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Home My Public Portal About06-17-2002 PROCEEDINGS OF THE COMMON COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF RICHMOND,INDIANA,SERVING AS A BOARD IN CHARGE OF THE OPERATION OF THE RICHMOND POWER&LIGHT PLANT MONDAY,JUNE 17,2002 The Common Council of the City of Richmond,Indiana,serving as a Board in charge of the operations of the Richmond Power&Light Plant met in regular session at 7 p.m.Monday,June 17,2002 in the Council Chambers in the Municipal Building in said City.Chairperson Larry Parker presided with the following Councilmembers in attendance: Howard"Jack"Elstro,Etta J.Lundy,Karl Sharp,Bing Welch,Bruce Wissel,Paul Combs,Phil Dickman and Sarah "Sally"Hutton. The following business was conducted: ROLL CALL Nine present. APPROVAL OF MINUTES The minutes of the meetings of May 20 and June 3,2002,were approved on a motion by Councilmember Hutton, second by Councilmember Welch and the motion was carried on a voice vote. APPROVAL OF BILLS,INVESTMENTS AND TRANSFERS Upon recommendation of the Finance Committee,Councilmember Hutton moved to approve the following bills for payment,seconded by Councilmember Dickman and the motion was carried on a voice vote. Bills Already Paid: Payroll and Deductions $ 269,944.00 Investments Purchased From: Cash Operating Fund Bond Sinking Fund Utility Bond Reserve Fund Depreciation Reserve Fund Insurance Reserve Fund Consumer Deposit Fund Cash Reserve Fund Group Insurance Fund Total $ 269,944.00 Telecommunications Division Investments Purchased From: Cash Operating Fund Transfer from Cash Operating Fund to: Cash Reserve Fund for Payment To City in lieu of taxes Transfer from Cash Operating Fund to: Depreciation Reserve Fund For Property&Plant Transfers from Depreciation Reserve to: Cash Operating Fund Transfers from Consumer Deposit to: Cash Operating Fund Transfers from Utility Bond Reserve Fund to: Bond Sinking Fund Transfers from Cash Operating to: Interest and Bond Principal Bond Sinking Fund Cash Reserve Fund Utility Bond Sinking Fund Depreciation Reserve Fund Insurance Reserve Fund Consumer Deposit Fund Interest and Bond Principal End of Month Petty Cash Revenue Bonds Interest Coupons Redeemed Interest Coupons Redeemed Bond Coupons Miscellaneous Prepaid Invoices $ 83,802.18 Miscellaneous Prepaid Inv.Telecom: 12,702.85 Total Prepaid Invoices: 366,449.03 Total EFT/Direct Deposit of Payroll: (93,036.67) Total Prepaid Invoices: 273,412.36 Total EFT Transfers: 74,743.87 Total Prepaids plus EFT Transfers: 348,156.23 Total Bills Not Paid: 698,802.38 Grand Total of Bills to be approved: $ 1,046,958.61 RP&L Minutes Cont'd June 17,2002 Page 2 REMARKS BY CHAIRPERSON Chairperson Parker had no remarks. UNFINISHED BUSINESS There was none. STREET LIGHT COMMITTEE REPORT Councilmember Elstro reported that he had received the drawing from Dave Stevens at RP&L for the Wynfield area which showed 15 lights at$6.36 per light bringing the total cost per month to$95.40.He said the request now would go to the Board of Works. REPORT BY GENERAL MANAGER General Manager David Osburn requested approval of Resolution No. 1—2002 which recommends approval of the first amendatory agreement of the power sales contract between the City of Richmond and IMPA.Giving some background of the agreement,Osbum said under this amendment RP&L will continue at full requirements through 2008,but a decision needs to be made prior to that,by the end of 2006,he said,whether to continue as full requirements or whether or not RP&L is on its own for the additional amount.He said he feels very strongly that this is a no lose amendment and just buys time and since there are a lot of things going on in the wholesale power market it just makes sense to wait and see how IMPA is going to fill some of its contracts that are expiring in about the same amount of time. Osburn explained that the process that this has to go through is that the contract with IMPA is actually with the City of Richmond,Richmond Power&Light,and requires an ordinance to amend that contract.He said this Board would merely pass a resolution recommending that the ordinance be passed,then it would come back to this Board as it is ' sitting as the Common Council and go through that process. Councilmember Welch moved for approval of the resolution,second by Councilmember Elstro and the motion was carried on a voice vote. Osburn said he and four Board members attended the A.P.P.A.National Conference last week and he pointed out the booklet which he brought back for those who didn't go to look at.He said the booklet is a result of the A.P.P.A.task force on Public Power of the 21 n Century,adding that he had the pleasure of serving on the task force along with about 20 other general managers throughout the country.He said it deals with somewhat of a forecast of what the next 10 years is going to be like for public power. He pointed out that the document outlines some basic principles or practices that if the power systems follow they should be in good shape regardless of what the future brings and created a check list and follow up items for each of the 10.The items listed are:Provide superior customer service;Deliver value through power supply management;Focus on distribution performance and opportunity;Put communities first;Optimize community infrastructure;Lead in environmental stewardship;Build consensus through democratic governance;Promote human resource excellence; Engage policy makers through legislative advocacy;and Invest in your technology future. He said he was pleased to discover something that he didn't know until he saw the finished product and that was the fact that they used a photograph of an RP&L employee(Jim Rozell,with RP&L's Starr School program) in Section 4 of the booklet with the topic,"Keep the Public in Public Power."He said RP&L is also mentioned in three or four of the case studies for some of the things it does. Councilmember Sharp remarked that he attended a session on general responsibilities or input of Board members and he felt that he learned that this Board runs things extremely well.He said he based that on the activities the members of this Board get into and the way the General Manager keeps the Board up to date and presents them,adding that compared to some other operations this Board looks pretty good.He said that in one of the sessions he heard of one community where the utility charged their customers on the peak rate of the customer and not on what the utility's operation is.He added that this was basically industrial customers.Osburn responded that RP&L already does that, offering a couple of different options.Councilmember Elstro said the format was different this year,noting that many one-hour sessions were offered in place of two hours and it went very fast and it was much more informative. Councilmember Lundy said she was fascinated by a new machine,actually a defibrillator,to be used in case an employee gets injured on the job,adding that she thought it would be a good idea to get some of those at RP&L.She said she also noticed that of the three or four things recommended that all power companies do to increase their efficiency,RP&L already had them all.Chairperson Parker made the comment that Osbum had already looked into the possibility of acquiring the defibrillator mentioned by Councilmember Lundy and had some preliminary figures on what might be done. Councilmember Wissel said he had attended a couple of sessions on personnel and found it interesting to hear the process that some of the Boards go through,not only in evaluating their general manager but also in evaluating fellow! members.He said he felt it was an interesting concept—boardmnembers evaluating each other trying to come to a better consensus of what their responsibilities and jobs are and what can be done to improve. Osburn said he appreciated the attendance of the members who could get free from their responsibilities to attend. He also mentioned that the EPA had announced recently some new direction on what it calls The New Source Review Standards and added that it would be very positive for RP&L and would be a much more common sense approach to legislation while still achieving the goals of reduced emissions. RP&L Minutes Cont'd June 17,2002 Page 3 • Osburn also said that tomorrow he is going to Purdue for a kickoff session for the Center for Coal Technology which is located there.He said the entire concept of the center is to try to promote technology research in the whole area of clean coal technology to help improve deficiencies in coal generation and also environmental compliance.He said he will be there not only on behalf of RP&L but also as a Board member of EPRI because it is very involved in this research. Councilmember Dickman asked Osburn if he had heard anything about the NOX report and he answered that he had, saying that the computer model looked very good.He said there is still some work to be done on that yet,but so far everything looks good. Councilmember Welch wanted to know if RP&L is still on line to have to comply with the new EPA regulations and Osbum said that had been pushed back to 2004.In answer to a question by Councilmember Dickman,Osburn said RP &L had actually earned a few early reduction credits on NOX already this year. NEW BUSINESS There was none. ADJOURNMENT There being no further business,on a motion duly made,seconded and passed,the meeting was adjourned at 7:25 p.m. Larry Parker,Chairperson ATTEST: Norma Schroeder,Clerk