed to have an independent source review this situation and that the Electrical Inspector did and found that no permit was needed. However, he still believes an independent source should take a look at this and that Mr. Amoruso should not have a problem with that since he believes he has done nothing wrong. Mr. Amoruso disagreed with that. He believes that if the Board sends the matter on to the Attorney General that appears as if the Board in fact has made a judgment on it, effectively saying that an impropriety had occurred, and then he said he would be forced to take his own legal approach. Town Manager D' Agostino suggested submitting the MMED report to the State Ethics Commission. Commissioner Levine withdrew her first motion and made a new one. Motion: That the Light Commissioners identify the material received from William Clemmey as a citizen complaint which has been made for the second time and send the MMED report, which is in response to the complaint, along with it to the State Ethics Commission (Levine/Moran) Passes 4/0/1 (Dentino abstained) ." Vice Chairman Aptowitz wanted it on record that although he is currently employed by Remax, he was not a part of Remax at the time Mr. Amoruso's purchase and sales was in place. Commissioner Dentino still disagreed with the motion. Chairman Baldwin allowed more questions and a lengthy discussion ensued. Commissioner Dentino stated that Turner Brothers signed an easement for Cedar Heights on January 5, 2006 and that it was filed on April 24, 2006. He pointed out that MMED had the easement eleven months before they did the work. Director Babin said that Turner Brothers gave the easement to service Turner Brothers only but that they made it very clear that they didn't want it to include the cable serving Clinical Science. Commissioner Dentino said that the bottom line was that they signed it, that the area included the cable and MMED didn't have to do the work. Director Babin believes that Commissioner Dentino's interpretation was a stretch because the easement granted by Turner Brothers was never intended to include the cable and that MMED believes it would be inappropriate to do something of this nature against the Turner Brothers wishes. Commissioner Dentino made a motion that all the information be sent to the Attorney General's office instead of State Ethics. Vice Chairman Aptowitz seconded it for discussion. A discussion continued and Chairman Baldwin had to call for a five minute recess. Chairman Baldwin reconvened the meeting of the Electric Light Commission at 8:03. Clerk Moran stated that he disagreed with the action the Board was taking as there was another former Selectman, as well as the Town Attorney, mentioned in the citizen's complaint. Clerk Moran believed that collusion was inferred here. Mr. Amoruso also made it clear that he too was not in agreement with sending the complaint to the Attorney General as it implied impropriety. He reiterated that he would be forced to take his own legal action. Motion: To send all of the information collected from all sources regarding the citizen complaint against Clinical Science to the Attorney General's office (Dentino/Aptowitz) Fails 1/2/2 (Moran and Levine against and Baldwin and Aptowitz abstained) 2008 DPU Report - Director Babin and Staff Accountant Thomson then presented the DPU report which must be filed on a calendar year basis. Director Babin stated that MMED had an 8.6% rate of return while the target rate had been only 6% He stated that the DPU allows MMED only an 8% rate of return. He explained that the main reason for being over the 8% was because two extremely large projects, The Green at Mansfield and Mansfield Crossing, were completed in 2008. " The total cost of MMED's work to provide service to these two customers, nearly $730,000, was booked as gross plant when closing the projects out and treated as non- operating income. The value of this plant contributed 1.9% to MMED's rate of return, which was highly unusual but occurred because the Mansfield Crossing was the largest customer project that MMED had ever performed and the Green at Mansfield was also a very large project. In the cost of service study, it was projected that only a 0.2% rate of return was derived from non-operating revenue. It was noted that the rate of return for 2008 based on energy sales was 6.7% for the year, well below the statutory limit. Director Babin explained that a mechanism existed so that any money deemed by the Board to be in excess of the desired rate of return could flow back to the customers through the Generation Charge if the Board voted to do so. An amount of $226,000 would have to be returned to the ratepayers in order to reduce the 8.6% rate of return to 8%. An amount of $248,286 would be required to lower the rate of return for the year to 6% on operating revenues, which is the desired rate of return the Board originally voted. Director Babin said the staff recommends the higher figure. Vice Chairman Aptowitz pointed out that the second six months of the DPU report has yet to be audited. Town Manager D'Agostino said that the DPU does not require audited financial statements for the report. Motion: To accept MMED's 2008 DPU report and have the Light Department Manager and Light Commissioners sign the report for submission to the DPU. (Aptowitz/Levine) Passes 5/0 Motion: That the MMED establish a rate stabilization fund for the purposes of returning calendar year MMED rates-of-return in excess of the statutory limit to its ratepayers. Further, that amounts voted by the Board to be placed in this fund be returned to ratepayers through the calculation of the quarterly Generation Charge. (Aptowitz/Moran) Passes 5/0 Motion: To move $248,286 into this rate stabilization fund. (Moran/Aptowitz) Passes 5/0 Chairman Baldwin then stated that the Light Department had three minutes remaining to finish their business before the Board had to begin Selectmen's business. Engineers Cox and Langille gave a brief update on the East Mansfield Substation. Engineer Langille reported that MMED has retained a landscape architect, Weston and Sampson, who will be working with MMED and the neighbors to develop an acceptable landscape plan for the exterior of the substation. Engineer Cox stated that MMED has also received a more detailed design from PLM. Finally, it was reiterated that public meeting was scheduled for March 30 to present the plans to the Board and neighborhood residents. 11 Chairman Baldwin then asked the Board if they would be willing to hold their old and new business as it was time to adjourn the Light Commissioners meeting and begin the Selectmen's meeting. Vice Chairman Aptowitz said he had one quick question and brought up the bankruptcy memo the Board received from Director Babin. He stressed the urgency of collections during this terrible economic climate and voiced his concerns about the ratepayers getting stuck paying for other people's electricity. He thought the collections policy should be revisited and made more stringent then asked that it be put on the agenda for the next meeting. Clerk Moran said he too wanted to discuss it because he had a fear that tightening the policy could actually have the opposite effect and cause businesses to go under. Chairman Baldwin will put it on the next agenda and reiterated that the Board should hold the remainder oftheir old and new business until the next meeting so that the Selectmen's meeting could begin. The Board agreed but Director Babin said he had a statement he wanted to read. Director Babin said there had been some Light Department business that had been discussed at a Selectmen's meeting that he wanted to clarify. Both he and the MMED Staff Accountant had gone to training seminars prior to the Board implementing their new policies on seminars and training. He said the invoices were paid at a later date after the policies were implemented. Director Babin then explained that his trip to Washington D.C. is one of his duties as President of NEPP A. He said he and other managers met personally with Congressmen Barney Prank and Ed Markey and spoke at length with them about the cost of the Canal Generating Station to MMED's ratepayers, which was approximately $2.3 million in 2008, or 1 cent per kwh. He then stated that the purpose of the visits was to support legislation pending before Congress on ISO accountability, something that he felt was lacking on the Canal issue. He believed this was a very worthwhile trip for the Mansfield ratepayers to make their concerns clear to the elected Congressional representatives. He also noted that the expenses of his trip were paid by NEPPA. Director Babin respectfully requested once again that he be included in all discussions concerning the Light Department. He indicated that Light Plant items were again being raised and discussed at Selectmen meetings where he had not been notified ahead of time. He indicated that his attendance at such meetings, if requested, would not be a problem. Commissioner Dentino pointed out how time consuming the job of President of NEPP A is in that he listed the numerous meetings and conferences, as well as the duties, from a list given to the Board by Director Babin. Director Babin made it clear to the Board that he understands his responsibilities to the Town of Mansfield and stated that he does put in extra time, including weekends, to compensate for his time spent on NEPP A duties. He also stated that he feels that he represents both the department and the Mansfield ratepayers in this capacity and is very proud to do so. He hoped that the Board would view his representation of the Town and MMED in a positive light. .. Motion: To adjourn the Light Commissioners meeting at 8:44 (Dentino/Aptowitz) Passes 5/0 1~~ Signature of Clerk Date of Approval