Board Meeting - January 14, 2016

MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE BOARD OF PUBLIC WORKS

A regular meeting of the Board of Public Works was held at the Hastings Utilities Board Room on Thursday, January 14, 2016, at 9:00 a.m.  This meeting was preceded by notice duly published in the Hastings Tribune on Tuesday, January 12, 2016, and by notices duly posted in the lobby of Hastings Utilities, 1228 North Denver Avenue, and the City Hall, 220 N. Hastings Avenue, and was therefore open to the public.

Present: Hunt, Kully, Shoemaker, Dewalt

Also Present: Schultes, Meyer, Vrooman, Leonhardt, Cox, Stange, Cogley, Schawang, Odom, Goebel, Barfknecht, Crecelius, Ptak, Hartman, Tony Hermann (Hastings Tribune), and HEDC visitors Dave Rippe, Maggie Vaughan and Devon Wetteland

Chairman Shoemaker stated that the Board of Public Works is subject to the Open Meetings Laws and acknowledged that the Open Meetings Law poster has been posted in the room.  He also declared a quorum of members present.

The Pledge of Allegiance was recited.

There were no public comments.

Marv Schultes informed the Board that staff had been contacted by the Moody Bond Rating Agency.  They are conducting a review of the Electric System Revenue Bonds, which is a periodical review.

Marv thanked the Electric Department for their quick response to an outage on South Burlington.  It was determined to be caused by a blown lightning arrestor.  The Board discussed sharing outage information on the Hastings Utilities' website.  The IT Department will be asked to look into the issue.

Marv thanked Everett Goebel for his service as a Councilman and Liaison to the Board of Public Works.  He has announced that he will not run for re-election in November but will be completing his current term.

Lori Hartman gave a report on the 2015 HR Statistics Summary.

1/1/15 – 205 employees.  12/31/15 – 213 employees.  12 separations during 2015, divided by 209 (average number of employees for the year) equals 5.7% turnover

The Board considered a one year agreement with the Hastings Economic Development Corporation (HEDC).  Dave Ptak revised the agreement to reflect the new fiscal year budget.  Dave Rippe thanked the Board for their consideration of the $125,000 annual contribution.  He introduced Maggie Vaughan who has been hired as the Director of Talent Solutions and will work part-time until she graduates from Hastings College in May and then will continue as full-time, and Devon Wetteland, a Hastings College sophomore who is helping Maggie with some of the activities that HEDC is undertaking to kick off the Talent Initiative.  Both Maggie and Devon concurred that using social media to keep people informed is a good tool, one that is used at Hastings College to keep students informed.

Moved by Dewalt, seconded by Kully, to approve an Agreement with Hastings Economic Development Corporation to contribute $125,000 to HEDC for one year (2016-2017 budgets).  Roll Call:  Ayes; Dewalt, Kully, Hunt, Shoemaker.  Nays; None.  Motion carried.

Committee Reports

that the City Council approved the awarding of a contract with Van Kirk Contracting for the construction of the sanitary sewer district.  Schultes said that a Transition Agreement could still apply if approved by the Board.

Moved by Dewalt, seconded by Kully, that the following items on the Consent Agenda be approved:

Roll Call:  Ayes; Dewalt, Kully, Hunt, Shoemaker.  Nays; None.  Motion carried.

Jeanette Dewalt reminded the Board that in the future, discussion on the check list should not take place during the Consent Agenda approval process.

Moved by Hunt, seconded by Dewalt, to approve check no. 29036 to Kully Pipe & Steel Corp. in the amount of $445.29.  Roll Call:  Ayes; Hunt, Dewalt, Shoemaker.  Nays; None.  Kully abstained.  Motion carried.

Moved by Hunt, seconded by Kully, to approve check no. 29106 to SID #1 of Clay County, Nebraska in the amount of $48.82.  Roll Call:  Ayes; Hunt, Kully, Dewalt.  Nays; None.  Shoemaker abstained.  Motion carried.

Moved by Kully, seconded by Dewalt, to approve the following work order:

PL-675  Replacement of original water sampling equipment for boiler water quality control on WEC-1.      Estimated Cost:  $69,715

Roll Call:  Ayes; Kully, Dewalt, Shoemaker, Hunt.  Nays; None.  Motion carried.

The Board considered a one year agreement with the Hastings Area Chamber of Commerce.  Dave Ptak revised the agreement to reflect the new fiscal year budget.

Moved by Dewalt, seconded by Kully, to approve an Agreement with the Hastings Area Chamber of Commerce to contribute up to $30,000 to the Chamber for one year (2016-2017 budgets).  Roll Call:  Ayes; Dewalt, Kully, Hunt, Shoemaker.  Nays; None.  Motion carried.

The Board discussed information provided in the packet on In Lieu of Taxes.  Discussion on whether In Lieu of Taxes should be paid on Wholesale Sales in 2016 took place.  Shoemaker said that a committee had met last year that included City Council members that recommended not including wholesale sales in the In Lieu of Tax transfer.  Council Liaison Odom suggested at that time that the committee give a presentation on the subject to the City Council.  Attorney Ptak reported that he feels the ordinance states that taxes could be paid on the Wholesale Electric Sales.  Shoemaker said that he feels the ordinance provides a cap on the amount that can be transferred, but does not feel it is a mandate to pay the cap.

Moved by Dewalt, that the Board and staff put together whatever information is needed to get to the City Council for them to be able to make a decision on the In Lieu of Tax transfer being on retail or retail and wholesale, and therefore the ordinance that we're talking about from 2011, we either decide that we are going to continue with the ordinance or the City Council wants to go ahead and approve what we looked at in May of 2015 and not pay on wholesale.  The motion died for lack of a second and Dewalt withdrew her motion.

Kully asked the Liaisons if a joint worksession in February would be feasible.

Moved by Hunt, seconded by Kully, to respectfully request a joint meeting of the Board with the City Council to discuss the In Lieu of Tax payment on wholesale sales during the calendar year 2016.  Roll Call:  Ayes; Hunt, Kully, Dewalt, Shoemaker.  Nays; None.  Motion carried.

Shoemaker asked Ptak how the In Lieu of Tax transfers are made relative to the lack of inclusion of other political subdivisions in our transfer.  Ptak said that the In Lieu of Tax transfers are based on bonded indebtedness, not based on actual ownership or anything else.  It's based on the revenue generated as a proprietary function system.

Moved by Hunt, seconded by Kully, that this Board go into Closed Session, which Closed Session is clearly necessary for the protection of the public interest and for the prevention of needless injury to the reputation of an individual, which individual has not requested a public meeting, in order to discuss certain matters relating to personnel and that said Closed Session will consist of a strategy session relative to negotiations.  Roll Call:  Ayes; Hunt, Kully, Shoemaker, Dewalt.  Nays; None.  Motion carried.

The meeting closed to the public at 10:30 a.m.  The executive session consisted of Board Members, Council Liaisons, Marv Schultes, Al Meyer, Dave Ptak, and Lori Hartman.

Moved by Dewalt, seconded by Kully, that the meeting be reopened to the public at 11:34 a.m., and that no decisions were made nor official actions taken during said Closed Session.  Roll Call:  Ayes; Dewalt, Kully, Shoemaker, Hunt.  Nays; None.  Motion carried.

Hunt left following the Executive Session at 11:34 a.m.

Marty Stange gave a presentation on Irrigation Well Water Pumping.  The purpose of the presentation was to show that irrigators cannot raise their pumps and suck the nitrates off the top as was questioned by a Board member.  To be able to show beneficial use of the nitrate water would require dual pumps be installed at each irrigation well.

Moved by Dewalt, seconded by Kully, to approve a Small Power & Cogeneration Interconnection Agreement with Timothy & Pamela Smith.  Roll Call:  Ayes; Dewalt, Kully, Shoemaker.  Nays; None.  Motion carried.

The October 2015 Monthly Report was presented and discussed.

The Board asked for a report on street lighting at the next meeting, along with a discussion on preparedness for the new fiscal year.

There were no additional Board member comments.

The Board discussed the list of Miscellaneous and Future Agenda Items.  They asked for the Report from the Land Lease Committee at the next meeting along with a discussion of Parameters for work to be charged to Intra-City Services Fund.  The report on HU Staffing Study Consultants will be moved to a March or April meeting.

The Board added to Future Agenda Items for February a discussion on HU's change to a new fiscal year and how that will affect PPGA.

Dave Ptak mentioned that after reading of customers leaving NPPD, is Hastings Utilities making contact with these entities.  The Board asked for an update on Marketing Wholesale Power.

The explosion in downtown Omaha was discussed.  It looks like the cause may have been digging from a fiber company.  Schultes stressed the dangerous situations that utility workers face working with electricity and natural gas and thanked the Hastings Utilities employees for a job well done with the complicated work on the natural gas project in downtown Hastings.

The meeting adjourned at 12:05 p.m.