November 29, 2022

SDCEA Board Meeting notes

 

Public comment

  • Sue Greiner asked why the At Large position was changed to Suzy Kelly’s seat while the Rural Chaffee/Lake County seat was moved to Joe Redetzke’s seat before Michael Robinson was appointed. The answer was that the bylaws allow them to change an At Large seat to a specific county seat. Suzy Kelly said they didn’t used to have an At Large seat when they had 10 board members, but since attritions reduced the board by three board members, they created an At Large position so they could be sure and cover the entire SDCEA territory more fairly. Still not clear to me why they changed the seats around now.

Sue also asked what SDCEA board positions are up for election in the spring now that the change of seats was made. The answer was that there are three seats up for election. Apparently, Joe Redetzke’s term was due to end next spring, which I think means it was only a two year term. So, Joe Redetzke (Chaffee/Lake), Blake Bennetts (Town of BV), and Michael Robinson (At Large) will all be up for election in the spring of 2023.

  • Deb Hannigan informed the SDCEA board about AVEF’s community engagement sessions in January: January 7 in Howard during the day, January 10 in Poncha Springs in the evening, and January 12 in Buena Vista in the evening. She invited the board to attend.

  • Rich Shoemaker asked:

    • When will in-person board meetings start again? answer- no plans for that; Covid still a concern.

    • Could SDCEA record meetings and provide a link on their website so that members are able to watch the meetings at a time that is more convenient to them? answer- they thought it was a good idea and will look into that.

    • What is the status of their member engagement plans discussed by the board several months ago? answer- Sarah McMahon would know but she is out of town on vacation.

    • Rich invited SDCEA to participate in the Chaffee County Sustainability planning process facilitated by Lotus Consulting. Specifically, he invited them to sign up for the Energy Focus Group, which Lotus will schedule for late January or early February. They told Rich to ask Lotus to invite them. Rich said he would.

  • Mike Wrigley asked about plans for rate restructuring

    •  What is the status of planning for rate structures?

    •  How can members be involved?

    •  What is the timeline for rate structure planning?

 He was given nebulous answers. Paul said they were going to get several revenue neutral models from their consulting company over the next few months, but then said that they would need to update the cost of service models at the beginning of the year with current financial data. Paul said the rate restructuring will be done slowly and member input will be accepted once they have narrowed down the options they want to present to members. The timeline was not specified. The timing of roll-out vs. member input was confusing; it was not clear which would come first. They did say they wanted to make sure that what happened last year doesn’t happen again.

Mike also stated that the 3-minute public comment period once a month at the board meetings is inadequate, and that a member engagement process should be prioritized. Mike was re-muted by SDCEA before he could ask any follow up questions.

Dan Daly commented on the letter AVEF sent concerning the wording change in the net metering policy, and said that they were committed to ensure full 1:1 retail credit for net metered generation. Paul also said that rates will be unbundled under the new rate structure, but that net metering will be compensated at a full 1:1 ratio, including energy and distribution.

Budget Narrative

            Budget increase of 2% per year.  Budget that was discussed in Executive Session earlier in the month was voted on and approved.  No budget details were provided during the board meeting.

Longevity pay for employees:

$1.75/calendar month of employment, minimum pay $50. In 2022, $9252.25 was paid.

Bylaw revisions:

            Section 6: Change notice of elections to 60 days (was 30 days). This will help staff have enough time to get ballots out and give members more time to return them.

            Article 2, Section 3: Personal information of board members and candidates will be protected and kept confidential. Also, Executive Session discussions/information are confidential, and any sharing of that information by a board member can be grounds for dismissal.

*These bylaws revisions were not approved due to only 5 board members being present. (Joe Redetzke is out of town, and Nick did not attend the meeting). Later in the meeting, the vote was tabled until next month. No one seemed to know where Nick was. Suzy Kelly asked whether someone could call him and see where he was and if he was okay, but no one responded to her.

Appointment of Michael Robinson to the SDCEA board to replace Suzy Kelly was voted on and approved.

Charitable Giving:

            Board approved donation of $3000 to Energy Outreach Colorado. The donation of unclaimed deposits and interest is on top of this $3000 donation.

Clarification of Capital Credits:

            Changed wording to allow capital credits to be extended to the estate of deceased members.

Net Metering Process Document to be formalized and improved to better explain the process for signing up for net metering. Special attention will be paid to setting deadlines and getting back to net-metering applicants within those deadlines.

Round Table Discussion:

 A reception for Suzy Kelly’s retirement was the only thing discussed. Thanks was given for her service.

CREA Mtg report and Tri-State report: Nothing significant to report.

  •  It was mentioned concerning Tri-State that they are still waiting for the FERC decision, which may not occur for several months.

  • As part of this discussion, Paul talked about the measure of the health of a coop. He looks at the ratio of internal operating cost to the bill from Tri-State. 2/3 to ¾ of the cost should be from Tri-State and SDCEA is at 50:50. He went on to describe the low employee count and how so many customers are second homeowners. He said that half of our costs are energy (power supply) and half are demand. Dan and other board members are concerned that they don’t understand demand charge, load factor, peak, and how we are billed by Tri-State and how costs are calculated. Suzy mentioned that members have questions, too, and the board needs to be able to explain how it works. They will put this issue on the next agenda for education of the board.

Attorney Report:

  • No news on BV Franchise Agreement; Paul said it was “up for grabs” and that they are still collecting money and remitting it to BV, but without an up-to-date agreement.

  • Got approval on Chalk Creek agreement for St. Elmo line.  Working with Colorado Central Telecom on the possibility of sharing fiber optic space in the project.

  • Illegal grow facility in Fremont County that SDCEA had to give evidence on.

CEO Report from Paul Erickson:

  • Paul got Covid again. He has been battling brain fog, traveled out-of-state twice, and hasn’t been able to do much work.

  • SDCEA added 500 new services this year, many of which are second homeowners. Paul claimed that second homeowners bring with them costs to serve, but not robust income. This includes the 206 Chateau Chaparral new services, which are usually seasonal homes occupied during the summer.

  • Paul said he will follow up with the Town of BV about the status of the Franchise Agreement.

  • Dan Daly asked about staffing. Paul Erickson said that although there has been turnover, SDCEA is fully staffed. Cost of living in BV was cited as the reason for turnover. Paul commented that there is nothing SDCEA can do about housing costs.

Manager of Finance Report

  • Revenue is down 2.1%, kWh use is down .46%

  • Expenses are up 1.2% over budget, blamed chiefly on inflation.

  • New services YTD 476, but 206 of those are for Chateau Chaparral.

  • Working with NISC to be able to apply the kWh Energy Credit to net-meter customers on their 12/31 bill. There will be no check this year, which saves on postage, printing, and staffing.

  • Safety report is excellent (EMR under 1) and that saves about $6000/year on insurance. Blake commented that, from his experience, that an EMR under 1 is not easy to achieve and congratulated all the linemen and field crews.

  • Showed slides and used a recent pole installation in Howard as an example of the rugged terrain that they have to work in. However, when questioned by Suzy about the high cost of such an installation that demanded blasting into solid rock, Gary assured the board that the “consumer covers 100% of the cost” in the Howard example. This suggests that our rugged terrain is not a budget problem for the coop, and all of SDCEA costs for new service installations are paid for by the customer?

  • Wildfire mitigation numbers were discussed; they are clearing 15 feet on either side of all their poles and lines. They spent $1,662,414 in 2022 and project that they will spend $2,480,400 in 2023

Chief Operations Officer (COO) Report

 Newly- hired COO Gary Keller provided information on four areas:

  1. Safety & Health

  2. Operations / Outages

  3. Engineering / Construction Work Plans

  4. Procurement

Two new members (noted to be SDCEA employees) signed up for Trout Creek Solar. Participation increased from 14 to 16 members.  This is the first time in 10 months anyone has signed up. Paul insinuated that people don’t sign up for Trout Creek Solar because they don’t really want renewable energy (even though it costs more to sign up and our rates are already the highest in the state).  Paul stated that the Trout Creek Solar was the best model they could do. With “utility-scale solar at 2 cents, TC at 6 cents, and rooftop solar at 12 cents”, he is “interested in getting as much solar on board at the best available cost” and that SDCEA can get “unlimited solar from Tri-State”. Neither of these statements are reflected by SDCEA actions or current situations.  Paul continues to refer to Trout Creek as a community solar project, which it most definitely is not.

There are 56 net metering applications in the que awaiting review and approval.  There are now 599 production meters and 574 net meters.

Items coming up in Future Meetings:

  • Paul Erickson’s evaluation is coming up in January.

  • Incumbent board members need to declare their intent to run by 12/31 (Bennetts, Redetzke, Robinson).

  • Rate Schedule: Net metering (Avoided cost of energy) is on the agenda for December.