WEBVTT

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 Okay, it's nine o'clock and we have a virtual quorum, so we can call to order the Public

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 Utilities Board meeting for June 22, 2020.

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 The first item on the agenda is the Consent Agenda.

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 Does any board member wish to pull an item of A through D?

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 I'd like to pull C, as in cat.

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 Okay, Ed.

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 And Russ?

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 A and B.

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 Any others?

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 All right.

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 I'll move approval of D.

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 Thank you.

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 Second.

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 All in favor say aye.

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 Aye.

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 Both.

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 Okay.

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 It carries.

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 Item A first.

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 We have Terry Nalty here.

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 He's moving over to the staff computer, if you'll give him just a moment.

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 Okay.

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 Terry Nalty, Assistant General Manager, DME.

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 Can you hear me?

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 Yes, I can.

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 Okay.

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 Glad to answer any questions you might have about this item.

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 Yeah.

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 Terry, this is easy.

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 This is not a hard one.

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 And for the sake of us that don't live in the world of system dispatch every day, I

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 would like to request that whenever we have a write-up about this in a document, that

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 the first occurrence of an acronym be preceded by the words – the complete spelling of

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 the words that acronym represents.

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 That's done – it was done here in this document sometimes, but not all the time.

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 So –

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 I request.

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 Okay.

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 The second thing, the traders that work at home doing this, what kind of security is

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 taken on their personal computer to project their passwords and logins and various other

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 code things that apply here on their personal computers?

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 None of our traders, Mr. Baffert, none of our traders use their personal computers for

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 business-related activities.

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 They're all company computers, and they're all – have to log in through a virtual private

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 network that's a double – it's got a double – I don't know what the right proper

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 term is, but basically you log in, then you've got to verify that it's you on a second

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 device before you can actually access the system.

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 Are they using their own router, their own Wi-Fi router in their home for this connection,

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 you know?

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 Yes.

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 Whatever internet provider is in service at their home, that's the one that they're

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 using to access the internet and the virtual private network.

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 Okay, I was just wondering about some of these personal Wi-Fi systems are more secure than

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 others, and what measures do we have to make sure that Wi-Fi is secure that they're using

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 where all this information is going back and forth?

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 I would have to have someone from –

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 Maybe that's an IT question.

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 Yeah, that's a tech services question, but my understanding is that the VPN that we use

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 for all city departments is extremely secure.

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 This is Curtis Conrad.

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 I'm with Technology Services.

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 I think I could answer that question for you.

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 Anybody that's home using their systems to get into the city of Denton, especially to

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 the Energy Office, DME, is definitely using a virtual private network, as Terry mentioned.

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 When we do this, we actually create an encrypted tunnel, so we make a secure connection all

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 the way from their computer into our systems.

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 Actually, once they get into our systems, EMO actually has a second layer of potential

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 that they have to provide to actually get into the specific Energy Management Office

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 servers and operations.

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 Okay, good.

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 That explains a lot of it.

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 One final question, Terry, on page 9 of 19 in the attachments to this – excuse me, page

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 8, talks about the broker incentive program.

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 Are we in the broker incentive program?

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 We have a number of relationships with various brokers, and I would have to look at the specific

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 contract to tell you whether we are or not, and I'm not familiar enough with each of

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 the agreements to tell you that.

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 Okay.

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 Yeah, I would like to know if Denton is in the broker incentive program.

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 Well, I – yeah, we'll provide that information to you.

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 Okay, those are the only questions I have.

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 The rest looks fine with me.

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 All right, Terry, Karen, do you have a question?

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 Oh, no, sorry.

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 Oh, okay.

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 That's okay with my lamp.

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 Maybe we'll go on to B and C, and then we'll do the three of them – we'll prove the

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 three of them together.

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 So item B.

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 Yeah, the question I had there, in looking at the spreadsheet showing the proposal comparisons,

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 the best price had a winning price of $780,000, and there's contracts for $862,000.

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 What's the reason for the difference?

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 We have Smith Day, who will – from DME, who will be able to answer those questions.

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 Okay.

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 Morning, PB.

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 Can you hear me?

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 This is Smith Day.

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 I'm the regulatory interest division manager for Denton Municipal Electric.

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 Yes.

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 And your question, I believe, refers to the $780,000 difference versus the not-to-exceed

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 amount in the –

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 Correct.

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 Correct.

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 The difference was that in the spreadsheet, the calculation there was for straight three

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 years.

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 What ended up happening was we added a little bit more six months implementation at a prorated

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 cost.

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 So it was that yearly cost extended six months because someone's got to show up and implement

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 and configure this thing, and that takes a lot of work, so that had to be grafted on.

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 And the same would have happened if we had chosen the other one.

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 But either direction, it would have been Allegro as the front runner there, as the best value

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 for the city.

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 Okay.

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 Yeah.

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 Okay.

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 I understand that.

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 Anything else?

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 No.

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 Go ahead.

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 Go ahead.

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 Thank you.

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 All right.

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 All right.

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 Thank you.

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 Have a great day.

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 And then item C, Mr. Soft.

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 Yeah.

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 I actually had some questions about these trucks, the compressed natural gas trucks,

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 that are eventually going to be retired, and that being the reason for the timeframe for

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 this contract.

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 So I really just had some questions regarding the compressed natural gas fleet and whether

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 or not those vehicles are a result of the clean fleet ordinance.

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 That's my first question.

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 We have Terry Kader, who's our fleet manager, along with Brian Berner, director of solid

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 waste on the line that can answer those questions.

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 Thank you.

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 Mr. Soft, this is Brian Berner, director of solid waste for the city of Denton.

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 Unfortunately, I cannot confirm that they were part of the clean fleet ordinance.

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 What I do know is currently we have 15 vehicles that are compressed natural gas.

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 About half of them are frontline vehicles.

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 The remainder are backup vehicles in our fleet and run when the frontline vehicles are down.

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 Over the next five years, we will be phasing those out, and as a result, those will, at

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 the end of that five-year period, will no longer have the need for this contract nor

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 the CNG facility.

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 Okay.

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 Thank you.

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 I was wondering, because if these are part of the program to clean up our air as part

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 of that clean fleet ordinance, because they're not regular fossil fuel combustion, well,

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 they're not combustion engines like a regular vehicle, will these be replaced by similar

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 non-polluting vehicles?

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 These vehicles will be replaced by Tier 4 diesel engines whose emissions are equivalent

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 to what we're seeing in the CNG facility, and as a result, being diesel, it allows us

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 much more flexibility as we operate throughout the city, as opposed to having one fill point

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 in the entire city.

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 I see.

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 Okay.

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 And again, at some point, I was given the actual ordinance, I think I got that at the

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 last meeting, but I still would like to find out at some point the actual numbers of the

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 fleet, the percentage of the fleet that is clean fuel vehicles, whether electric or whatever,

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 and just, I'd be curious to know the number of the entire vehicle fleet as operated by

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 the city now, everything from staff cars, the whole thing, just to see what the size

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 is, and the percentage of that that is, as I said before, could be considered clean fleet

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 vehicles.

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 We're going to provide that to the board in a separate memo.

00:11:29.360 --> 00:11:30.360
 Okay.

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 It should have been included, it was an oversight for this meeting, so we'll include it for

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 you here, that's an easy request to fulfill, we'll send that over to you and the whole

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 board here this week.

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 Thank you very much.

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 You bet.

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 All right, so then do we have a motion to approve item A, B, and C.

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 I so move.

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 And a second.

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 Karen second.

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 All in favor say aye.

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 Aye.

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 Rose.

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 Aye.

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 Okay.

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 Curious.

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 Next items are considered approval of the minutes of the June 8th, 2020 meeting.

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 Are there any changes or corrections?

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 All right.

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 Do we have a motion to approve?

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 I move.

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 Okay.

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 Okay.

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 Barber motions.

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 And do we have a second?

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 Second.

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 All right.

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 All in favor say aye.

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 Aye.

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 Opposed?

00:12:28.840 --> 00:12:29.840
 Okay.

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 Management update.

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 Yes.

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 Members of the board, good morning.

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 Report will be brief.

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 As I mentioned to Mr. Sof, he had received, and you all received a copy of the Clean Fleet

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 Ordinance from 2015.

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 As mentioned, we also owe the board a brief report that indicates the inventory of the

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 fleet that is gas or diesel powered along with the counts of those that are hybrid and

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 electric vehicles as well.

00:12:58.840 --> 00:13:03.240
 We'll give you the percentages and counts that way you have all that, and we'll provide

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 that later this week and then we'll upload it at your subsequent board meeting in July.

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 A number of things are attached as part of the management update.

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 We've got the environmental preferred purchasing policy.

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 Cassie Ogden's in the room if you've got any questions specific to that.

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 We've got the Dent Energy year to date, April 2020 dashboards.

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 The notice of intent, bond refunding, which will be, is here, finance is available online

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 as well if you've got any questions on that.

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 Looking ahead for your future board agendas, as July rolls around the corner, we've got

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 a number of discussions related to the budget, and we'll also be including a discussion about

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 the burn rate on our capital projects when it relates to water and wastewater utility.

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 I think that was a question by Mr. Bafford, and we'll have that presentation or that information

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 available at your next board meeting when we discuss budget.

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 So as mentioned, as the summer rolls around, a lot of discussions related to the budget

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 and the various utilities will be brought forward to the board.

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 And just trying to knock off some of these requests that have been pending for the past

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 and the ones that are here made recently.

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 So if you have any questions, be happy to answer those, and we've got staff on the line

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 that can answer any specifics that you may have.

00:14:21.680 --> 00:14:22.680
 Question?

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 Mr. Self, go ahead.

00:14:24.160 --> 00:14:29.600
 Yeah, I had a question about the environmental preferred purchasing policy.

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 I appreciate very much getting this document that sort of gives a history of the three

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 ordinances that are in place implementing the policy.

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 And what I wondered was I think it would be really informative if there was any way that

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 we could get an update or a progress report that shows what initiatives in various divisions

00:14:55.400 --> 00:15:01.800
 of the city have been implemented towards this sort of procurement because it's been

00:15:01.800 --> 00:15:09.640
 13 years since the first ordinance was passed, I believe in 20 or 27.

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 And I think it would be interesting to see to get an overview of the program to see possibly

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 where there might be ways of moving ahead if there are areas that need improvement.

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 So I would appreciate receiving some sort of survey or accountability document as to

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 what has been done over the past 13 years to enhance green, environmentally conscious

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 procurement policy.

00:15:39.920 --> 00:15:44.880
 Mr. Self, is that something that you would like to ask as part of concluding items?

00:15:44.880 --> 00:15:48.760
 I'm just asking, or are you wanting a response right now?

00:15:48.760 --> 00:15:50.320
 Well, I don't need it right now.

00:15:50.320 --> 00:15:52.400
 I mean, I wouldn't expect it right now.

00:15:52.400 --> 00:15:53.400
 Okay.

00:15:53.400 --> 00:15:58.040
 But as part of concluding items, kind of an update on where the progress made with the

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 departments and with this ordinance.

00:15:59.960 --> 00:16:00.960
 Okay.

00:16:00.960 --> 00:16:01.960
 We can do that.

00:16:01.960 --> 00:16:02.960
 13 years.

00:16:02.960 --> 00:16:03.960
 Thank you.

00:16:03.960 --> 00:16:07.000
 Any other questions?

00:16:07.000 --> 00:16:10.080
 All right.

00:16:10.080 --> 00:16:12.640
 Well, we have one concluding item.

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 Is there any other concluding items that a board member wishes to add?

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 All right.

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 Before we adjourn into closed meeting, I'm required to read off while we're going into

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 closed meeting.

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 So the first item is deliberation regarding certain public power utilities competitive

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 matters under Texas government code section 551.086, consultation with attorneys under

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 Texas government code 551.071.

00:16:45.240 --> 00:16:49.980
 Discuss and deliberate strategies and opportunities to amend the renewable energy supply strategies

00:16:49.980 --> 00:16:54.720
 and agreements, including potential power purchase agreements, receive a presentation

00:16:54.720 --> 00:17:00.680
 from staff regarding the public power competitive and financial matters pertaining to the purchase

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 of renewable energy, consultation with the city's attorneys regarding legal issues associates

00:17:07.560 --> 00:17:12.240
 with the agreements described above, where discussions of these legal matters in an open

00:17:12.240 --> 00:17:16.360
 meeting would conflict with the duty of the city attorneys to the city of Denton and the

00:17:16.360 --> 00:17:21.200
 Denton city council under Texas disciplinary rules of professional conduct from the state

00:17:21.200 --> 00:17:22.800
 part of Texas.

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 The second item is deliberations regarding real property under Texas government code section

00:17:27.760 --> 00:17:35.640
 551.072, consultation with attorneys under Texas government code section 551.071.

00:17:35.640 --> 00:17:40.960
 Discuss, deliberate, receive information from staff and provide staff with direction about

00:17:40.960 --> 00:17:46.400
 the valuation uses and or disposition of real property owned by the city located at the

00:17:46.400 --> 00:17:52.760
 southeast corner of Eagle drive in Bernard street, Denton, Denton County, Texas, where

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 the deliberation of the same in an open meeting would have a detrimental effect on the position

00:17:57.440 --> 00:18:03.200
 of the governmental body and negotiations with a third person or potential litigation consultation

00:18:03.200 --> 00:18:08.560
 with the city's attorneys regarding legal issues associated with the uses and or disposition

00:18:08.560 --> 00:18:12.800
 of the property or public discussion of the legal matters would conflict with the duty

00:18:12.800 --> 00:18:17.780
 of the city attorneys to the city and the city council under Texas disciplinary rules

00:18:17.780 --> 00:18:22.400
 of professional content at the state part of Texas or would jeopardize the city's legal

00:18:22.400 --> 00:18:25.680
 position in negotiations or potential litigation.

00:18:25.680 --> 00:18:30.720
 Having said all that, do we have a motion to adjourn into closed session?

00:18:30.720 --> 00:18:32.840
 So moved.

00:18:32.840 --> 00:18:33.840
 Okay.

00:18:33.840 --> 00:18:36.600
 All right.

00:18:36.600 --> 00:18:37.680
 We are adjourned.