HomeMy Public PortalAbout04-01-2002 •
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,APRIL 1,2002
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,April 1,2002 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 and Sarah"Sally"Hutton.
Phil Dickman was absent.The following business was conducted:
ROLL CALL
Eight present.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
The minutes of the March 18,2002 regular meeting were approved on a motion by Councilmember Hutton,a second
by Councilmember Welch and 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 Combs and the motion was carried on a voice vote.
Bills Already Paid:
Payroll and Deductions $ 268,151.20
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 $ 268,151.20
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 $ 172,307.22
Miscellaneous Prepaid Inv.Telecom: 26,510.12
Total Prepaid Invoices: 466,968.54
Total EFT/Direct Deposit of Payroll: (94,573.64)
Total Prepaid Invoices: 372,394.90
Total EFT Transfers: 1,294,682.01
Total Prepaids plus EFT Transfers: 1,667,076.91
Total Bills Not Paid: 764,102.07
Grand Total of Bills to be approved: $ 2,431,178.98
RP&L Minutes Cont'd
April 1,2002
Page 2
REMARKS BY CHAIRPERSON
Chairperson Parker had no remarks.
UNFINISHED BUSINESS
There was none.
STREET LIGHT COMMITTEE REPORT
There was none.
REPORT BY GENERAL MANAGER
Chairperson Parker asked City Attorney Bob Bever to give the Board a summary of the Employment Agreement for the
General Manager.Bever responded,saying that Osburn is currently under a 5-year contract that expires September 30,
2002,but in order not to wait until the last minute the Board's personnel committee got together last fall and began
discussions on a renewal of the contract because both sides were so pleasantly pleased with each other's performance.
As a result of those discussions,he said,he has put together the employment agreement which extends his contract an
additional five years through September 30,2007.
So that the current terms could be incorporated,Bever said,he is actually backdating this to October 1,2001,so that it
is a six-year contract with the effect being that Osbum has a five-year renewal through September 30,2007.He said the
only changes between the wording of this contract and his current one is changing it from"new"to an"existing"
employee.He said at the end of the five years absent either party's wish to stop it,it does have a renewal and to the
extent they wish to renegotiate terms it says that that discussion will begin at least one year prior to the end of that term,
which is exactly what the Board did this time so that it is always ahead of the game.
General Manager David Osburn said he is extremely happy working at RP&L and has a lot of gratitude to this Board
that hired him.He said he is enjoying it here and things are going pretty well but there are things still to do and he is
still learning.He said he continues to learn and try to develop his management skills.He said he would be happy to stay
on quite awhile longer if the Board still wants him.
Councilmember Welch moved for approval of the employment agreement,second by Councilmember Sharp and the
motion was carried on a voice vote.
Osburn reported on the recent ice storm the City experienced,stating that they were experiencing quite a few problems
on the transmission grid as well as many momentary outages.He said there was really nothing they could do about that
because it was all external to the system.Then,he said,the ice rolled through early Tuesday morning and did a
tremendous amount of damage.He said in our part of the country an ice storm is just about as bad as it gets and likened
it to a hurricane in some parts of the country because it does so much widespread damage.He said he felt the damage
could have been so much greater had RP&L not spent a lot of extra money in the past two years doing a lot of tree
clearing.
Osburn had a map of RP&L's service territory for the Board to see,saying that he had put a red dot on much of the
general location the crews were called out to service.He said that virtually about every part of the utility's system was
affected in some way.He said they were still running calls even this week,adding that in some cases it the time ran
from one hour to 12 hours to get the problem fixed.He said the heavily wooded Glen Hills area was probably the most
heavily hit,adding that the ice storm posed a dangerous situation in which to work because of downed power lines and
falling limbs.He said he felt the crews did a"fantastic"job throughout the crisis,adding that they had help through the
mutual aid program and private contactors.He said the employees worked a lot of long hours and they had to force
some of them to go home and get some rest.
He said that next week they will be doing some self evaluation of what they did and how they could have done better,
looking for ways they could improve.In answer to a question posed by Councilmember Combs,Osburn explained that
in a normal outage situation they try to estimate what they can get on first to get the greatest amount of customers on.
He said they have crews working in the quadrants,separated into four within the utility's service area,and these crews
are kept in those areas.He said the tickets are separated into those who need help the most,with the ones who are out
of power getting the priority.He added that priority was given to residential because of the need to heat their homes.
He said RP&L has seven telephone lines and estimated the utility received 2,600 calls during this recent ice storm.He
added that they would continue to evaluate how to handle a situation such as this and he feels that they can do better.
He said he would give the annual report to the Board on the 4th Monday of the month which falls on April 22.
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