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.
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.
I'll be glad to bring that back for you.
All right.
Any other questions from Brian?
All right.
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?