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HomeMy WebLinkAboutmin light commission 01/12/05 IVEtJ Mansfield Municipal Electric Departmehtf'l. r-p\[~: OFF ICE r Minutes of Light Commissioners M~~nB I I M1, ,: , 0 January 12,2005 hA;~ ;ELO MASS,",CHUSETTS Present: Chairman Roger Achille; Vice Chairman Louis P. Amoruso; Clerk Bernie Dolan; Commissioner Mike McCue; Commissioner Steve MacCaffrie; Director Gary Babin; Chief Financial Officer Kimberly Stoyle; Engineer Ann Langille; Engineer Chris Cox; Line Foreman Gary D' Ambra; Office Manager Laurie Anderson; Financial Assistant Jacqueline Lee and Manager John D' Agostino Light Commissioners Meeting The meeting was called to order at 7:35 followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. Minutes of December 1, 2004 Motion: To approve (Amoruso/Dolan) Passes 5/0 Minutes of December 15, 2004 Motion: To approve (Amoruso/McCue) Passes 4/0/1 (MacCaffrie abstains) r- Minutes of December 22, 2004 Motion: To approve (Amoruso/Dolan) Passes 5/0 Director's Report Financial Report - Chief Financial Officer, Kimberly Stoyle, reviewed the profit and loss statement and the balance sheet for November. Total metered sales revenue for November was $2,009,338. Total power production expense was $1,361,277. Net income before payment in lieu of taxes for the month was $ 256,829. There was an after payment in lieu profit of$199,829. CFO Stoyle reported the YTD net income through November was $1,993,880, down 12% from the same period in 2003. There was a YTD net increase to surplus of $1,453,880, down 17% from last year at this time. r- Vice Chairman Amoruso questioned the negative $5,667 under Administrative & General expenses on the Profit and Loss Statement. CFO Stoyle explained it was a reclassification of expense items to capital accounts, all of which contributed $50,000 to MMED's apparent profit for the month. In other words, the net income for the month was overstated by approximately $50,000 simply due to several accounting adjustments r- completed during the month. Director Babin stated that these accounting entries were professional engineering services associated with Gilbert Street Substation which were reclassified from expense to capital accounts. CFO Stoyle also reported she put through the 2003 adjusting entries from the 2003 audit now that it had been accepted by the Board. These are now reflected on the balance sheet. Approval of MMED Appliance Rebate Program for 2005 - Director Babin stated that the Board had originally authorized an Energy Star appliance rebate program for MMED's customers through December 31, 2004. He explained that the MMED staff is recommending that the program be extended through 2005. He asked Office Manager Laurie Anderson to provide for the Board a summary of the results of the current program through 2004. Ms. Anderson reported there was a total of 423 customers who had received rebates; 85 from 2003 purchases and 338 from 2004 purchases of qualifying appliances. The total dollar amount rebated to those customers was $33,575. She explained that 39 customers were declined rebates because the appliances purchased were not Energy Star rated and 3 were declined as they had already received a rebate for that calendar year. r- Chairman Achille inquired as to how long MMED had offered this program. Ms. Anderson said it was approved in November 2003 through December 31, 2004 but the Board vote made it retroactive for appliances purchased back to January 1, 2003. Chairman Achille asked if there was any reason the Board needed to renew the policy every year or could they just continue the policy for the foreseeable future. Director Babin explained that if the Board authorized the program on a going forward basis, MMED staff would report back to them on an annual basis with the results. Mr. Babin also explained that this program helps fulfill MMED's requirement under the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources regulations that ~ of 1 % of annual revenues be spent on residential conservation programs. Commissioner MacCaffrie made a motion to extend the program. Commissioner McCue said he would second the motion with discussion. He questioned whether the costs associated with the program were an above the line expense. Director Babin answered that these costs were classified as an above the line operating expense. Commissioner McCue inquired as to whether the program included rebates for corporations. Director Babin responded that no rebates are currently offered by MMED for commercial customers but he would look into what other municipal light plants were doing and report back in the future to the Board. Commissioner McCue said he believed it was worth looking into the possibility of such rebates. Motion: To extend the MMED Appliance Rebate Program through 12/31/08 (MacCaffrie/McCue) Passes 5/0 r' 2 New Business r Director Babin informed the Board that he had modified the timing of the MMED newsletter, The Live Wire, to save money in the FY05 budget. Currently, it is published on a monthly basis and Director Babin plans to change it to a quarterly newsletter. In addition, where it is now used as a bill stuffer, in the future it would be a direct mailing. Under the new plan, the newsletter would be seasonal, going out in March, June, September and December, but it would still contain the Town's calendar of events as well as seasonal energy saving tips. The primary reason for making this change is that the cost for producing the newsletter would be reduced from approximately $55,000 annually to approximately $28,000 annually, $10,000 of which would be postage for the direct mailing. Director Babin feels it would be more effective to do a direct mailer because more people would actually see it, as opposed to something included in the envelope with the bill, while at the same time producing a reduction in costs by being sent out less frequently. Addressing his question to Manager D' Agostino, Commissioner McCue wondered if a quarterly mailing would mean sacrificing getting information out on a timely basis regarding trash pick-up schedule changes, brush pick-up, etc. Manager D' Agostino answered that this change would have no impact since there are other means of dispersing the information; such as the DPW, internet, or the Town could do their own direct mailing. r- Clerk Dolan asked what is the lead time to get the newsletter out. Ms. Anderson said the information would need to be submitted the first week of the month prior to the month the newsletter was being mailed. Chairman Achille reiterated there would be a savings to the customer, as well as greater efficiency. Director Babin said MMED will be sending out notification to the customers that the newsletter would be changed to a quarterly basis in the February newsletter. The February newsletter will be the last monthly newsletter to be sent out as a bill stuffer. Vice Chairman Amoruso asked why the revised newsletter couldn't be sent quarterly but as a bill stuffer in the customer's bill. Director Babin said he believes people are more apt to read something if it's mailed as a stand alone item. Vice Chairman Amoruso questioned that, as he said he does the opposite. He believes it appears more reputable if it's included with the bill and that if it is sent separately it appears more like junk mail. He also pointed out there would be a savings of $10,000 on postage. Director Babin reiterated he thought more people would read it if it were sent separately and would like to try it that way, although he would defer to the Board's wishes. The Board indicated that he should proceed in that direction and evaluate the results. r- Demonstration by Mansfield High School Robotics Team - Director Babin stated that at the meeting where the Board authorized a $5,000 donation to the Mansfield High School Robotics program, Selectman MacCaffrie had expressed an interest in having the 3 r- MHS Robotics team make a presentation to the Board. Director Babin then introduced MMED's Engineer, Ann Langille, who serves as an advisor to the MHS robotics team, to introduce the team. Engineer Langille thanked the Board for allowing the Robotics team to come and make a presentation. Ms. Langille noted that the timing of the presentation was appropriate since the team had just begun their season. The regional competition in Manchester, New Hampshire will be held March 3-5 and she encouraged everyone to attend. She then introduced Jim Carver-Brown, a science teacher from Mansfield High School, who serves as a faculty advisor for the team. Mr. Carver-Brown distributed packets of information to the Board and the staff and introduced the robotics students in attendance; Sam Pinsky, Tim Leonard and Alex Proal. A brief film was also shown from last year's competition in Houston. Mr. Carver-Brown thanked Engineer Langille for the many hours she has spent helping out with the Robotics team. Mr. Carver-Brown also mentioned that Ms. Langille is helping the students take advantage of an available $4.5 million in scholarships by researching the availability of such funds for possible submittal of applications by MHS students. Mr. Carver-Brown said there were 4 professional engineers in the community who have also helped out, as well as financial sponsorship from various other sources. r Mr. Carver-Brown pointed out that in the initial year of the FIRST Robotics national robotics competition, 48 teams participated. It is expected that in 2005, close to 1,000 teams will participate. Based on the MHS team performance in 2004, they are eligible to go to the national finals in Georgia. There are 24 students on the Mansfield High School team, 4 of which are females. This is Mansfield's 5th year of participation and the tasks required of the participating robotics teams changes every year. Last years task was to lift storage crates while this years task is to make a robot capable of optically finding targets. Sam Pinsky, the veteran of the team, spoke about his experiences in the program. He said he had the opportunity to learn about programming. Tim Leonard offered that he has learned teamwork and other practical skills. He said the scholarship money is also a bonus. Commissioner MacCaffrie invited Mr. Carver-Brown and his team to come back to the Board if they were in need of additional funding in order to get to the finals in Atlanta. New Business Commissioner MacCaffrie wanted to recognize Corporal Broderick, who was seated in the audience. Corporal Broderick is relatively new in town and interested in town government. He was in attendance at the meeting at the express invitation of Mr. MacCaffrie to observe the Town government process in Mansfield. r- 4 r- Commissioner McCue brought up the subject of a wind farm concept. He recalled that there was no interest in this previously but wondered if it wasn't progressing. CFO Stoyle explained that the former Director, Jack Beliveau, advised against the project that had been previously proposed because the small amount of power that was generated was not worth the cost. He believed it was best to let others join in, pay the cost of the study and see what came of it. Commissioner McCue suggested that it would be worth keeping an eye on this wind energy project. Questions and Comments George Dentino, 2 Gladiola Terrace, stated that previously he had made the Board aware of expenditures they had voted on which were not legal. He mentioned the 1999 legal opinion from Rubin and Rudman that Commissioner MacCaffrie had read at a prior meeting. Rubin and Rudman had been asked whether MMED had the authority to a) make a PILOT; b) donate services to the Town; and c) make a $20,000 gift to social services for the utility assistance program. r- Mr. Dentino stated he would not discuss the PILOT. He said the donation of services to the Town was illegal per the lawyer's opinion because employees are paid with ratepayer's funds rather than general Town funds. Rates are set only to cover the expenses of the plant. According to Mr. Dentino's calculations, the services provided by MMED, such as sign hanging, Christmas decorations, school assistance, sports lighting, etc. total approximately $80,000 to $100,000. He claims this money was spent illegally against the attorney's opinion. Rubin and Rudman said MMED has no authority to make donations to other departments and the only way to be sure would be to seek an advisory opinion from the Massachusetts Department of Telecommunications and Energy (DTE), which Mr. Dentino claimed that MMED did get in February 2002. Mr. Dentino went on to say the DTE opinion stated MMED's ability to make donations "does not extend to making gifts for Town purposes". Examples were the donation to the homeless veteran's shelter and plaques for Little League. Mr. Dentino said it was unfortunate this was the night of the MHS Robotics presentation because he loved the Robotics program but urged the Board to put it in an article in front of the people, and perhaps get even more funding for the program. He wondered if each of the Board members had a copy of the DTE opinion. Vice Chairman Amoruso disagreed with Mr. Dentino's opinions, saying that further into the Rubin and Rudman opinion it states that the Light Commissioners can authorize donations from the Light Dept. to the Town. Mr. Dentino said it could not because of the DTE report and wanted to know why then, the donation to the Veteran's shelter couldn't be made. Commissioner MacCaffrie answered that it was because they were a private organization and were located outside of Mansfield. Mr. Dentino reminded the Board they also have a Massachusetts Department of Revenue (DOR) opinion that says the Town can't accept gifts, including fuel assistance, from the r 5 . . r Light Dept. Commissioner MacCaffrie pointed out that the fuel assistance is used for electric bills only, not gas or oil. Clerk Dolan commented that Mr. Dentino had a habit of using the terms "got caught" and "sneaking" and that it implied the Board was doing something wrong. Clerk Dolan stated the Board openly discusses issues and openly votes on them. Mr. Dolan said that when it was brought to the Board's attention they could not use the fuel assistance money for gas or oil, they said OK and corrected it. Mr. Dentino disagreed and said one Board member stated during the discussions that there must be a way to circumvent the law, while another Board member said it's a nice thing to do so maybe they should figure out a way to do it even though it isn't legal. Mr. Dentino advised the Board to carefully look at the DOR opinion. He believed the 1999 Rubin and Rudman opinion was archaic. Members of the Board questioned whether the Town had received a DOR opinion. It was later determined that the opinion had been rendered to the town of Chicopee but that the Town had received a copy. Chairman Achille said the next Light Commissioner's meeting would be the second Wednesday in February, on February 9 at 7:30 PM. Adjournment r Motion: To adjourn the Light Commissioner's meeting at 8:55 Passes 5/0 Respectfully submitted: Jacqueline Lee 2/9/05 ~~(h~~ . gnature of 2--:7~~r Date of Approval r-- 6