Feb 26, 2018 Public Utilities Board on 2018-02-26 6:00 PM

We'll go ahead and call the February 26, 2018 public utility board meeting to order. We have no work session tonight, so we'll go right into the regular meeting. And we have three items on the consent agenda. So I'd ask if any member would like to pull any of these items for individual consideration. Yes, I'd like to pull, I think it's A and C. My iPad is having difficulty. Okay. But the two on the sponsorship. Sponsorships, okay. All right, so item A and C, anything else? Anybody like C pull? If not, then is we have a motion to approve consent agenda item B. So moves. Second. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Thank you. Okay, item A, which is to consider recommending adoption of an ordinance. Of the city of Denton authorizing an agreement between the city of Denton and keep Denton beautiful. For I guess this is their annual sponsorship budget of $11, 500. Presentation or do you just want to ask questions? Well, my main question was if somebody on staff could just go over what the new guidelines are about sponsorships and how each component of this request complies with the new guidelines because there were a number of them. There is the keep Denton beautiful and the mural. So I was just wondering if we could kind of be just walk through each item. Yeah, and how it and how it complies to the new. Then the new guidelines. Thanks. I'll ask Deputy Manager Langley if he would address that since he was instrumental in crafting that policy and I think he can answer any of those questions. I have to bring my laptop up here so I can go through some of this with you. We tried to craft a sponsorship policy so that they could be considered for tax exempt entities. They would not be organizations that did not discriminate on the base of race, color, religion, several other categories. They would further a charitable cause or public interest. And they would be required to recognize the city and or DME in any kind of advertising or any kind of materials that they had. So those are really the qualifications that we put together . We'd also put a stipulation that if anything more than $2, 500, that those would come back and there would be an approval process for both the PUB and City Council. And then we'd have a quarterly reporting mechanism back to the board and the council of any sponsorships in addition to those that were made as well. So hopefully that is that the information you need. Okay. Yeah, I noticed on the on the agenda information sheet that the related key focus area was safe, livable and family friendly community. Is that kind of the arching? I think that's the tie is that it's related to the public interest is to make the city a better place to beautify the city. And we've got a long standing relationship supporting KDB in those efforts. And so that would be the public interest that we would see. And that's really for your consideration. Okay. Yeah, for some reason, I was under the impression that the KDB was going to be sponsored by Solid Waste in the future. But it's so is it both DME and Solid Waste because I can I mean, I think it's a terrific program. And for me, they tie in with Solid Waste and the Recycling Ditto for the Great American Cleanup, which is a wonderful effort. I can see more the connection to Solid Waste. I was wondering about that. Yeah, I know that we do have a sponsorship from DME. The Solid Waste Department has some employees that do a lot of work on KDB that's already part of their budget. So I don't know if Solid Waste is planning an additional sponsorship or any kind of in kind support for that. But we already provide those employees a cost for those employees in the Solid Waste budget. But this is specifically for DME. We can look at that and be sure to bring that back if that 's the case. And in the mural, so what's the tie in with the mural effort to the environmental leaning of the other items? I'm not sure I understand your question. Oh, that was so one of the one of the elements was it was K DB, Great American Cleanup. I'm sorry, my for the for the different. I was having some problems turning on. But one of them was, yeah, the art. Yeah, the mural art initiative. To me, Redbud, that was another one Redbud Festival. You know, to me, it seemed that that might be something that maybe might be more appropriate coming out of the the arts grants. I was just I was just wondering. Apparently, we didn't decide to require that the new that the sponsorships have some specific tie in to to DME if they are electricity, they're coming from DME or to solid waste recycling and cleanup if they're coming from solid waste. Well, it doesn't necessarily have a tie to electricity. I think the the point of this discussion have been that DME had routinely bought tables. They had sponsored different events which further the cause of that organization. And I think the listing the listing of the the different events that you have here includes that mural art initiative that they would be a sponsor of that event for a thousand dollars, excuse me, fifteen hundred dollars for that event. So it's there's not necessarily a tie to electricity, but more of a broader policy to the overall city. That's been the tie that we've been looking for. There's other events that DME is also sponsored outside of KDB, which are also more general in nature for just the good of the community, a public interest event, those kinds of things. Okay. So beyond KDB. Yeah. And is there any possibility that in the future, you know, I'm not so clear about the arts budget for the art committee, but that the mural project seems to me that would be something more appropriate coming out of the arts budget. Well, the the arts budget, there's really two funding sources for that. One is hot funds, and those typically have been for a particular projects that the public art committee has recommended. And the other is for bond funds related to the propositions that were approved by the voters. So there's really not any funds specifically for this. I think that's why it was proposed here. Okay. Thank you. Hopefully that helps. Yes. Thank you. Okay. Any other questions? I know the and we probably will get in this in the budget later in the next couple of months. But we when KDB was became a part of the solid waste umbrella. Yes, there was a there was a good report on basically how how the funds that go to KDB are leveraged with private donations. And, you know, basically, I don't know, we're looking at $11,500. But you know, they're they're raising a lot more money than that on the private side as well. So but again, we can get get into that in budget. We can well, we can certainly bring some information back to the board and provide some other information on KDB a little bit more information about that particular initiative. We can certainly do that. Perhaps the history of that was transferred over to solid waste. That's been a few years ago. Yeah, it's been a while. Yeah. And I'd like to know if it would be possible to sustain KDB through through either solid waste or through the general fund as opposed to DME. Well, I want to make sure we're clear the KDB function is being paid for through solid waste. The staff that I was mentioning to you before that that's currently being done that was shifted as as Mr. Robinson is referring to back from the general fund several years ago to solid waste. I don't recall it's been several years. So this is just for the sponsorship of the KDB some KDB events by DME. So it's not the overall KDB program. Yes. So I want to make sure that's clear. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. So sorry. So I should have said if these sponsorships in addition to the other funding. Okay. So this $11,500 is not a sustaining contribution. That's right. These are one time. Depending on this $11,500 to maintain their operation. That's right. Yes. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Okay. I'll be glad to bring that back for you. All right. Any other questions from Brian? All right. Thank you. Thank you. Do we have a motion on item A then? Have a motion to approve. Okay. Thank you. Is there a second? Second. And a second. Any further discussion? All in favor. I'm sorry. Go ahead. I don't pull the trigger too quick. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Nay. Okay. Item A passes. Item B, which is to consider recommending adoption of an ordinance. The city didn't authorizing an agreement between the city of Denton, Texas and Texas Filmmakers Corporation for the sponsorship of the thin line festival providing for the expenditure of funds. Therefore, and providing an effective date for an amount of $5,000. Okay. And my question or concern about this was along similar lines. I also, I think thin line is a terrific, terrific event. And I'm proud that the city sponsors it. It's not quite clear to me the tie in with, with DME or why DME would need to advertise it at this event since we, since D ME doesn't have competition and it's not to me clearly an environmental focus or about, about electricity per se. So I would also like to see the possible, let's see staff look into maybe not for PUB since this is kind of going outside of PUB, but the possibility of funding thin line sponsorships, a thin line sponsorship through the general fund or through the arts fund. To me, that seems to me it to be a more appropriate use of DME funds when again, like I said, when we have no competition and when we have so many customers having difficulty paying their bills, including people having their power turned off, things like this are really important for this city. But so I would just love to see these continue to be funded , but not necessarily through DME. So that's why I'm going to be voting no for this. Again, it's not because I don't support thin line. It's a terrific program. Okay. Any other comments? Well, I have a question for Brian. Wasn't part of the reason we were doing this is to be similar to what other utilities do also. So it's, it's not really, it's to have kind of a corporate sponsorship. That's right. That was really part of the discussion. If you recall, we had a couple of different work session items on this particular topic where we, that was the very question we asked the board and then the city council has given all of the factors what had been done in prior years with DME, kind of what's happens in a lot of private utilities. Did you want to do the sponsorship from DME? And the consensus from the board and the council was yes, that you did want to do that. And I've included a copy of that resolution in your backup. So that was kind of part of that conversation. Yeah. I just want to. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Yeah. I kind of, I mean, I know sometimes you have to you know, what, what makes the community better through these events is a benefit for everybody, including DME. And I, you may not be able to tie it to, you can't put a meter on it like we normally do, but you know, it makes, it makes a more vibrant community, which, which I think as a community grows and is more vibrant, I think that's a benefit to DME and that money comes back. It's, it's an investment much like, you know, any kind of a corporate sponsorship would be just it's more, you know, not a dollar. It's something that you can't just say, okay, I'm, I'm going to make this investment. I'm going to get 10% return on it. It's, it's a, it's a more of a strategic investment, I think, these types of things. And so that's my philosophy on it. I'd hate for anybody to think that people who vote to approve these funds are unconcerned that there are citizens or rate payers that are having difficulty paying their rates. I think that is evidenced by the changes we made to some of those options for low income and the amount of money, I believe that we put into that kitty. And I think we changed some of the policies about how many times you can ask for that money as well. So I think, you know, well, I think I said what I meant. All right. Okay. So is there a motion then on item C? I'll move approval. Oh, second motion and a second discussion. All in favor say aye. Any opposed? Nay. Okay. Item C carries. Next item we have is the minutes of the February 12th, 2018 public utility board meeting. These have been distributed in advance. Anybody have any questions, comments, changes on these? No? Somebody want to make a motion to approve them or should we approve them by acclamation? It's usually by affirmation. Yeah. Okay. I think by affirmations. All right. So those will stand approved as submitted by acc lamation. Item B is consider recommending adoption of an ordinance of the city of Denton. Okay. Read through this. Rejecting all bids received under IFB 6621, which is purchase of 138 kilovolt circuit breakers and maintenance parts and author izing the city manager or his designee the authority to enter into a contract with the lower Colorado River authority through an interlocal cooperative purchasing program participation agreement purs uant to section 271.102 of the Texas local government code for the purchase of high voltage circuit breakers for Denton Municipal Electric providing for the expenditure of funds therefore and providing an effective date to enter into this agreement, this participation to purchase this equipment in the amount not to exceed two million two hundred thousand dollars. It was the first time I read it. It was easy. Okay. Please. Those are I hope we have some bigger ones in those for 2.2 million dollars. See if I can relieve your mind a little bit. All right. I'm Chuck Sears, the transmission engineering manager. I'd like to thank you for the opportunity to tell you about some of the equipment that we use and hopefully remove a little bit of the mystery that might surround it. I know I've been told sometimes that electricity uses a lot of black boxes and so you put them out there and they do something. Let's try to let you understand what what this one does a little bit. What I put on the table here something that probably all of you have seen . Those are circuit breakers that go in a panel in either a commercial building or your home. They operate to open electric circuits in the case of some problem. In the case of those specifically they operate when the current gets above a certain level such as when your vacuum cleaner shorts out or you go to plug it in as I did when I was a kid. A little fire would come out of the plug and it would scare you half to death but the circuit breaker would stop that and that's exactly what the circuit breakers that we use on the power system do. We have a little more sophisticated controls. It takes more equipment to do it but it does exactly the same thing that those two things sitting on the oh I'm sorry. There you go. A little prettier picture. Okay and all three of these pictures are 138 kV circuit breakers. They are circuit breakers that DME has on its system at this time. Two of them are in the new Jim Crystal substation and one in the center is the ARCO substation. And the only difference other than size and these and the ones that are put on the table is the number of poles or the number of actual single pole circuit breakers that has in it. These have two each. The ones in the picture has three. And stop me any time if you got questions. Okay I've already told you the basic purpose of what they do and unlike a fuse they can be repeated. The fuse blows one time and you have to go out and replace it. We have fuses on power systems and we have to go replace them just like you do and some equipment in your house. If you look at this drawing to the right of the picture you 'll see these little squares with an X in them. That's where the circuit breakers are in that station. That happens to be the ARCO substation. We have 11 of those in that station and without circuit breakers we have no mechanism to stop the flow of current. Now just like your car has inertia you can 't use a switch to stop the flow of current. You've got to have something that's designed specifically to stop a high level of inertia in the electrical system. And so they get pretty large and more expensive. But without those if you had a fault or a short circuit out on the system there would be nothing there to stop it until it something burned apart. Now we have 94, 138 kv circuit breakers in service on our system at this time. If you looked in your backup there's we've got three that aren't in service that are off that can serve as spares or whatever. 86 of these are the type of breaker that we're proposing to purchase right here. The advantage of that is that if we have to replace one in the field it's an exact fit. Retrofit's fairly easy from a maintenance standpoint it's when they're the same they're easy to work on and we have a common parts inventory. So since the majority of ours are that it's fortunate that we're having the opportunity to buy these again. We hope. If you have some questions about the construction there's different parts on them I'll be happy to talk about those. If you like gives you a little bit of it. The two key things on the ratings on a circuit breaker are how much current it 's rated to carry all the time. In the case of the ones we're purchasing that's 3,000 amps and how much of the fault current can it stop. And we have two different ratings we're proposing to include in our contract and that's 40,000 amp and 63,000 amp. Those are standard ratings in the circuit breaker industry. Nothing special about that other than what the company offers normally. And our recommendation is that you approve the contract for 2.2 million. And it's a blanket purchase agreement it does not require us to purchase any number we could purchase zero obviously we have the intent of purchasing some but we're not required to spend the full amount of money unless it's needed. And with that I'll take any questions you've got. I'm confused. I thought we were going to purchase it from the lower Colorado River Authority. It's actually purchasing from Siemens off of and in accordance with the agreement that they have with the lower Colorado River Authority. Okay okay and so and I think the last statement in the caption mentioned Siemens Industries as the recipient of the contract. Okay so on the pricing tabulation sheet I guess we're the it looks like the circuit breaker prices that we're getting are these on the first column from Siemens. There are some other items listed the maintenance parts and those don't appear on the projected circuit breaker needs. Because it's repair parts we purchase them at need and they're generally available within just a couple of weeks. And we do keep some of some things on hand. They're generally smaller pieces. Circuit breakers are such that if the major components in it fail such as what's called the interruptor the part that actually stops the current inside usually the device fails rather catastrophically and you're not going to repair it you're going to replace it. So bushings the if remember that picture that was the long skinny things with all the ribs on it that sometimes can get chipped or broken and you need to replace that then there's some little parts in the control cabinet is mainly the only things that we usually keep and they're relatively low cost items. Okay and part of this item is to reject some bids are these just these two other ones here the Siemens and the APFL bomb. Yes sir. Okay okay thank you and the things on the Siemens bid is the same as under the LCRA contract. Thank you. The and this is this is basically a is it is it two year year and a half? Three year. Three year. It's actually a one year contract I believe the way they've been doing it and purchasing it in here to do it but it's with three opportunity or two opportunities to renew. Okay. Three year total length of time. Okay other questions? Okay go ahead it's probably the same one. Well can can you say a little bit about how much of a difference there is among the different kind of circuit breakers among the companies or is it you know if we took this apart versus one by if we took apart circuit breaker by made by Siemens versus one by one of the competitors that bid higher would they look pretty much the same inside? It's sort of let me answer it by giving sort of an analogy you can buy a Ford or a Chevrolet on the outside they look somewhat alike you know they got f enders and lights and windows and an engine and they do the same thing but you don't put Ford parts in a Chevrolet it's that kind of a thing so they look a lot the same they'll all have bushings that stick up on them that you attach the high voltage wires to they'll all have some sort of an operating mechanism and interruptors and things like that they do exactly the same things but company A designed it one way and company B designed it a different way and their parts are not interchangeable so you once you once you're with Siemens you purchase Siemens parts just like a Ford or a Chevrolet you wouldn't go to a Chevrolet dealer to buy Ford parts. What about is just kind of a follow-up question outside of the advertising you know these companies sure they say ours is the best ours is the best you know for a Ford or Chevrolet say one might you know particular model Ford might have be famous for having better mileage and then this one is better than the you know crash tech work you know are those kind of considerations considered or is it really when it comes to circuit breakers is it just a difference in parts but not necessarily in kind and in equality? Right the circuit breakers are manufactured according to a national standard in fact international standards as well and so they have to perform to a certain level. Like with anything else there are companies that we know of that don't perform as well they tend to have more maintenance difficulties if you will than others they don't tend to last as long and of course the difference in 30 years and 20 years is kind of hard to determine on a short-term basis but by and large they all do the same thing and they do it in a similar fashion it's just the you know one of them has a curly queue here and a piston over there and another one turns it around the other way and does the same thing with it but in terms of quality most of them are going to perform pretty well. In terms of Siemens itself I think maybe it's one of the better companies I've dealt with in my roughly 30 something years career have had nobody that's had any better luck in in the marketplace than they have on the type product. Does that answer your question? Yes absolutely thank you so much thanks. Okay I did have a different question. Why did we go ahead and go with a bid if we could have already done this I mean because I do support you doing cooperative agreements it saves our materials management folks from going through all of that work. Why did we go out for bids when we could have just done this to begin with? I can't speak exactly for purchasing but I think I know what their thoughts were it was is this the best arrangement we could get and so they chose to go out for a bid. So it was kind of a check because we've been doing this for a while so let's check it out. Yeah I think he gave a very good answer we've actually had a few bids recently with cooperatives who have come in higher and they've lowered their prices to meet other bids that we received so he's exactly right. Okay that's a good reason. Thank you. Okay other questions? Nope okay do we have a motion then on item b? I move. I second. Okay was it? He second. Second? She moved . Oh okay I'm hearing an echo or something. We have a motion and second on the floor for item b. Is there further discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Same sign. Okay thank you. Item b passes. Next we have our ACM update. Good evening members of the board. Excuse me in your packet you have a copy of the email that was sent by Mr. James Orenstein to me back in late January. You also have with that the response from George Morrow in relation to Mr. Orenstein's email. Unfortunately Mr. Morrow is out today. He'll be back in the office tomorrow so I'm sure he 'd be happy to answer any questions related to his memo at the following board meeting which will be March the 12th. But it's in your packet certainly can pass any information on Mr. Morrow that you might want to see if there's any additional follow-up on that. Okay and then in relation to future agenda items you have that in your packet as well of upcoming things upcoming items that you'll see for for the meeting in March. And then lastly you'll have the new business matrix that shows all the outstanding items that are still being worked on by staff. You should have a DME substation cost information at one of the meetings in March and then the leveraging for transparency of gas prices in April coming up. Okay questions on the upcoming agendas? Yeah do you happen to know Mario if the substation item will be the first meeting in March or the second one? 26. It'll be the second meeting in March . March 26th. Okay that's all I have. Okay all right. Completing items if there's any member of the public utilities board that would like to add something to the future agendas or the matrix now is the time to do that. I 'd like to get an update on our plans to close Givens Creek if we could. You know just kind of an update. Yeah. I mean it's this year right? Handful of months away maybe one in a little bit you know so. Okay. Yeah that'd be good because as summer is approaching. Yeah and big brown close and another one close. There's been two or three big coal plant closures in the last three or four months. Good okay. Yes sir Charlie. Do you remember a couple of years ago we saw a presentation about the construction status for the transmission lines and substations and I'd like to see if we get an update on the meeting when we don't have a lot of things on the agenda. Yeah I would too. I'd like to see that too. Okay. Will that be included in the March 26th about the about the costs? I was I was under the impression that was also going to include you know construction update in and the you know purpose of the new substations. I'll need to check with George on that when he gets when he returns but he and Brent have been working on that information updating the CIP along with the substation plan so it'll be it'll be some time either in March or April as we're preparing for the budget discussions. If that had not been a part of the original plan I would just encourage Mr. Morrow to you know provide that information in addition to the costs you know discussing the cost because cost outside of you know the construction update and the purpose of these substations in his sense as new director. Right he's working on that I would say by no later than April we'll be ready for that. Okay thanks. Okay anything else? Concluding items anybody like to bring up? No? Okay well it's not dark outside yet we can't really. Is there a motion to adjourn? No motion. Motion and a second? Second. Second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed?