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HomeMy WebLinkAboutLight Comm Minutes 2/8/1999Light Commissioners Minutes February 8, 1999 REVISED Present: Chairman McCarter, Commissioners Amoruso, Madan, and Royle John D'Agostino, Town Manager Jack Beliveau, Director, Light Department Gary D'Ambra, Electric Department Line Foreman Dan Van Oudhoven, Electric Department Temporary Accounting Officer Frank O'Kom, ADM — Cocoa Mayhew D. Seavey, Jr., PLM Consultant 1. The meeting was called to order at 7:10pm followed by the pledge of allegiance. 2. Questions and Comments —None 3. Discussion with PLM consultant Mayhew Seavey • Mr. Seavey discussed the rate design for ADM - Cocoa. Under the proposed "interruptible" rate, ADM would pay 5 cents per kilowatt hour of electricty. The commissioners have scheduled a public hearing on the proposed rate at their next meeting. The residents of Mansfield must be notified of this hearing via an announcement that is to appear no less than 2 weeks prior to the next meeting in the newspaper with the largest circulation in Mansfield. Mr. Seavey was excused by the board so that he could attend another board meeting. • Mr. O'Kom thanked the board for their consideration in this matter and assured them that he and his company would be willing to volunteer their ability to generate power if an emergency ever warranted that need. 4. 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 — 2/8/99 ", copy attached. • Recognitions Mr. Beliveau wanted to thank Shawn Bell, Jay Thompson, Gary D'Ambra and Fred Mayo of the Electric Department and Mike Ahem of the Highway Department for their effort with the Christmas Lighting. He also recognized Ron Cutillo for his outstanding effort in jumping in and helping out without being asked. • FY — 1999 Budget, Capital Budget and Updated Financials Unaudited 1998 results are a profit of $920,000. December drop off in revenue — As Mr. Beliveau mentioned last month, he was concerned over the fact that our revenue had fallen in November and December. He has investigated this. Its cause is the shift in meter reading schedules, which caused December revenue to shift into January 1999. Motion: To approve the 1" three capital items for an estimated $64,000. for 1999 ( Royle - Amomso) All in Favor. Passes Motion: To approve the radio and GIS systems at $50,000. Each contingent on town a approval for these 2 items ( Royle - Amomso ) All in Favor. Passes Motion: To approve the concept of a SCADA system (Mr. Beliveau will come back with bids) (Boyle - Amomso ) All in Favor. Passes Motion: To approve the FY 1999 Budget for the Electric Light Department as proposed (Madan - Royle )AR in Favor. Passes Light Commissioners Mtg Page 1 of 3 02/08/99 Customer Billing Several customers, in particular those whose meter readings occurred in the middle of December, called to express concern that their bills doubled or tripled from December to January. This situation occurred because of a change in the December meter reading schedule that shortened the residential bills to less than 25 days in December and more than 35 days in January. In some extreme instances, the difference was 21 days in December and 38 days in January or an 81% increase in the number of billing days. Additionally, the weather conspired providing triple the degree -days within the billing period going from 453 to 1317 degree -days. Thus, electric heat customers in particular saw their bills triple from December to January. While the meter reading routes have been traditionally shortened in December because of the holidays, this year was worse than others and more noticeable to customers than in the past. We have reviewed or created new meter reading schedules for all of 1999 and eliminated this from happening again in the future. Customers who wish to schedule their payments over several months without penalty may contact us to make such arrangements. Mr. Beliveau has also implemented a customer complaint log, which is included with your packages this evening, to give you some measure of the type and number of complaints we receive and their resolution. Also included, are some sample bills and weather information for background information. • Fiber Optic Initiative We advertised for interested individuals on the Cable TV system. Some have applied; however, Mr. Beliveau has not received the responses yet in order to form a committee. • Gilbert St. Substation We awarded a contract to Eastern Utilities Associates and expect results at the end of February or early March. There are no other actions to report on this project. Mr. Beliveau would like to mention, however, that this project will have a significant impact upon our financial picture. We will lose the interest we earn on the $4,000,000 we have on deposit and increase our depreciation expense by $200,000 per year. The total effect will be a reduction in earnings of approximately $400,000 per year as a result of the construction of this substation. To the extent that our system continues to grow, we will offset this with increased revenues. • Staff Reorganization The two new Financial Assistants are on board and doing well. We did, however have a two -week period where the former temporary help had left. Mr. Beliveau hired a single temporary person for two weeks to fill in. We also had a period when several people were out sick simultaneously during the past month. Our new staff will require a period of training but they are both making excellent progresses in their duties. Mr. Beliveau and Bea Kearney have begun the interview process for the accounting position and will complete second interviews on February 10. Mr. Beliveau anticipates making offers at the end of the week and having a permanent accountant on board by the end of February. Mr. Beliveau has advertised the MIS position and hopes to fill the position on a permanent basis, likewise by the end of February. • Costs of Temporary Help As we are nearing the end of the temporary employee assignments, Mr. Beliveau did a calculation of the total cost involved as of the end of 1998. For the period September through December 31, our additional costs associated with using temporary help was $13,000 over and above the expenses we would have incurred had the permanent help remained on board. This was an extremely small price to pay considering the possibility of the loss of millions of dollars we would have incurred had we failed to get our bills out and failed to pay our own bills in a timely manner. We would also have suffered dramatic ratepayer dissatisfaction. Mrs. Royle 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. • Street Lights As suggested at our last meeting, we have surveyed all streetlights in town to determine which lights are out of service. We found a total of 163 non - operative lights and scheduled their repair over the next few weeks. At the same time, we began a survey of all lights. We have completed approximately 60% of the system and believe the total number of streetlights will be approximately 4000. We are currently billing the town for the kilowatt hour consumption only for 1475 lights or less than half of the total. We receive $3792 per month for these lights, whereas the actual cost is over $20,000 per month. Light Commissioners Mtg Page 2 of 3 02/08/99 r Harris Computer Mr. Beliveau has called Nathan Roic as requested but he has not returned any calls. Mr. Beliveau reviewed the record of correspondence with Harris computer for the past three years and brought it with him this evening for the commissions review. The record of correspondence suggests that we have had frequent problems with our system over the past three years with little change in the frequency. We have noticed, however, a distinct improvement in the service we are receiving from Harris. We are working with them to create an incentive in our service contract which will penalize them for taking longer than the contract period of four hours to respond to a problem. While we are optimistic that these problems are getting better, we are keeping our options open with respect to alternatives. We do, however, continue to experience problems where the computer system simply changes a bill or does the subtraction or multiplication wrong. Mr. Beliveau has included an example of this type of error with your packages. • Customer Service Newsletter — Laurie Anderson met with Mary Harrington from NEPPA regarding the development a newsletter to be included with the customers bills. Customer service representatives have delegated authority to equitably resolve customer questions at their level. • REMVEC switching As members of the New England Power pool, we are required to perform switching operations at the request of the pool. In order to complete repairs to a 1 IS kV line, we have been required to perform switching operations in the morning at 5:00 AM and again in the evening. We have had to utilize four men on overtime for approximately 5 hours of overtime each per day or 100 hours of overtime per week. This work may continue for up to one year, potentially costing us close to $250,000 in total. We have no choice but to comply. It does, however, point out the benefit of a SCADA system, which would allow one individual to perform this switching and reduce the potential cost by 75 %. While we will not be able to install a SCDAD system in time to effect this project, it emphasizes the need for one in the near future. • Lawsuits We received a notice of deposition in the Solomon suit. Mr. D'Ambra and Mr. Beliveau will be giving deposition testimony in that suit. We received a notice of dismissal in the McCarthy suit. There are two other suits that Mr. Beliveau is aware of, Furguson and Larch. There has been no activity in either case. 5. Old Business A. Commissioners • Mrs. Royle questioned Mr. D'Agostino regarding the Rubin & Rudman bill. Mr. D'Agostino told the group that he was not authorized to pay this bill and was it was legal's recommendation not to pay this bill. On Wednesday, Mr. Magerotti would be available at the meeting to discuss this issue further. B. Director - None 6. New Business A. Commissioners • Mr. McCarter told Mr. Beliveau that he hoped that the personnel problems had finally come to the end so that he could concentrate on the internet and cable. B. Director - None 7. Adjournment 9:35PM Motion: To adjourn. (Amoruso — Royle) All in Favor. Passes. Respectfully Submitted, r Laurie M. Anderson Light Commissioners Mtg Page 3 of 3 02/08/99