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HomeMy WebLinkAboutLIGHTCOMM MIN01242011 Mansfield Municipal Electric Department Minutes of Light Commissioners Meeting January 24, 2011 RECEIVED TOWN CLERKS OFFICE Present: Chairman Jess Aptowitz; Vice Chairman George Dentino; Clerk Oli~J }tAJ1l~Jskt to: 02 Commissioner Douglas Annino; Director Gary Babin; Staff Accountant Ken ThomsoIJi1~..Mti~lO Assistant Jacqueline Lee and Town Manager Bill Ross HA sSt..CHUSETTS Light Commissioners Meeting The meeting was called to order at 7:02 PM followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. Chairman Aptowitz stated that this meeting was being televised and taped by Mansfield Cable Access. Motion: To approve the minutes of the December 13,2010 Light Commissioner's meeting (An nino/Kozlowski) Passes 3/0 (Dentino and Moran were not in attendance) Questions and Comments Resident Karl Clemmey spoke about public safety issues regarding the lights at the train station as he thinks the ratepayers deserve better service. He said he went to the train station that evening and counted ten lights that are out. Mr. Clemmey pointed out that it was very dark and icy and that hundreds of people are at the train station every day. He said he has met with Director Babin about this before and he doesn't understand why the lights are not fixed. Vice Chairman Dentino joined the meeting at 7:07. Mr. Clemmey told the Board that both Mark Cook and Gary D' Ambra have lists of the lights that are out and stated that Director Babin told Town Manager Ross that Mr. Clemmey was only looking for free electricity. Mr. Clemmey also said that the previous Town Manager, Director Babin and three former selectmen had the poles removed from his property on a Saturday while he was out of town. He pointed out that this work was done at time and a half at the expense of the ratepayers. Town Manager Ross said that he would not have handled this situation in that manner. He said he would have called Mr. Clemmey and asked him if he wanted to pay for the poles before removing them. He also said he would not have had the poles removed on a Saturday but what's done is done. Mr. Clemmey stated that when he wanted poles for Erin Centre or for his farm on Essex Street he paid for them. He said he has an issue with the fact that when he wanted to move the poles he had paid for from his property on South Main Street to Essex Street Director Babin told him he could not do that. Mr. Clemmey told the Board that he would like to be told by the Board tonight that the lights in the train station parking lot will go back on within the next week. Director Babin said that he was unaware of these lists oflights and would check with Line Foreman D' Ambra the next day. Chairman Aptowitz assured Mr. Clemmey that Director Babin and Town - Manager Ross would talk to Line Foreman D' Ambra the following day and the lights would get repaired. Director Babin told the Board that he was concerned with the tone of Mr. Clemmey's personal attacks on him and that he did not appreciate being chastised in a public session. He stated the parking lot arrangement was an agreement between Mr. Clemmey and the Town. He said that he had asked and been instructed by the prior Town Manager to remove the poles in Mr. Clemmey's lot once his leasing agreement with the Town ended. Mr. Clemmey then reminded the Board that he had written them a letter a year and a half ago and had never received a response from them. He said the letter was a complaint against Director Babin. Vice Chairman Dentino questioned whether MMED had an easement or right of way when they took the poles from Mr. Clemmey's property. Town Manager Ross said they did not. Vice Chairman Dentino said then possibly MMED never had the right to be on the property. Chairman Aptowitz said whether they had the right or not it doesn't matter and everyone should just move on. Vice Chairman Dentino disagreed saying it does matter and it doesn't excuse what happened. He believed they should address it. Commissioner Annino said you can't just go on someone's property and begin working as it opens up the possibility for litigation. Motion: To open the Public Hearing for Secondary Facilities on Private Property and to suspend it until the completion of the matter regarding the removal of poles from Mr. Clemmey's property. (Annino/Dentino) Passes 4/0 New Town Counsel Paul DeRensis was in attendance and was asked his opinion. He said, however, that he wouldn't want to hazard an opinion without doing soine work first. Director Babin said the Light Department had no involvement in the land issue regarding the rental of Mr. Clemmey's lot by the Town for parking. MMED's responsibility was to remove the poles and streetlights upon direction from the Town Manager and the department didn't do anything wrong. Chairman Aptowitz asked Town Manager Ross, as Light Department Manager, if he had a suggestion as to how to go forward with this. Town Manager Ross said he has told Director Babin and the other Town department heads that if they question an order they are given then they should raise it with him. Secondary Facilities on North Main Street Private Property - Chairman Aptowitz began the public hearing on secondary facilities. Town Manager Ross asked the Board to review the language the MMED staff came up with and give their opinion as to whether they find it acceptable. Vice Chairman Dentino said he would still like to see the sale of a building as reason to transfer the ownership of the secondary. Chairman Aptowitz said he did not agree. 2 - Vice Chairman Dentino wondered what it is that they're trying to accomplish. He believed that they do not want responsibility for the secondaries. Commissioner Annino questioned what if the property is sold to a family member. Vice Chairman Dentino said family or not, it shouldn't matter. Resident Bernard O'Malley, 46 Park Street, said he owns property at 121 North Main Street. He questioned the reason behind this and wondered if it was to limit the Town's responsibility or to limit repairs. Chairman Aptowitz answered that it is for several reasons from all the different commISSIOners. Mr. O'Malley then questioned the Board as to what the advantages were to the North Main Street property owners for undergrounding their service. Vice Chairman Dentino said the aesthetic view benefitted the property owners. He also pointed out that if something goes wrong there is a cost and other communities don't take the responsibility that MMED has. Mr. O'Malley asked if Director Babin would meet with him to clarify things. Resident Lou Amoruso, 6 Brookside Road, pointed out that it was the Town that decided to underground the facilities. He stated that the Town made the decision and the property owners were required to accept the work. He believes if the property owners had known they would be given the responsibility of the secondaries then they would have said to just leave the poles where they were. He also pointed out that the businesses lost money during the construction for undergrounding the facilities. Motion: To close the Public Hearing for Secondary Facilities on Private Property (Kozlowski/Dentino) Passes 4/0 Motion: To accept the language proposed by MMED staff for the North Main Street secondaries (Annino/Kozlowski) Passes 3/1 (Dentino against) Commissioner Annino suggested the Board should discuss Vice Chairman Dentino's amendment regarding sale of the property. Chairman Aptowitz said he was not comfortable voting the amendment tonight. Vice Chairman Dentino said that if they vote to exclude a sale then there would be legal action if another Board tried to change that. Motion: To amend the original motion with the addition ofthe verbiage o!",'sale of building" (Dentino/ Annino) Fails 2/2 (Aptowitz and Kozlowski against) Town Counsel DeRensis told the Board that they're not filing a tariff but that he didn't want to comment without having a chance to review it. Town Manager Ross said it is the equivalent to a tariffbut that it doesn't have to be filed. Mr. Amoruso thought the Board would be violating the open meeting law if they voted an amendment tonight. Town Counsel DeRensis believed that the Board had given adequate notice about this issue and wouldn't violate the open meeting law. 3 .. - Financial Report for September 201 0 - Director Babin presented the financial statements for November 2010. He told the Board the net operating income year-to-date through November 2010 was $1,357,641. MMED's operating cash position through November was $8,060,654 while $906,791 of this is owed to the customers because of an over-collection of the Generation Charge. Director Babin stated that energy sales y-t-d are strong. MMED's depreciation fund balance stands at $5,601,190 which could pay for a good portion of the new substation. Staff Accountant Thomson reported that total operating expenses were $816,000, which was 6.2% under budget. This is due to purchased power being $711,000 under budget and also administrative and general expenses were $127,000 under budget. He said this year's payroll expenses will be lower than last year's figures because MMED is no longer allowed to fund the retirement benefits account which was being funded at $194,000 in FYIO. Staff Accountant Thomson said that transmission expenses were up 53% from last year. Vice Chairman Dentino questioned the graph showing billed kWh sales per month and wondered why there was such a drastic drop from September to October 2009-2010. Director Babin suggested that this may be due to the billing lag because you're being billed for the prior month's consumption. Generation Charge for First Quarter- Director Babin told the Board that the I st quarter Generation Charge has been established at 9.83 cents, which is down 1.89 cents from the 4th quarter. . He said that the previous over-collection of the Generation Charge was now being returned to the ratepayers as a 1.61 cent reduction in the estimated rate. Vice Chairman Dentino questioned the monthly under/over collection. He said that MMED over- collected for 8 months in an attempt to recover a $965,000 under-collection then ended up over- collecting. He wondered if MMED couldn't have adjusted sooner. Chairman Aptowitz asked if this couldn't be done monthly. Director Babin answered that the actual cost bounces around which is one of the problems and the tariff requires every 3 months. Debt Service for MMWEC Projects- Director Babin put together and reviewed a summary of debt service for MMWEC projects to educate the new members of the Board per Vice Chairman Dentino's request. Director Babin stated that if all this debt was retired today, it would reduce the rates by two cents. Town Manager Ross asked if there were any MMWEC plans that might add to debt service costs. Director Babin said that MMWEC has a couple of projects that MMED is not involved with, such as a new plant known as Stony Brook 3. East Mansfield Substation Update- Director Babin said that DPU hearings were held last Thursday for the National Grid's transmission line filing. He testified on behalf of MMED to support this project. He believes that there should be a DPU decision by early summer. Vice Chairman Dentino questioned all of the bills coming in such as PLM bills in regards to the substation. Director Babin explained that PLM is a consultant because they have the heavy technical experience to design the station. He said they are also involved in the National Grid negotiations. Vice Chairman Dentino pointed out then that MMED is just administrative in this 4 .. process. Director Babin said no, that MMED is guiding the process and overseeing the consultants' work. Commissioner Moran joined the meeting at 9: 10. Old and New Business - Director Babin said that there was a significant storm on January 12, 2011 and noted that there were very few outages. He said that there was only one significant outage. He also pointed out that MMED's aggressive tree trimming policy has paid off. Clerk Kozlowski said that a citizen had approached him with questions about the Light Department. He said he referred the person to Director Babin who did a great job in explaining things to him and spent a significant amount of time with him. He thanked Director Babin for doing this. Vice Chairman Dentino stated that MMED is the best Light Department in the state. He noted that their response time is phenomenal and that MMED has fewer linemen compared to other communities. Vice Chairman Dentino asked Director Babin if there had been an accident in front of the Light Department in which someone had slipped and fallen on the ice and ended up going to the hospital. Director Babin said yes and that Town Manager Ross had been notified. Town Manager Ross said that a workman's comp report had been filed. Vice Chairman Dentino said he likes to be notified when things like that happen and asked if this person would be out for a while. Town Manager Ross said yes, this person could be out for a while. Vice Chairman Dentino asked Chairman Aptowitz if he had received the accounts receivable aging he had asked for at a prior meeting. Chairman Aptowitz said he had received one for the commercial accounts but not the residential. He said he did not have any concerns about the commercial accounts that were listed on there. The next meeting was set for Wednesday, February 9, to be held before the Selectmen's meeting. Chairman Aptowitz said he attended the MMA conference where Constellation had a booth. He said they will be contacting Town Manager Ross about a presentation. Chairman Aptowitz thanked the MMED staff on a good job on the audit. Commissioner Annino, following up on Chairman Aptowitz's comment, also noted that he did not feel it was appropriate for Director Babin to be publicly chastised in these meetings. Motion: To adjourn the Light Commissioners meeting at 9:30 (Kozlowski) Respectfully su?mitted:Jg.cqueline Lee 3/14/11 ~~ -' c ---:; /Lf- (f Date of Approval Sign6mre-ofClerk 5 -