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HomeMy WebLinkAboutLight Comm Minutes 3/3/1999Light Commissioners Minutes March 3, 1999 Present: Chairman McCarter, Commissioners Amoroso, Robinson and Royle John D'Agostino, Town Manager Jack Beliveau, Director, Light Department Dan Van Oudhoven, Electric Department Temporary Accounting Officer 1. The meeting was called to order at 7:OOPM followed by the pledge of allegiance. 2. Review Minutes of February 08, 1999 Under Cost of Temporary Help on page 2, Mrs. Royle would like to amend the minutes to state that she brought to the attention of the commission that the actual percentage should be 35% versus the 65% that Mr. Beliveau used to calculate the difference in cost between temporary and permanent help. Motion: To approve the minutes of February 08, 1999 with the amendment. (Amoroso — Royle) All in favor. Passes 3. Discussion with Light Department Director Jack Beliveau Mr. Beliveau updated the Light Commissioners on the status of the following, while referencing his report " Board of Light Commissioners Meeting — 3!3!99" • Staples Bill Unfortunately, the Staples bill was taken off the warrant twice in the last six months. There were errors in the bill causing delays in payment. We ordered I copy of sofhvare and were billed for 4 copies. The recent bills have been high due to the purchase of some desks and chairs. At the time there were temporary employees, people from North Attleboro Electric and people from Harris Software in the office and they needed work stations. The Staples bill was put on last weeks warrant and this issue should be cleared up. • Telecommunication Mr. Beliveau has three names of people who are interested in participating in the Telecommunications Advisory Board. He will contact them soon. Other members of the board should include Mr. Beliveau, a representative from IDC, Mr. Azinheira, and Ms. Amicone. • Financials Our financial picture continues to be healthy. Our profit for January 1999 is $326,335 for the one -month period. This profit is consistent with our budget projections for 1999. We do anticipate losses for February and March but continue to anticipate an annual profit of $1 million. Other good news is that our profit for the last twelve months is $1.4 million. Also our cash position has improved over the past twelve months. Our cash position is $936,000 better than it was one year ago. You may notice a slight change in the financial report. Mr. Beliveau has made the change consistent with thecmethod used by our auditors in reporting our earnings. The method they are using is reporting-our net earnings before appropriation of surplus (payment in lieu of taxes). In the past he had'reported earnings after the deduction for payment in lieu of taxes. This change results in- slightly higher earnings, which will now be consistent with our audit reports. Payment hi Lieu of _Taxes: We discussed at our last meeting an increase fn the Light Departments payment m lieu of taxes. Mr. D'Agostino will address his recommendation. Mr. Beliveau stated tliat he f dly supports the ability to provide the increase Mr. D?Agostino is seeking, Mr. D'Agostino is proposing that the Light Department payment in lieu of taxes be $300,000 for FY2000, up from $150,000 this past year. The Commissioners questioned th=e= amount of previous payments, the reason for the proposed increase, whether our rates are competitive, it the water department will have a payment in lieu of taxes after they become awenterprise account, the amount that is paid for the services of the treasurer's office. Mr. McCarter would like to see if there is any other way to balance the budget without increasing the payment in lieu of taxes. Commissioners Robinson and Royle would tike further information regarding what other municipalities our size pay in lieu of taxes. Light Commissioners Mtg. Pagel of 3 02/08/99 Motion: To open public hearing regarding new large general interruptible rate schedule — (Amoruso- Royle) All in favor. Passes Mr. McCarter read the announcement that appeared in the Sun Chronicle on Friday, February 12, 1999 and the Mansfield News on Friday, February 19, 1999. ( PUBLIC NOTICE — The Mansfield Board of Light Commissioners shall consider at its next meeting on March 3, 1999, at 7:30 P.M. at the Town Hall, 4 Park Row, Mansfield, MA an addition to the existing electric rates schedules of Mansfield Electric Light Department. The addition to be considered is an interruptible industrial service rate to be effective on April 01, 1999. This rate shall be available to customers who agree to service interruption upon two hours notice and to utilize miniumn: of 600,000 kilowatt hours per month. Any questions prior to the meeting may be directed to the Mansfield Electric Light Department at (508) 261 -7361. Mr. McCarter opened the floor to anyone from the public wishing to comment. No one from the public wished to be heard. Mr. McCarter opened the floor to any Light Commissioner wishing to comment. Mr. Robinson expressed concern that the customers in Massapoag may experience low voltage due to ADM Cocoa's demand on the High Street substation. Mr. Beliveau assured Mr. Robinson and the Light Commission that he does not see a problem but if it did occur, possibly during the summer months, then ADM Cocoa would be given their two hours notice. Mr. Robinson questioned who will monitor the load and Mr. Beliveau responded that he does now and will continue to monitor. Mr. McCarter declared the public hearing regarding the new large general interruptible rate schedule closed. Motion: To approve the new large general interruptible rate schedule (Amoruso- Royle) All in favor. Passes • Staff Reorganization We have selected and brought on board, Mr. Mike Lawless as the MIS Manager for the Department. We welcome Mike to our organization. We have selected Ms. Kimberly Stoyle for the Accounting Officer position. She will begin on March 8, 1999. Mr. Van Oudenhove will remain with us for the next two to three weeks to provide continuity and a transition period. Dan has been extremely helpful to our organization over the past several months and Mr. Beliveau thanked him personally for his dedicated service and professional accomplishments. Mrs. Royle questioned how many applicants we had for the MIS position. Mr. Beliveau responded that there were 4 other applicants but that their current salaries and/or salary expectations were in excess of $60K. Mr. Lawless' beginning salary is $45K. Mr. Beliveau also noted that he negotiated the agency fee down to $5K. The typical conversion fee is 30% of first years salary, in this case it would have been between $12,000 and $14,000. Mr. Beliveau added that Mr. Lawless is an excellent candidate. Mrs. Royle requested a copy of Mr. Lawless' resume. Office procedures: We have completed our first compilation of an office procedure manual. This documentation will assist new employees and help to avoid future disruption of the flow of the Department upon the absence of any individual. • Customer Service Initiatives Newsletter — Laurie Anderson is coordinating our newsletter. We anticipate our first edition will be in the mail in April. We have also started a new Web page for Mansfield. Its address is MANSFIELDMA.COM. The Electric Department will be a sub menu item of this site. Again, we anticipate that the Web page will provide useful information to town residents and will be helpful in attracting business to the community. Customer complaints - Complaints have declined dramatically. We are continuing to work with the conservation Services Group in Westboro MA to assist residential customers in reducing their consumption. This service is free to all of our residential customers. Anyone wishing to avail themselves of this service can call us at the office or directly call the Service group at 1- 800 - 262 -9144. We are purchasing two small metering devices that a customer can attach to appliances such as a refrigerator to record consumption. This will assist customers in identifying the actual electrical use of items such as a space heater. Light Commissioners Mtg. Page 2 of 3 02/08/99 Street Lights We have repaired all of the 200 street lights, which we identified at our last meeting. While we continue to monitor and repair failed lights, we welcome any calls regarding lights, which are out of service. • Capital Purchase We have received quotes for the replacement truck which was approved at our last meeting. The AMI quote for a new Ford truck was $36,792. • REMVEC switching Last month we experienced two outages that were the result of relay miss - operation on the New England Power 115 KV system during switching. Both North Attleboro and Norton had similar experiences with several hundred customers out of service. We directed a halt to switching operations until the problem was rectified. New England Power has now taken corrective action that will prevent a repeat occurrence. • Recent Snow Storm While communities which surround us experienced electrical outages during the recent snow storm, we encountered none. Mr. Beliveau complimented the line Department staff for their diligence in preventative maintenance that maintained our system fully operational during such a storm. 4. Old Business A. Commissioners Commissioner Robinson requested that we put the Ford Truck out to competitive bid because he was not happy with the AMI quote. Commissioner Royle questioned Mr. Beliveau regarding the requirement of a Bachelor's Degree for the Business Manager's position. The commission believes that she confused this with the DPW Business Manager but Mr. Beliveau stated that he had no problem adding Otis requirement to the Light Department Business Manager's job description. Mr. Beliveau will submit a revised Light Department Business Manager's job description per Mrs. Royle's request. B. Director - None 5. New Business A. Commissioners - None B. Director - None 6. Adjournment 8:00 PM Motion: To adjourn. (Royle - Amoruso) All in Favor. Passes. Respectfully Submitted, Laurie M. Anderson Light Commissioners Mtg. Page 3 of 3 02/08/99