EWEB Board of Commissioners — December 6, 2022

0:07 first off I'm going to say that um so I'm the vice president normally John Brown would be here in the president's role but he is not here in the room tonight he's joining virtually so we thought it would be better for me to lead the meeting so uh if I could we anticipated that we would have a large problem night we just thought it would be a little easier logistically for somebody here personally to be able to play the meeting so that is that and I will open this up for the facility and safety awareness meeting and Logistics briefing so thank you again for attending tonight really happy to have you know a group that's engaged and wants to come out and give us feedback management and subject matter experts are here with us in the room and virtually during tonight's presentations

0:54 remote presenters will appear on the screen please make sure to speak loudly and clearly so everyone can hear you guys are invited to sign up at the table at the back of the room if they wish to provide public testimony visitor access is limited to the board meeting room and the restrooms the restrooms are located through this door over here in case of an emergency such as a fire alarm exit through the glass door at the back of the room this lovely gentleman is entering unless it is not safe to do so the ultimate emergency exit is located at the rear of the building so that must be all right during an evacuation follow staff's instructions and stay together for safety tonight's meeting will be recorded the recording will start when

1:39 the meeting is called to order so if called me in order and we'll continue until adjournment the meeting room will be muted during the break and aside from that period virtual participants on the screen and in the public audience active okay that is the heating and Logistics briefing next up we will have an agenda check any items to add or change I recognize that it's a long agenda tonight so if we see that there are some items or we're getting too late in the evening we do have a few that we may choose to move to a move to the next meeting so and Frank which which items did

2:25 talking about previously over those we could move item 13 potentially which is the 2023. organizational goals okay so if it seems like we're running long given how much public testimony we have and other discussions we can uphold award and we'll have a conversation about whether we want to move that or if we keep plugging along next up on the agenda is items from board members and the general manager and I will start with commissioner Foster uh just report that I met with John dewinter who's uh or spread capability board just first time getting to meet the male years

3:11 overall so nothing's substantive I've also been invited to provide a gift to the city um later in December it's part of the city clubs that effort you probably all heard of that anyway it won't be eweb related because it's very positive but you know and then we'll go to John Brown nothing okay John Brown anything nothing from me thank you all right and um I just wanted to thank the crew for an excellent eweb run to stay warm it was a fantastic event beautiful day and thank you for continuing to put that together to make

3:57 sure that we can give give to the folks who need it most so thank you all right and then I'll turn over to Frank yes vice president um Carlson thank you just a couple of things I did want to mention the volunteers for the room to stay warm we have about 1200 participants which was great news and we will include all of the facts and figures and outcomes in our year-end operational report relative to how much that can contribute to our limited income programs and then secondly I did want the board to know that we've been asked a number of questions about the grid attack that occurred in North Carolina at the Duke Energy substations that we

4:46 will put some information together to for the board in particular around what our precautions and plans and preventative measures as well as our responses are for potential issues like that which we take very seriously so expect to hear more either during our check-ins or during um a general manager's report for future on that so thank you so I'm going to go to the folks on the phone first and make sure that that's that runs smoothly um and then I'll go through I have

5:31 currently there's five that have signed up to testify in the room so the total well we have oh okay six from the river okay what your name is called please come forward and clearly state your name and optionally your address reward this figure will be offered three minutes to present their testimony please keep track of time and by watching the timer at the front of the room and that will also show on the screen for those who are participating by phone participate oh here it is if you're participating by telephone remember to unmute your call press star six if calling from a landline or simply use the unmute button if calling from your

6:17 cell phone after all testimonies heard each commissioner will have an opportunity to speak if they choose although by policy we do not engage in a back and forth dialogue please note that failure of a commissioner to speak shall not be construed as support of or opposition to any speaker's testimony if the question is presented by a speaker and the board does not provide an answer and e-web staff member member will contact this behavior for the question can be addressed at a later time thanks Mr Carlson yes I don't believe that phonians will be able unless they've got super duper eyesight be able to see the three minutes so you may want to give them a 30-second warning okay I'll watch the clock there and I'll give you a little nod there for when it's 30

7:02 seconds up thank you it's been a bit since I've had to run through this process so be good to hear you thank you for letting me know I'll try to speak up okay all right uh so that being said we will turn it over to the speakers on the telephone and I had first up Dylan plumbers Dylan Plummer on yet no okay so we'll go to the next one which is Bryce cumpston and then William Smith and then I'll go through the after I go through those two I'll list off those that are testifying testifying in public in person here and then I'll look back to Dylan Plummer if

7:47 he happens to join so Bryce are you ready yeah okay your time starts now okay uh my name is Bryce Clemson I live in ward 3. and I support the dam removal that's all okay thank you very much all right William Smith Ward one here to talk about fiber optics last month I offered public input on possible benefits of connecting meter technology to fiber optics and this time I'd like

8:33 to explore further what fiber optics could mean for eweb and all of Eugene and I'd like to do that by uh talking about two cities in particular that are pretty far along with this one is Chattanooga Tennessee population 180 000 so very close in size to Eugene and they have a publicly owned utility called The Electric Power Board and in 2010 they launched a fiber optic Broadband Network community-wide and ten years later the commissioned a study an independent study which documented

9:18 2.69 billion dollar return on investment and if you'd like to see a breakdown of the widespread economic benefits and social benefits uh in my written testimony earlier today for all of you there's a link or you can just do a search uh 2.69 billion Chattanooga and then closer to home we have Hillsboro Oregon which is the fifth largest city in Oregon population 108 000 and they have launched their fiber optic Broadband Network called highlight one word h i l i g h t you can search that or in the

10:05 written testimony uh there's a link to their website explaining uh why they're doing it their plan and how far along they are on a Milestones Etc and why they believe this is an essential service for all residents and businesses essential and then there are in addition to those two examples there are hundreds of others listed in a book amazing book written by Harvard law professor Susan Crawford called fiber the coming Tech Revolution and why America might miss it I highly recommend it and then for those of us who care about health uh we um again I will emphasize that fiber optic networks do not require Wireless

10:52 Technologies to be attached to them they can be attached but we really love having the option of not attaching them because even insurance companies will not ensure wireless tech company or Wireless Technologies because they know the real science and data shows they're harmful to humans and other living beings thank you thank you William okay next up we will turn to the speakers in the room I have and I'm going to say the first names because some of these are just unable to read and I don't want to butcher them so if there's any similar first name so I have Auto and then William and then Robert start with that lineup please State your full name for the record and

11:38 board if if applicable 1820 Kona Street in King can you speak louder I'll try I'm here to speak about resolution 2225 that was passed an executive session October 6 2022. Which authorized the manager to negotiate terms and conditions for the conveyance of the headquarters property the eweb executive session minutes do not discuss or provide any guidance or selection criteria for the manager's task in conveyance of the headquarters

12:23 property this is especially important if more than one proposal was to be considered the prior and canceled RFP did list criteria which gave heavy scoring to the proposal that offered the most Community benefit in the past two weeks there have been a great deal of community interest and continues to grow daily in this conveyance process process the community has and continues to be more aware of the importance of this transaction the community's perspective now suggests that this has become a great deal more than simply disposing of an empty building and property the current changing of interest and

13:08 conditions suggests that it is an opportunity for eweb to be a major Civic partner and a legacy within the community this is a formal request for the board to take direct action and rescind resolution 2225 remove the property from the market and to provide the necessary time for input and development of a proposal that provides more than just the disposition of the property an alternative action would be to amend or delay resolution of 2225 and provide the manager with evaluation criteria to support a selection and negotiation and that criteria to be developed as a part of a public process

13:54 this is signed by 215 co-signers and grows every day and after William Robert followed by Marta my name is William men shop and I just want to speak in opposition to this decommissioning it costs almost the same as return service the loss in Revenue over a 50 year period at your current prices based on my bill would be a half a billion dollars

14:40 that means if you're going to replace that you're going to have to go out and buy it it takes away the resiliency of the local production and turns it over to some hedge fund that owns wind farms or solar Farms I think it's the wrong approach since from what I understand from our your staff there's nothing wrong with the dam nothing wrong with the PowerHouse it was recently upgraded and the only thing we've got is a couple issues with ferc apparently with some seismics along the canal down toward the Palms I am flabbergasted that the number is over a quarter of a billion dollars to

15:25 remediate a five mile but now it seems outrageous to me especially when over in the Oregon Central Irrigation District the irrigators were upset about having to pay 42 million dollars to rehabilitate an eight-mile canal now I know this is different but it just seems like I don't understand the justification for those numbers I also was not very happy with the numbers that were provided they weren't provided until the end of October then we get this decommissioned email this morning at 10 30 approximately the one of the things that bothered me was Return to service 2036

16:13 it's already a licensed facility we're just re-licensing if you clean up the canal you should have that back online by no later than 2025 2026. that's how what I base my numbers on if you have to build a new brand new Powerhouse like blockman yeah I could understand 2036 on the Hat the other issue I have with the numbers that were presented they were based on wholesale electricity rates you don't sell you sell retail you don't sell a holster you're not selling that electricity back into the market you're using it locally at least as far as I understand I don't know I'm not a expert in this so another thing that bothered me was

17:00 the spot prices that were presented in the presentations and what the eia says are available or they're available this past summer widely different there was they were they were you guys were quoting twenty dollars they were quoting a hunk as Robert let's see murder and Grace I am Robert Spencer I live at 45129 McKenzie Highway Gonzaga I am president of Mackenzie Watershed protective

17:47 we are a conservation organization dedicated to the preservation and protection of the Mackenzie Watershed McKenzie river I had a big long presentation uh to give tonight but with your uh the staff's recommendation released this morning it's no good so you're going to get a real short presentation uh I speak tonight in support of the management decision to decommission liberty down this has been a long and difficult decision process you're doing what's right for the river

18:37 this will be the biggest change in the history of the river and step towards healing is natural resource we want to thank you we'll be turning the MacKenzie River to its pre-down condition this is historic and it's very exciting however it's only half of the issue Walter Bill Canal has exactly the same problems that Liebert Dam has specifically they're both licensed under the same federal license on the same river built at the same time Walter Bill Canal as Libra canal

19:29 it's a 12 mile 100 year old dirt ditch it leaks and it leaks so much that has received two high Hazard warnings from the feds Libra Dam Libra Canal received one Waring and was closed the canal totally closes the main channel of the river there is a dam on Walterboro Canal people don't talk about it very much but there is a second Dam on the McKenzie and that's at the head of Walterville canal it's a crude Dam it's made of it's like a jetty that goes

20:14 across the river and blocks the river diverts the flow into waldenville canal there's no navigation there you're stuck unless you take advantage of the boat landing at the head of the canal you cannot navigate the rest of the river high water temperatures caused by dewatering is remarkable it's harmful to fish native fish as well as migratory fish minimum flows in the water left in the river are so low that navigation is difficult and at times impossible thank you and that's your time thank you very much and you're welcome to submit

21:17 hello my name is Marla brukoff and my address is 2094 Lake Isle Drive near Valley River summer I have been a Eugene resident and I'm a customer since 1944 and I've been associated with the Arts most of my life and I just would like to speak regarding the resolution 2225 and encourage you to please wait on deciding on the disposition of the building near the waterproof so that consideration can be given to making it some kind of a community center which is supposed to be a prime consideration when you decide what to do with the building there's been very little awareness in the community that as far as I know of of plans to dispose of the building yet

22:03 just in the last week or two we have been kind of taking a Grassroots effort to find out the interest in making the building a Community Arts Center and it's been tremendous we've collected well over 200 signatures and I'd like to point out also that there are a few college towns of this caliber that do not have a cultural and visual public Arts Center both for rotating shows from outside and also for local artists and I think you could find that probably over a thousand artists in Eugene who would love to have this use mate or the building but in any case I'm asking you to please delay deciding on the disposition of the building until consideration can be made for some public Community use

22:50 thank you next up Grace and yeah good evening everybody my name is Grace braylor I am the wild instructor for Cascadia wildlands we are a nearly 25 year old in a non-profit conservation organization that works to defend and restore cascadia's wild ecosystems we envisioned basketball growth forests to stable climate Rivers full of wild salmon and vibrant diverse communities sustained by the unique Landscapes of the Cascadia bio region we have over 12 000 members and supporters here in Farr many of whom like me are even customer owners as well as folks who use visit

23:36 and really love the MacKenzie River thank you for this opportunity to comment in strong supportive staff's recommendation to decommission the labor project and remove the Lieber Dam we urge the board to vote in support of this recommendation when the time comes we support removing the Lieber dam for the many benefits for imperiled species and other Wildlife that rely on the MacKenzie River including bull trout and Spring Chinook salmon both of which are enlisted Under The Endangered Species Act these species need cool clear water to survive especially as the impacts of the climate crisis exacerbate the stresses that they face today a natural food free-flowing River will Aid fish passage by removing delay causing barriers and maintain necessary flows in the McKenzie river meaning

24:21 lower temperatures higher oxygen levels lower turbidity all of which will assist the listed species in their recovery as well as support a healthy resilient ecosystem for generations to come we recognize the complexity of this decision and do you understand the desire to maintain flexibility in its implementation we relatedly want to note our concerns about impacts to upriver irrigators who rely on these canals on the canal excuse me the current recommendation includes repairing and using the canal but it still preserves the option to incrementally return a portion or the entire project to pre-project conditions an incremental return to pre-project conditions uh could be a good way to allow irrigators to possibly find a new water source for the future and we do hope that eweb continues to work with

25:07 these irrigators to support finding long-term Solutions moving forward we also urge eweb to commit to restoring this portion of the McKenzie in full and make a plan for an incremental return to pre-project conditions the board has been presented with an historic opportunity to restore the stretch of the MacKenzie River to its natural free-flowing state and to pursue an energy portfolio that prioritizes climate-friendly efforts to reduce demand and increase efficiency um so we just want to thank you very much for the opportunity to provide input and thank you all for the care time and effort that's been put into this decision

25:56 I would like to get my time to Robert um my three minutes thank you is that permissible well I mean it's a lot more I believe so okay okay all right thank you thank you thanks for representing so I don't want to break the rules here yeah but uh it's important that the board know uh how much appreciated uh supporting the staff's recommendation is and we just encourage you to uh to vote for uh in favor of of uh being commissioning uh we welcome discussions on Walter Bill canal obviously that's going to be a longer

26:41 term Endeavor probably going to go on for a couple of years I think it's noted in the uh in the staff recommendations that Walterville Canal is looking like at 2030. I think that's much too long stress that fish are under the endangered fish on the river I don't know if they can take that many more years uh salmon return when they first started measuring salmon was 40 000 a year this year the salmon return was one thousand four hundred and fifty nine that's how serious it is I think we're very close to having all fishing salmon

27:26 fishing ended on the MacKenzie River because of that um but thank you for your the report that the staff did was spot on they touched on every issue that we were concerned with so we appreciate staff's effort and putting that together the other thing I wanted to to comment on uh was the holiday Farm fire as a holiday Farm fire victim uh uh we had to rebuild everything in our business our house uh everything um e-web staff was excellent in that effort and the assistance programs that you provided the professionalism your

28:13 Crews up and down the McKenzie are outstanding and they did a great job for us in rebuilding they do a great job virtually every day and and keeping power uh going up there it's just very much appreciated thank you and I will also note that there were nine people that submitted Britain testimony we have those listed in here as well and are available to you with that I will close the public comments section

28:59 and I will open it up to comments from Commissioners I don't know if Frank do you have anything that you'd like to come on first off otherwise we'll I think there's more to come on the blue bird topic I also know that there were a couple of people who testified on resolution 2225 um that is by resolution administratively just so the board knows um to rescind a resolution you would have to do that by resolution um although if the board were to decide to go that direction just via action I would respect that until a resolution could be could be drawn up um the the delay of I I will say that you know a couple of

29:45 things first of all resolution 2225 was not passed in executive session it was passed in regular session under the guidance that you provided me relative to negotiations um and those limits were discussed in executive session for Oregon revised statutes their their request or their proposal which is to take the headquarters building off the market or anywhere from six to 18 months I believe was the the request up to 18 months there are some potential um purchasers um who would meet the board's criteria um potentially within the next 30 to 45

30:31 days it would be a board decision if you wanted to forego those opportunities in lieu of rescinding the resolution and that's that's that would be a poor decision to place that direction on myself and at this time we don't have that item as an agenda item currently so we have we do have uh comments later there is a set there is a section on the agenda later for discussion of cleaver but also nothing of hybrid wanted to be clear for audience members John Brown anything from you online

31:17 um no I mean uh I'm gonna wait and see what everybody else says about uh the request to suspend the resolution because I do have an opinion on that but I kind of wanted to wait to have others chime in before I stated that I'd like to thank everybody else for their testimony I appreciate it and uh and I'll just wait to see uh where it goes on the resolution thank you very Commissioners like to common sure I'll start uh thank you all for making the time to be here and and provide testimony it really does influence the way that we think about and um and address the decisions that are in front of us and as you're all aware there are a few very Hefty decisions in front of us um I actually don't have specific response to specific comments

32:04 um I think it would be valuable for us to at least have some brief conversation about um get clarity not just walk by request to address the headquarters building so I'd propose that we at least get head nods tonight so that people are wondering where we're going on that brief conversation we'll head not to have a conversation about that so we can get that added to the next agenda sync is that uh to the next agenda for January yeah you don't have time I mean

32:51 you're saying that there's some feedback to commissioner McRae we could be we could have entered a purchase and sale agreement right before the next meeting right yeah that's that's a potential I wasn't proposal at the next meeting I'm sorry okay okay um we like to amend the agenda and have a conversation towards the end of the meeting then and to do that if um Sonia if I may I'm having trouble raising my hand so I'm up butt in until you tell me to butt out um I apologize for that procedural problem with me but um I think procedurally we can have that

33:36 discussion right now if if uh whatever you want to do it's you know you're you're running it and so uh uh I'll I'll tell you that I I would be against delaying this because um you look at some of the examples we have in the community how long it took the YMCA to formulate to to get that done seven years McKenzie interpretive Center they're still not done and it's taken over seven years to do that Eugene Civic Alliance and all these Community facilities um how long does it take not only to formulate a plan and a vision but then to get the funding and and not only the funding for acquisition but the funding for operations and uh and if we have personally I think if we have a buyer in

34:22 hand or something thing that we should seriously consider it because we've got some pretty big things in front of us and real estate is one of them John Brown on there but I guess the clarity that I would want is is how you are looking at these proposals that are coming in you say you've got a couple that possibly could pull the trigger within 30 60 days at what point do we as a board get to weigh in on whether we want or did we give you that full authority to do that without us

35:08 so picking and choosing so yes you did um there's a couple of pieces to that um part of your guidance was to take into consideration the broad Community value as well as the economics I have um tried to abide by some of the original guidance that the board had around the RFP for example it's not all about money it's also about Community value two of the potential interested parties are public entities and so they would have direct potential Community value the other is not so

35:54 um and you know I don't want the board to feel like I'm going to enter into an agreement tomorrow but the proposal is to delay something pretty much indefinitely until until a community the community can um weigh in and and go through a different process so um that's that's my process commissioner is to try to take that Community value into into consideration but the board's Direction was within the guidance you provided that the general manager has the authority to negotiate and execute the fail

36:41 I guess I was a little too confused on that and I'm and I'm not thinking going out 18 months or six months or eight months but I was kind of under the impression that we at least have a whether it's an executive session or whatever be able to look at the those proposals and give our input out of Prada that just had delegating that all to you and so that was must have been my misinterpretation of that that Authority that I gave to you all that could do for the board's benefit is is um I could basically agree this evening that any offer or contingency or purchase and

37:26 sale agreement that I have discussed would be contingent upon having a board discussion um prior to expectancy to executing that I I would just go ahead and agree at this point with the board to do that um I I don't think that's going to impact any of the negotiations that are presently going on that's something that I would feel a little bit more comfortable and kind of the idea that I thought we that I entered into when we did that resolution so if you can just correct that in the record if the if the rest of the Commissioners concur with your approach there yeah I don't want to slow the process down but I also want to be able to say

38:11 I really don't like that or I really do like that as our elected official commissioner um well I want to thank everybody for coming out for different issues tonight but the one thing that um unites everyone is that they feel very passionate about things that go on in Eugene and um things that eweb is involved in so thank you all for coming um in terms of the property um discussion I feel like um in the four years that I've been on the board we've been discussing the headquarters it's been a long time coming that we've kind of queued it up um and I was really excited about our process that we spent a lot of time

38:58 um developing the whole scoring Matrix and coming up with a committee that was in the proposal but unfortunately we didn't have them at the criteria so that is why the general manager the ability to to take it from there I feel like we made it really clear that we want to have some kind of community benefit at least that's really important um and so I know that Frank knows that and I just want to make sure that we don't slow down this process too much because it really has been going on for a long time and um

39:43 we have a lot of important decisions to make so Frank I appreciate that you will come to us with any offers um just for transparency for us and um I am that we should just continue down the road that we've already started yeah and I would concur I just I know there was a remarkable remarkable amount of effort put in on behalf of staff and the Commissioners in putting together um that kind of decision maker Matrix to evaluate a variety of proposals and um I think in order to honor that work that was done and this and the corner that we turned after that process is over um I agree I'd simply continue to move

40:30 on with your conversations as you have and I appreciate the offer to bring those back to us just to have a conversation before there's a decision made and I agree on many of those same sentiments we've gone through this process we sat through months and months of you know criteria making sessions John Brown and I were involved in many hours with a number of staff on really thinking critically about what we wanted the community and how that work and I do anticipate that we go through this process that we will try to get as close to that as possible but unfortunately it just didn't yield the results that we had hoped for and I think that there's still an opportunity to get good Community benefit but not

41:15 delay this indefinitely and and I do know that there were some there were some groups in there that wanted to work with us in a building but also ran into issues with how it was owned and some potential upgrades would be required for the kinds of use that they wanted in that building for public space and so that piece to me also makes it if we have folks that are willing to know that going into it already we're willing to go through that process and have the funding and rather move forward with it because we have so many other larger projects right now I spoke to the resolution but I also wanted to speak to the the public comment and and

42:01 you know we do have a tough decision coming up on the Walterville Lieber uh canals and as you can see with public testimony there's but people for people against people you know we've heard a lot of discussion on all sides of this and no matter what we could what we do something's going to not be happy and and so just know that we're doing our best to to balance what we've heard from the community and what we we need to do as far as what our ratepayers uh elect us to do so just just know that there's two sides to every coin I don't know where this one's gonna land

42:56 their process there were some items um in the testimony that I think maybe could use a little bit more information so I'm hoping that stop to reach out and make sure especially in the Liebert Dam side that we get some of those um items corrected because there is some more significant um issues that are closing the power generation down along the canal but um thank you okay let's move on then we will move on to our approval of consent calendar a and um due to the lengthiness of our 900 pages that we had to read over the last week weren't able to get through the

43:41 some of the items on the minutes so I'm asking that we postpone the voting on the minutes because there are a few things that I'd like to clarify and we'll work with Ann over the next month please get that settled back for both of you I moved to approve consent calendar a like estimates no there's nothing else yeah there's nothing about it I shouldn't phrase that a little bit better

44:30 say hi hi okay thank you okay uh then next up consent calendar B removed and calendar B ucks I don't want to pull something can I just say quick comment uh well let's you have a second on the motion and then we'll kind of thing okay all right and it's just really about the threshold that we're using which is a hundred fifty thousand dollars this is actually baked into the policies which we're reviewing tonight as well I just want to call out that that amount doesn't increase with inflation and so we have projects on there that are really uh where they I it seems to me to be valuable that threshold to move

45:16 periodically so that we don't have to stop things and adjust it because otherwise we're going to be doing things that are increasingly less valuable that makes sense anyway just to make a comment there's I don't have any issues with any of the contact contracts as per post I think that's um in one of the policies yes yes so perhaps um during the policy discussion we could talk about any other comments on the items they're up for vote um okay then I'll call all those in favor say aye great um upcoming year close budgets and

46:02 prices once again I'm going to hand it over to my very capable team good evening everyone for the record to Marie Harwood financial services manager and with you this evening are Deborah Hart Chief Financial Officer Aaron

46:47 Baltimore physical services supervisor and Alicia Voorhees lead financial analyst we are here before you because you need to review the final 2023 post prices and budgets following the second and final public hearing on those prices we will be seeking board approval this is the completion of an annual process that began last June with the capital investment planning discussions and the result has incorporated more feedback and Direction over the last six months there have not been any significant changes from what you saw and heard during the November presentation with the exception of the addition of the reserves table and forecasted International ratios we hope to be free with our presentation tonight leaving tech for public input and to answer any additional questions you may

47:33 have so with that I'll hand it over to Alicia yes STM mentioned there are no substantial changes to the budget since we last presented in November one thing to note however is that the budget document in your board packet now includes the reserve targets of protections and those are attachments four and five specifically hold off inclusional peace in the budget document until we're closer to the year end for 2022 balances uh all 2023 reserve and ratio projections are expected to meet or exceed board targets turning to this Slide the grid reflect the Capital One o m budget amounts for the electric and water utilities as

48:18 presented last month as a reminder 60 of the electric o m budget proposal is comprised of purchase power costs and is more than offset by wholesale sales we are seeking your approval of this budget proposal tonight this budget incorporates all of the feedback that we've gathered at the long-term Financial plans certainly made a difference in July the cat and capital investment to check into budget checkpoints we've had with the board throughout the year in addition to the budget we are seeking approval on the proposed prices raise increases tonight both utility utilities are seeking

49:05 seeing a shortfall in the revenue requirement due to inflationary pressures as well as due to significant capital investment and aging infrastructure and upgrading systems in alignment with the values and tenets of reliability and resiliency the electric utility requires an overall opportunity in order to consent Revenue requirement increase the electric cost of service analysis results produce different impacts for each customer class as the slide shows utilize the principle of gradualism by smoothing over smoothing rates over in your term the electric price proposals incorporate an emphasis on the increase on the basic charge for residential small and medium

49:51 general service customers to better recover fixed costs these price increases are necessary for Capital Investments and improving reliability in our substations implementing Wildfire safety and prevention programs and addressing risk mitigation requirements on hydro projects the water utility requires an overall six percent Revenue requirement increase water cost of service analysis results also reflected different impacts for each customer the water price proposals allocate the increases evenly across all billing determinants these price increases as well as

50:37 additional increases in the coming years are necessary for Capital investments in large storage projects as well as the Willamette treatment plan Water and Electric bills both relative to median household income and compare to utilities is an important factor to demonstrate affordability these charts showed the typical Water customer in the top right and the typical Electric customer in the bottom left for a single-family all-electric heated household pursue it to board feedback from the pursuit to board feedback in November the water comparator chart now includes local veteran communities

51:24 the charts reflect the current prices for eweb as well as the comparator water shows Headroom among competitors while electric links to the right of the middle with board approval of these proposed 2023 budget and prices the average household will pay around six dollars more per month on their electric bill and two dollars per more per month on their water bill now I will turn it to you vice president Carlson to open the final public hearing thanks and so I will open the public hearings for the new budget

52:09 signed up it'll close the public hearing budgets and turn it back I think this is said do you have anything else so this evening marks the end of a six-month process that started back in June with board guidance on investment priorities with the lab with the draft long-term Financial plans and capital Investments following the UI October staff brought forth updated long-term Financial plans which Incorporated board feedback from July and detailed draft budgets and price proposals were presented in November for additional direction as well as for Public Enemy there have not been any significant changes from what was presented in November and so tonight management is recommending that the board approved the 2023 proposed budgets and prices that

52:54 they were presented in the board of materials jump in okay just a couple comments as always thank you for uh presenting information for us in a way that we can ask again and for the um you know the many questions you all be able to do in the last couple of months so that we go deep breakfast um and then all things being equal uh given the inflationary period we're in while it's hard to see our prices go up by four percent I actually feel like I feel like it's a utility job of completing our costs and and trying to

53:43 impacts on customers so I I but at the same time it feels like I probably can't I ultimately support Brown do you want to say anything I want I wanted to can't raise this or there's not an icon foreign no there isn't a hand raise icon I've been texting with Anne trying to figure this out so I'm just gonna either interrupt or do something shine my flashlight I'm sorry um no I'm I'm it's it's unfortunate that we have to do this and this isn't the first and because uh we've been it's very fortunate not to have to do this over the last five years and now we're having to do it we're gonna have to do it a lot more and this just adds compounds to the people and it's

54:30 regressive as we all know the the people in the lower income brackets are affected disproportionately than other people um and uh it's it's begs the question we have to you know we we fought long and hard to keep rates down and now they're moving way up in that uh in that tier but I'm going to support it obviously but um I'm going to continue to try and push to keep rates down foreign thank you cut out a little bit I think you said support to keep ranks down and maybe it's important factor I just want to make sure yes

55:21 thank you commissioner um well I too I'm in support of this since nothing has changed since the last month um and I think I'm saying this every time we talk about this um as long as we make sure that for those who have eight dollars a month in the hardship that I'm sure that we about those customers too and we kind of think that into the library but I know that we do that but I just want to acknowledge that for some people a total of eight dollars a month is a lot um and I want to make sure that we keep um program that uh yeah thank you uh thanks for the presentation this has been an ongoing

56:07 process over the last six or more months I really appreciate the fact that you took the board's input on the water increases and gradualized those uh initially it was going to be a much steeper increase as I recall in the water rates but we leveled biased that out one of the reasons is water is a very important thing everybody knows that and we have some major significant things to take to do to make sure that our water is is to the level that we wanted one of those being a second second uh Source plan and we have to start saving for that to build our Second Source

56:52 so yes the input Was Heard and and put to good use and I I am in favor of moving this forward again like everybody nobody likes to be the person who says I vote to raise prices but but he sees a lot of things are going up these days and you are less than what other utilities there's one slide back there that shows that for other utilities stays wider up 7.7 I think wasn't that what was on the side of that slide previous slide okay yeah so Electric Services 11 or 14 one or four percent were were

57:37 at four and six so I think that we're doing our best to keep in line with with what we can do to keep the lights on and the water flowing so thank you and this feels very significant for me at the five years that I've been on the board almost six now thank you have not raised rates actually lowered rates and then this earlier this year this is your famous last year one time before we we voted to support the funding to do the restoration work up the McKinsey after the fire that was the first time that I had ever voted on a rate increase to support that restoration work okay I

58:23 still support that and I know that you know during that during the last five years we've done a lot of the street effort to she breaks down and to support the people on that lowest income who you know and I mean everyone right now it is eight dollars doesn't seem like a lot to many but it is a lot to some and so I'm definitely want to make sure that we keep supporting the low-income programs and that we continue to good to do the good work that we've all been doing to make sure that we can keep rates down and this doesn't include in the future impact I mean this is this is for our upcoming budget but the forecast once we make a decision on Lieber because many of you have an

59:08 audience have you know outline we are going to have much bigger changes because no matter what choice we make on the Liebert Dam it's going to be a Major Impact rates so I appreciate the work that we've continued to do to keep this down to look ahead and do the right things that we want to do as a utility and need to do for our community I hate taking this vote but it is the right thing to do so thank you all for the work that you do in this room and others outside this room foreign with that um I think we will we'll vote on each of the resolutions separately so we'll entertain a motion the resolution 2227

59:57 I hope to approve resolution 2227 the 2023 budget all those in favor say aye aye aye okay thank you next up resolution 2228 moved to approve resolution number 2228 electric prices I mean say I I next up resolution 2229 I moved to approve resolution 2229 water prices all those in favor put your hand and say hi hi hi

1:00:44 all right all of those past unanimously thank you very much for all of your hard work thank you we appreciated the hundreds and hundreds of pages that went into this and it's it's not a small effort so thank you if you want to clarify it and give you hundreds and hundreds of pieces now there's some other people [Laughter] that's about food but I always know that the December meeting is going to be at least three to four hundred pages so when I opened up the work packet and looked at oh okay it's only you know 330 and then I opened up the second one I'm like oh that one's 630. now that okay this is definitely the longest packet by far yet go ahead Jason we do apologize

1:01:30 that it was 977 pages that this meeting and not all of Deborah is usually the heavy hitter and she was not in this case so give you a little bit of relief achieved in this one that was relief yeah I don't know all right all right next up we have the State Legislative agenda Jason yeah thank you all I guess I'm in the right chair I don't see any microphones so I'm getting used to the new setup this is my first uh Boardman drug meeting I've testified in person here so that would be good for me I'd usually sit too close to the microphone and over modulate my voice so I like the new setup for the record I'm Jason user I'm the public policy and intergovernment Affairs director for eweb I have no

1:02:16 surprise why I'm here this evening it's that time of the biennium when the Oregon legislature will convene for their long six-month session in odd numbered years under the Oregon Constitution I think this might be maybe the most streamlined legislative agenda I've brought forward to you all in several years there's some reasons for that one of our two items is one we'll be playing a lot of offense on which is not characteristic for us and secondly the other item is a fairly large large big ticket funding request from the state of Oregon so a lot of bandwidth uh will be necessary to make both of those a priority of this session and then also there's a little bit of a late uh agenda in the legislature itself when it comes

1:03:02 to energy what's always playing a little bit about um the first of our two legislative priorities is getting a legislative Remedy or a Supreme Court decision almost a year ago which effectively put a five-year shot clock on hydroelectric water rights um and uh as you all know in the situation of lieberg we've been in a period of non-generation for a little over four years now so it's not unusual for the hydroelectric project to find itself in the period of non-generation this new Supreme Court decision definitely creates a predicament uh no matter what we decide on Liebert I think this is a great poster child example of you can't rush this these are very big

1:03:48 decisions when potential structural safety issues come up on a dam and the amount of study and decision making and implementation it takes the time it takes in five years is not long enough um and actually I do want to clarify the plaintiffs in the Supreme Court decision we're certainly not targeting a project that is an active project in good standing with ferc they were targeting what they call zombie projects where someone has walked away from a project but on paper the Waterbury is still valid and attached to the project there was no way for them to litigate it in a way that targeted only the zombie projects so there was a spillover effect um uh from the legal decision

1:04:33 uh we have a legislative build drafting request that was initiated on our behalf towards the legislative remedy uh local Senator James Manning eweb alumni alumnus I was kind enough to initiate that for us we've entered into multiple meetings with water watch of Oregon the plaintiff in the court decision along with Portland General Electric and Pacific Power we've also our owners of hydroelectric projects we've had some consultation with the Northwest Hydro Association those meetings the first meetings we primarily took time to educate water watch on the vaguaries of being a hydroelectric owner and some of the challenges that can come up for projects specifically when it comes to

1:05:19 ferc regulation and and um there's um I think uh I would say a lot of acknowledgment for water watch that there's a need for a remedy and I think we probably could have agreed on legislative which that would have solved the issue for Libre specifically at the first meeting however again good State policy isn't me just to apply to one single scenario for the good of the order in the electric sector for hydro in general we needed a legislative remedy that's more Universal and it could apply to many other types of conditions and types of projects that could be jeopardized by this Supreme Court decision so uh there's kind of the

1:06:04 art there of starting the needle to have a relative remedy that is flexible enough to apply to all sorts of issues that might come up in the future obviously eweb owns other hydroelectric projects as do our utility colleagues on the other hand water watch is interested in buy your ticket for your dance tomorrow and then bring me change okay somebody is not muted please mute thank you on the other side of the equation water watch is obviously interested in this being somewhat narrow so there's no unintended consequences uh we're making progress um we'll need some more meetings later this month and possibly January if necessary to iron out that sweet spot on flexibility versus

1:06:50 um narrowness that avoids unintended consequences I recently gave an update to Senator Manning he was pleased to hear there's progress and certainly he's standing at the ready to facilitate conversations if uh the the parties at the table can't come to some consensus agreement so I think it's encouraging and we'll keep you updated on the progress of that the second legislative priority is a funding request uh it would be familiar to you since it's a repeat from our last legislative agenda we will be going to the legislature with a request for State matching funds for the Willamette water treatment plan uh that's a 22.5 million dollar request uh 25 of the estimated total project cost as you all know it is

1:07:36 competitive for for State funding we applied last session we were not we did not came out totally empty-handed um we were the beneficiary of over two hundred thousand dollars to pay for a powder activated carbon a treatment Improvement which helps address taste and odor issues that can be impacted posts Wildfire up on the McKinsey but this time I think we in a long session where we have more time to tell our story um we're going to be ambitious and hope that we can procure a larger dollar figure there are three different funding sources that are in play General funds Lottery dollars and as well as the potential that there are American Rescue

1:08:21 plan act dollars that were allocated by the legislature in their prior budget that turn out we're going to work for projects that turned out not to be feasible and where no builds it's always possible that some funds could be reprogrammed in water infrastructure is a qualified use of those funds and I think we're at a stage where we could certainly put some of that money to work on design for the project on a timeline that would still meet um the federally imposed timeline on how that posting that money has to be spent which I believe is the end of 2024. so um multiple funding sources I do want to stress again it will be competitive I I just learned today of another Water

1:09:06 System project out there so we're going to need to get pretty good at our storytelling um I think I uh supplied the board with some talking points uh at a previous board packet I think you also know that we're working on what we call a leave behind that we can use for any of our meetings with legislators or also just enter into the official record um I you've seen my PowerPoint slides I think I'm a decent writer but we got to spit this thing up so we've got the eweb team working to supply some graphics and maps and something that will pop a little more especially if we know there's a little competition out there we want to stand out from the crowd there's uh it's a little opaque how legislature develops its budget but

1:09:53 there are certainly many opportunities for public testimony so I'll plan to sign up for any of the hearings at the ways and memes committee or the subs any place we have an opportunity to tell the story about our project and the benefits of that project including to neighboring communities certainly we have wholesale water customers in the area that will benefit from an improved more resilience system and there's a few other things there that I think show this is a project that's regionally beneficial beyond the city limits of Eugene oh and I we did uh have a meeting with City of Eugene staff uh earlier last month but we talked about coordinating Moore on

1:10:39 um inflation reduction act opportunities as well as iig opportunities we did talk about this project and City View Dean staff surprised us that we have an opportunity to forward this funding request to the city of Eugene's intergovernmental Relations Committee where they may take a support position obviously eweb staff would volunteer to be there to describe the project or otherwise answer any questions the the committee has and that very welcome lead to a support letter from the mayor or Council so I'll let you know uh that date if there's anything any of you wanted to do to contact any local government colleagues you may know on the committee and I also I just wanted to note um in

1:11:24 addition to the legislative process Facebook staff earlier this year did meet with business Oregon to talk about other water financing and grant opportunities either in their existing programs like the state revolving Loan Fund or any new programs that could be coming through iiga or the inflation reduction act and so we uh we're on their radar and uh we can be in contact with them at some point in the future when we know more about the project needs but I just wanted to make sure folks know we're looking under all the stones I think the business of Oregon's tools tend to be more of the financing nature than the grant nature but we'll see what happens there's some new rules and flexibility

1:12:10 being given to the states for those srf programs so you never know what opportunities may be out there on that side of things so those are our two big priorities um there certainly will be some other uh energy legislation coming up where we may be playing uh an assist type rule um real quick actually let me back up for a moment I did want to just point out one of the reasons the energy agenda is a little light is because in the 2021 session the clean electricity standard was passed which requires the two large investor owned Utilities in Oregon uh to meet a very aggressive carbon reduction uh timeline for their energy portfolios that's a very complex piece of legislation the rule making and implementation of that bill is still

1:12:57 ongoing right now as we speak it involves multiple stake agencies uh so there's work to be done left on that there's also the implementation of Governor Brown's executive order 2004 on climate and the climate and protection program and then on top of that you've got all these new federal funding streams coming in many of which utilize state agent um to be pass-throughs for that funding they've got a lot on their plate I think that they're looking just to catch their breath and I think the legislature understands that so um that's probably an explanation of why the energy agenda in Salem is a little light we're honestly playing a little bit of catch up on past policy and in the recent major investment packages approved by Congress

1:13:43 but a couple areas where I do see us providing an assist there is a few legislative Concepts being brought forward by the renewable hydrogen Alliance there are the resiliency variety they'd like to start a state grant program to pay for fuel cells that can provide hydrogen based standby emergency power something we certainly could be interested in maybe even a facility here like the rock so we'll be supporting RHA in their effort to get that program started there's also a Joint Task Force on resilient and efficient buildings um that uh that group initially was looking at building code improvements I think they're actually pivoting now to

1:14:29 developing some kind of plan for the state of Oregon to be very strategic and think holistically about all the federal funding opportunities and how to leverage those with existing programs so we'll be following closely with that committee recommends and there may be an opportunity for us to help them develop a good state plan and then finally the Oregon Department of energy has proposed legislative authorization for them to create and regularly maintain a state energy plan they already do a state Energy report but that's a little different than having a state energy strategy the state of Washington already has one and I think Oregon has decided there should be a little bit more proactive Vision on energy policy so

1:15:15 there will be in legislation and authorizing the department of energy to do that and again update and maintain that that Statewide energy plan on a regular basis going forward um I want to get to questions but uh real quickly I'll just note that as far as we can tell the legislature will be resuming to somewhat normal business the pre-covered type of business which means people will actually be in the capital there will be in-person meetings I'm sure it won't be exactly like it was before covid but it means we do have the opportunity to have our traditional ewed commissioner day at the Capitol if you're all willing to come to Salem I think it'd be great to resume the tradition and if anything changes

1:16:01 there's always the backup plan of going virtual if needed so I can follow up through Ann and Holly to get some dates out to you sometime soon because we'll want to start asking for meeting scheduling requests as soon as possible so that we can try to see that the whole delegation on the same day and uh lastly uh before I turn everybody questions I just wanted to remind you all that uh there's one small amount of business uh we do need to uh consider resolution 2230 summarizing our agenda and our principles and staff recommendation is to approve all right thank you

1:16:55 okay do not jumping in so um so there's a lot of new bodies in the building are you reaching out to do Representatives or senators and making introductions and availing yourself for them for questions we're I'm on the cusp of doing that uh one of the reasons I'm waiting is to find out the committee assignments um we certainly need to be strategic there's 90 members and there are a lot of new ones and uh it's going to be hard to get appointments with everyone so we're waiting to see what kind of word we get on committee assignments the word's starting to get out now about what to expect who's going to be committee chairs on those things that

1:17:41 perhaps jurisdictions over energy and water which obviously are the the two closest to our heart we're very fortunate in that our local delegation I don't know how we've managed to be this lucky but um the lack of turnover and having a very seasoned experience legislators that we already have relationships with we're very very fortunate and I have to say so yeah but you're absolutely right there's a lot of turnover and uh I'll be making a point to get out there and glad the hand and meet as many of them possible as soon as possible yeah that's something I I met with some legislators for a different organization with two new people and it was like if you can get your foot in the door so that they know who to call and when they

1:18:26 have a question it's it's very advantageous and so ask you to do that as much as possible thank you and then John Brown noted that he does have a question so I'm going to go back to him and then do the little Justice there thank you uh Jason um years ago I recall maybe I'm wrong but there was an effort to try and get a bill passed Statewide about uh septic tank inspection with 100 within 100 feet of a waterway that provides did that die or did that ever get any traction or did I remember that wrong uh you know there was a bill like that I believe that if I recall we the effort

1:19:13 tried to tie it to Home Inspections uh during the purchase of a home on the basis of being a consumer protection measure which which was a pretty strategic timing um it's also a time when if there was a problem with a septic system that the buyer and the seller are negotiating repairs and things of that nature so it would have been very very timely uh moment for an inspection uh my to my knowledge John um the state uh excuse me commissioner Brown the state initiative that passed it prohibited real estate transaction fees or or I hope someone else can help me out I'm

1:19:58 not a real estate expert but there was a bill that essentially um capped or preempted uh what local jurisdictions or even the state could do with fees related to real estate transactions and there was a legal judgment that determines the inspection because there was a cost for the inspection making that part of um a time of sale you know a home transfer that was prohibited under the state uh initiative that was approved so I'd have to go back and that's off the top of my head I'd have to go back and look at my notes but as a result I believe that inspection requirement um could be difficult to implement in the way that we all envisioned it and

1:20:43 and that I'm disappointed that that's not an opportunity I would just for kind of the education of the other Commissioners that may not have been around them because uh you know once septic tanks are installed they never have to be inspected and uh and you know 25 of the septic tanks up in the Mackenzie Valley failing according based on our statistics and I personally thought it was a good idea but apparently some lobbyists and other venues didn't but um maybe some point in the future we could try and resurrect that because I only see that getting worse and worse and you know why wouldn't we want to protect our drinking water but um uh I'll let that go thank you Jason that was a good recollection and uh it's

1:21:28 sad to hear that that died but um maybe we'll try and rekindle it in the future I was going to mention that in the wake of the that Statewide initiative I seem to recall that Carl Morgenstern and I did meet with the local Realtors association uh and make just basically make the case to them that uh uh again at good business practice it'd be great for them to a prize uh any home buyers to have a septic inspection done um so it might be worth uh potentially doing that again I I think it is pretty common practice for realtors to recommend that to their clients that are purchasing a home but we could certainly

1:22:15 consider making the case to them again to be proactive in educating consumers about the the wisdom of doing that so I appreciate that especially in close proximity to drinking water sources thank you that's her at a different time but um you made a comment that we usually take off in the offense and coming up with a legislative agenda and I'm just curious why not why don't we believe try to get more traction so for instance the the tank uh issue well I may have overstated that I it's

1:23:01 not rare it's just uh it's probably not often that we're the leading an effort to make a Statewide policy as a local government we certainly do and actually on that specific point we did we uh we were um part of a coalition that was pushing that bill to require a septic inspections I would say it's more often that uh you know we're part of coalitions we it's probably more accurate to say we don't play offense unilaterally um and some of that's size based I I always say we punch above our weight but we are just one utility in the state of Oregon and so it's usually more part of the Coalition and now I would say on the hydro water rights we are working with

1:23:46 the Coalition but I I would say we're certainly taking a lead role and a lot of it is we just have such a great case study we have so much experience with this topic right now where well qualified to play an upsized leadership role on it thank you all right well I'll just then I would love to come up and visit in February and help with the legislative agenda and at this point I'll book to a resolution 2230 all right all right all those in favor say aye aye excellent thank you so much

1:24:31 amazing hey next up we have three Libras you know with President Carlson Commissioners good evening my name is Frank Lawson I'm the general manager of eweb to my left

1:25:17 is Karen Kelly our chief operating officer to my right is Lisa Krantz Our Generation manager I wanted to discuss this evening with the board a management recommendation for the future disposition of the lieberg hydroelectric project I'd like to start with I'm just setting a little bit of a few stakes in the ground around the environment of which we're making this recommendation you know first of all I would like to acknowledge the work of the core team and extended core team really um Karen Lisa Mark zaniker who's over here with Jeremy simoji Adam Spencer who I saw

1:26:02 earlier Alicia Vorhees and the finance team as well as Ben Ulrich and Jonathan Hart and other members of Megan capper's power planning team as well as some others this is uh as said here on the timeline this has been a multi-year effort uh so far uh and we want to make sure that people understand this is this is a directional recommendation this recommendation will not result in the wrecking balls coming out next week this is we're dealing with timelines that for example will take years potentially decades as we look into the

1:26:48 future this is our 20th board meeting on this subject over the last few years nine this year alone so thank you for your many words of wisdom as well as your efforts and in both Outreach as well as site visits collaboration with staff on this we have much much of it through Adam's coordination and the communications team reached out in a number of ways to members of the community both upriver and in the City of Eugene and so we really appreciate the feedback that we we have got and we've received a lot of it whether that be direct through

1:27:35 emails conversations testimony and one-on-one conversations so we really appreciate that the team and when I say we this evening I'm referring primarily to the core team we really do appreciate that that feedback from Commissioners as well as from the public I want to emphasize that the recommendation this evening is a conditional recommendation we recognize that as we move through this process that there are are conditions sometimes that change some of those keep you on course and some of those make you step back and we want to be willing to look at the future as it changes and if something as we go through this process

1:28:21 over the next number of years warrants that we review a decision that we've made we will do that this is this is conditional we are making this recommendation based on the best information we have today but we also know that the future can be volatile and we want to be able to respond to that we also recognize a couple of things relative to the impacts of this decision and the disproportionate impacts whether it's where you live or what community you're you're part of um how you and and to what degree your bill weighs into your your personal economics and we also recognize that while we have listened and we have contemplated this decision to Great

1:29:06 extent we know there will not be complete agreement on all of the different aspects of the decision that's that's part of why it's an important decision it's also part of why it's a difficult decision we appreciate uh that the board recognizes that as such quickly just review this this is just really this past Year's schedule we've we've had a number of check-ins with the board on various issues from water quality uh to water rights to different Financial scenarios to Triple bottom line exercises and input and so we appreciate that again recognizing that the board has committed a significant

1:29:51 amount of time to provide the best advice and collaboration they can with the team we also wanted to take a look at this from a couple of different angles uh this evening and explain the process that was used to come up with the recommendation first of all we know that we started with the number of defined Alternatives we narrowed that down to four and then part of the exercise around the recommendation was to dissect those Alternatives and the sub components that made up those Alternatives and the decision factors that went into that for example one that's very fundamental is do we want to continue or does it make sense to continue to generate electricity that's a sub component that

1:30:38 affects some of these Alternatives more than others and then you know that can lead to a decision around the dam that can lead to a decision around how we use or potentially use the canal and other assets such as such as the bridge so uh when we approached this we didn't just look at this and all cast a vote for a particular alternative we looked at the sub components of those decisions and said how does this relate to eweb's Mission and the impacts that it's going to have on the utility our customers and the community part of that is to look at this um from not just the aspect of the triple bottom line which we'll talk a little bit about later but also relative

1:31:23 to how does this align with eweb's Mission as a utility and so we when we looked at at the decision and the recommendations that we're providing we wanted to take a look specifically at our mission as a utility our organizational values how does this is this consistent with our customer owners priorities we also wanted to weigh the different Alternatives and the parts of the decision relative to ongoing risks and uncertainties long-term obligations and finally wanted to understand the resiliency of the direction or recommendation that we're providing are we making a decision that

1:32:08 does allow for conditional adjustments in the future that's what we would mean by the resiliency of the decision a little bit about the the path we started the the question should we or does it make sense to generate uh in the future at Lieber um the um the answer when we looked and the some of the considerations was that it really just is not economically viable relative to the Alternatives that we have and I think that's that's it for distinction one of the things that we looked at and I'll show it a little bit later is that the way that leeburg is classified as a facility is it is listed as a as a

1:32:55 direct facility to to deliver to load which means if we take that asset away that we have the option to work with Bonneville at on a tier one replacement and so the viability has to be compared with what is your replacement cost which in this case would be a Bonneville option we also just looked at this relative to future generation and said there is high Regulatory and economic risk and this really creates a decision that is rigid in the long term and what that means is that if you decide to generate at leeburg not only are you committing to the present license period and probably through 2026

1:33:41 or sorry 2076 the condition of the assets are such that whoever's making the decision at that point would probably be obligated to go for another license um if you decide to decommission after 2076 then the economics become that much worse because that's when you start to put in your sinking funds to decommission in 2076 and we'll talk a little bit more about that later and so the rigidity of the decision is you're not just obligating the utility to generate at the site for another 40 years it's probably more like 90 to 100 years so it's definitely a long-term decision once that you look at whether to

1:34:26 generate at lieberg or not the damn decision sounds like Dam not b-a-m and the the damn decision is one that falls out from that and it is it is highly unlikely that The Regulators first of all would let the dam remain after its primary use has been removed but also relative to the settlement party positions the ongoing risks liability and long-term obligation far outweigh the recreational benefits that the dam provides and that's that's our that's our opinion also we then rolled into the the canal and the bridge

1:35:12 um from a practical perspective using the canal for storm water conveyance storm water management as the most practical initial approach there are some it does lead to the fact that this some of the arrows down below it does provide some options depending on even future financing and availability for Grants or other things for environmental recovery that it could provide a practical option to move from an alternative for or alternative for with no bridge to an alternative one which would be the full decommissioning so there's some flexibility in that decision as we move forward into the next basic plan

1:36:04 relative to some of the economics I think you've seen this before all of these bars are going down which is that present value which is an ultimate cost to our our customer owners we have put the no Bridge alternative in there as well it is part of the recommendation as to how we would how we would address that but we also feel like when you look at our our mission we are not a transportation organization although we do understand the need to mitigate the fact that the dam also serves as a mode of transportation across the McKenzie

1:36:50 this is really when you look at the the cost of the different Alternatives uh one of the things that we did was we took a baseline minimum approach and we said what is if you Stripped Away everything and said what is the absolute minimum that we had to do how much would it cost to add generation on top of that and how would that compare with the alternatives and when we looked at the investment required to add generation to various Alternatives we were looking at what's called in this case lcoe stands for levelized cost of energy the cost of energy that those Alternatives produces is significantly higher than any of the other Alternatives that eweb could pursue and this is really the costs that

1:37:35 have been aligned within our integrated resource plan and the ones in green there are actually carbon free options and so you can see that what we would do in this case is we would petition the Bonneville power Administration administrator to replace the energy loss from leiberg with tier one power which would be at that 33 dollar roughly thirty three dollars a megawatt hour whereas you can see all of the various alternatives to self-generate are well over a hundred um 117 in the two Alternatives two and three and then those actually increased to roughly around two hundred dollars per megawatt hour if you would decide to um de-list the facility or decommission

1:38:21 the facility in 2076 which then you add that sinking fund in and which which makes it just that much more economically and viable there is a rate impact we've recognized that um with the the recommendation from uh from staff and management is probably going to be estimated in roughly the 10 percent range if you look at the decommissioning with stormwater conveyance um less about another 19 or 20 million for the removal of the bridge as part of that alternative takes it down a little bit below the the

1:39:06 double digit although again there are some variables in those those estimates we also you recognize and will pursue any Grant or federal or state options that we can once we have a direction set forth one of the things that to consider I know Jason mentioned the the IRA inflation reduction act and also the iija infrastructure investment and jobs act as potential sources most of those are for new facilities and for new infrastructure related to to renewable energy they would this

1:39:54 facility would not qualify under those conditions typically there may be more options relative to environmental recovery than there would be to pursue grants for Generation that already exists and we will pursue every form of financial mitigation that we can to help mitigate any rate impacts the other thing that we have looked at and we recognize that there are a number of different different opinions on this we that had to look at the alignment of our recommendations or potential options with our customer owners priorities historically and most recently our

1:40:40 customer customers have told us once we achieve a reliability threshold and a water quality threshold on the water side that affordability becomes they're they're number one concern in fact it and the reason I say that there's a threshold if you think about what's going on in Mississippi or you think about what's what's gone in some parts of the country Flint Michigan for example they're in a position where it doesn't matter what what it costs we need good water we need reliable electricity so once we achieve that threshold then cost and rates affordability becomes their their key concern in fact our most recent

1:41:25 survey did also reinforce that very specifically stating that dweb should prioritize reliability and affordability in our decision-making process that was a very direct question to customers and that was their response in some of the surveys specific to the Liebert project um we did find that there was some difference between people who responded from Eugene versus upriver up Rivers respondents did place a higher priority on some of the social impacts whereas Eugene residents placed a higher priority on some of the environmental impacts and that's that's probably not a surprise based on the specifics of of the project

1:42:16 what are the other analysis that we did and we did this with the board as well we did this with staff also we looked at the triple bottom line components there's several reasons that I think this is an important part of the process one is it provides guidance and in your decision-making process but also it identifies the key areas that you may want to mitigate or consider and identifies those conditions at which we said this as a conditional recommendation what are some of those conditions that could impact a future direction or future adjustment these are a pretty extensive list of things that we want to make sure we're considering and verifying reinforcing or alternatively not reinforcing going

1:43:02 forward and so that was part of our process when we looked at the Alternatives we also looked at the Alternatives let's go back up on that one from a board perspective as well as a staff perspective by applying weights to this and I don't want to to emphasize this too much but both the board and its conglomerated results as well as staff and the project team when we went through our equivalent or parallel version of this in both cases the alternative for provided the least negative of the different Alternatives and then internally we also did a comparison

1:43:49 between alternative four and alternative four with no Bridge enhancement or addition to it so the the summary of the recommendation based on the process that we looked at which was a combination of the triple bottom line and also looking at attributes and alignment with the organization resulted with a six point recommendation one was to permanently discontinue electricity generation at the lieberg site thus we really driving the requirement to remove Lieber Dam and develop a southern access as an alternative to the

1:44:35 use of the dam as a as a transportation means across the river we also looked at the most practical initial approach to the use of the canal being to repair the canal partially repair the canal specifically for stream and storm water conveyance but as part of that preserving the option to naturalize or progress to that full decommission option one I would say also relative to the first point on there to discontinue electricity generation that is one thing that we would pay particularly close attention to as we get into negotiation with settlement parties uh

1:45:20 we we recognize that it's a premium investment to regenerate at the site but we also want to make sure that understanding that differential and if for some reason differential becomes closer or is driven to a closer um difference between generating and not generating that we're in a position where we could reevaluate whether to generate or not in the future but our recommendation based on what we see now is to discontinue generation we also understand there's a number of mitigation opportunities that we need to include in our next steps including water rights and specifically hatcheries one of the the things that

1:46:05 came out of the survey both in in the City of Eugene as well as upriver with the importance on Fisheries that was very near the top of the list for both demographics and we consider that an important part of the economy of the environment in in the region and then we're also recommending that we do conduct a similar assessment on the Walterville project Walterville presently is generating it is generating a return um and we believe that there's an opportunity as part of its re-licensing process which would start really in roughly the 2030 time frame that prior

1:46:50 to that that we conduct a similar assessment with Walter bill it is a well it's tied in the license it is a different project it has a different profile to it it has chevron's instead of a dam and a list of those Feud as a whether that's inevitable or not it's it's not um but we also think that Walterville should be looked at separately from from lieberg as one of the next steps just to reiterate where we are and where we're going this is a recommendation we are looking for to incorporate commissioner feedback this evening hopefully and as well it's doing it in a

1:47:37 way that makes you comfortable our next step would be to convert our recommendation to a record of decision for which the board would formally vote to endorse that record of decision and that record of decision would set the the course and the path going forward that launches us into the development of an implementation plan that would um align with the recommendation around leeburg's decommissioning as a generation facility in the storm water conveyance use of the canal which when you look at the at the future there's this is why I said this timeline

1:48:23 there's a number of different processes in this in this step and the the implementation plan launches us into this part of the of the project so there's a number of lumps that's a technical term lumps of years where we are looking at various Regulatory and licensed and administrative requirements implementation measures approvals um and really construction not taking place until all of those requirements are received so our recommendation is is set forth

1:49:10 um as such and we would welcome commissioner discussion you have really a number of different potential options but tonight's potential outcome could be that you would Direct the general manager to prepare a record of decision consistent with the proposal recommendations discussed this evening for deliberation and potential endorsement or action in January the other option would be to do something similar only bring that back as a record of decision for deliberation in January for their deliberation and then the board could decide that further deliberation is warranted uh

1:49:56 before we convert our recommendation into a record of decision for your consideration I'll send it back to you vice president Carlson thank you for the time this evening you want do you want to get in the queue and then I'll talk to others by the way thank you thank you uh Franklin see again your internet was can you hear me okay oh now it's better

1:50:43 okay thank you I apologize it's uh the squirrels are running long and hard this evening down here to trying to keep keep the internet running um I'm really pleased with uh with the with the recommendation I I think a lot of long diligence and reviews on into this I do have some a few specific questions or minutia but they're important to me and so I I'm assuming that if we take the dam out then that means the salmon hatchery goes is that correct or are we going to talk about somehow I I know that I've been told we can get water to the trout hatchery but to the salmon hatchery is that off the table I I don't it doesn't matter to me I just had curious yeah commissioner brand this is Lisa

1:51:29 krentz um I'll take a stab at that getting water conveyed all the way down to the salmon hatchery that takes water off the Libra Canal would be difficult um I think what we propose to do is partner with them to see if they're have other opportunities to get their water but a source through the canal seems unlikely okay and then um what happens to Lloyd Knox Park so as part of we would assume if the board endorses this record of decision and this this recommendation we would move through a license to render process as part of that process we are likely required to to look at Recreation opportunities and

1:52:15 there would be likely some ongoing requirement to provide Recreation opportunities what that means specifically for Lloyd Knox Park it's a little too early to tell but that would be part of the process that we would go through that would include discussions with our stakeholders and other interested parties okay thank you well I mean just to summarize it I'm I'm supporting this and I'm I would be proposed that I would I'm ready to move forward with the record of decision in January uh unless I hear something from others that would change that thank you one thing I did want to add and I'm not I'm doing this because I know that there was some comments made about it earlier that we do recognize that there's

1:53:01 opportunities to mitigate some of the impacts of the recommendation the recommendation in full disclosures it also has its risks and uncertainties as well for example um you know well it it doesn't create a market risk there we are relying putting a heavier Reliance on Bonneville for example and so I think it's worth it for acknowledging that I do think that risk is significantly less volatile than relying on the market but is a risk that we need to know also there is the loss of the localness of a resource there are potentially other ways that we'll have

1:53:46 to look to mitigate and understand the resiliency impacts of the recommendation and so that is something that would be part of a mitigation effort as Jason touched on earlier this would involve the surrendering of our hydro hydro water right as part of this and also we did want to under you know really uh it does result in the loss of the leg which can will have some local economic impact as well as some local firefighting support impacts so we we do recognize that this is not a perfect recommendation um but I think we have gone into this eyes wide open and the benefit of using

1:54:33 a triple bottom line approach is it does give us the opportunity to really look hard at various opportunities to mitigate potentially adverse or negative impacts thank you all right I have a couple questions um so a question about maintaining the canals can you just talk to me a little bit about I would opt to have to take care of something that is just for water conveys yeah the the so the initial recommendation being to continue to use the canal for stormwater conveyance is really based on the economic uh

1:55:18 advantage that that has over the full decommissioning which is one of the most expensive options if we were able to get some environmental recovery money or something like that that would lead to the full decommissioning of the canal there are options there excuse me there are advantages to that such as removing the long ongoing o m and obligation that we have to that but the initial recommendation is to be to do the canal as in as practical a way as we can which is probably to start by using it that way unless unless we learn otherwise um another question is the impacts to people who live on the lake so

1:56:04 I'm sure there's a lot of people that are really nervous about I know there's a lot of people that are really nervous and concerned about this decision and um whatever it is we decide to do will impact people up there at what point do we start working proactively with people up there to try to minimize if there are or to mitigate whatever kind of negative effects how does that process work you were going to start I was going to weigh in and then I'll Jeremy can jump in uh I was just going to really the the next phase after the recommendation um record of decision and the endorsement

1:56:49 is to develop a plan that includes those types of activities as well as the Outreach to other stakeholders the processes that that are involved in that and so this recommendation the record of decision really launches that argument of the implementation plan which part of that would be having conversations with a number of stakeholders those included if you want to collaborate on that right and I think one of the first and foremost things we'll do once the you know decision of record is implemented is to you know have another stakeholder engagement plan through our Communications team which they've done a great job thus far so we'll just take that to phase two and

1:57:35 take that out to the community on forever and in town and just you know have more listening sessions perhaps to take more of your time unfortunately uh towards that effort and to to get the word out and to to just reassure folks that this is going to be a long-term process and there's there's a long time to to negotiate and to mitigate uh the issues that will that will happen upriver one more question if that's okay um I know only it originally talked about this and and are making the decision that we had talked about how we're not actually making a specific decision but we're making a decision to go down a path to explore a decision and

1:58:20 I'm curious the way that you've laid it out once we make a decision like if the decision is to be commission whether with storm water conveyance or without once we make that decision and start going down that path or are we down that path I would say that um the record of decisions certainly starts us down the road there are there are so many negotiated processes in there and I'll just give you one example if we we cannot have a discussion with Bonneville around a replacement

1:59:05 alternative unless the board has approved the decommissioning path and that's the the same with some of the settlement parties and as we open up the license you cannot go to ferc with hypothetics they just will not respond um and so we have to have a course laid out a plan laid out to be able to do that the caveat to that is that there there could be some game changers along the way that would warrant our our reassessment but for the most part it sets the course going forward um now you can maneuver down that road somewhat but in essence the pork is in

1:59:52 the road and we're we're guarding down that road it would it would be incredible and I think that police says you said this term one it would be incredibly ineffective and inefficient to jump to the other Road I think that's what you said I remember okay so if we I guess some of my questions are on the regulatory side so if we pull the trigger and say to First we're gonna surrender the license are we confident that they're going to let us keep Walterville at least to 20 40. yeah I'll take that we actually did a

2:00:38 bit following the board Workshop we had at the end of October we did convene a meeting with for to check our assumptions to ensure that we were telling you all accurate information based on our experience with with verb and uh essentially no we wouldn't take an action with fork won't take an action until we apply for something and so we've got that step to do what we end up applying for will determine what happens with Walter Bill and so that's why we're starting down this path we're going to start trying to get some more certainty start talking with stakeholders start looking at what this really looks at looks like um before we apply for a licensed action with for that said there's no reason for

2:01:23 us at this point to think that you know we've got a license with in Baltimore through 2040 and our intent is to continue to generate through 2040 minus some unforeseen circumstance happening the other question on regulatory as I recall if we did return to service that meant a higher level of resiliency on the canal than if we just use it for storm water does that is that assumption right or do we still have to build into the million year flood that first wants us to I'd like to love that over to Mark yeah it would fall maybe in an uncertainty category but our expectation would be that

2:02:08 um were not at first regulated water conveyance is that we would not be expected to convey necessarily at the same level of reliability is I think we were a generating facility so so who would be the regulatory body on a storm water conveyance berm this would that be regulatory to the state of Oregon we can also add commissioner that we did an economic assessment of the sensitivity around what the difference in cost would be between say a 10 000 year flood standard versus a million year standard and I think it was about two percent so it that particular

2:02:53 requirement should not be does not drive the economics a lot it sounds ridiculous when you say it but it's from an economic impact perspective not significant um and then timeline and this just goes to the public I looked at the Timeline you had up there construction begins 20 32 33. So when you say that there may be construction along the canal before that for me for mediation immediate stuff now and probably can now work I'm going to now work but 2033 is when they would

2:03:39 start yank in the dam is that kind of what that timely shows to me yeah the folks will see construction along the canal in the near term as we do our near-term risk reduction measures to ensure that the canal is safe to convey storm water in the short term the 20 the early 2030s and it's our best guess at this point is for major construction for the long-term option implementation I would caveat that that there's a lot of work that needs to be done between now and then and the regulatory process can I've rarely seen it take less time than you expect but I've often seen it take more and so I think the 20 early 2030s is uh it's our best guess but it could be longer than that

2:04:25 Mr brovsky there will make sure we follow up with this but we did have a an estimated cash flow chart that shows the expenditures per year so much and I was just doing that basically for the public that's here that if we move forward with the record of decision that doesn't mean that the dam is coming out in the in the near future it's probably in the next decade be probably the best gets that's just for public knowledge I think that's a message that we need to get out whatever way we go thank you

2:05:11 sure let's take a minute um it feels like the evening of unpopular decisions for sure um but um but you know into this this decision for a long time and thought long and hard it had a lot of conversations about it then I really appreciate the the section that you call the I said late October where we had just four hours of open conversation to really walk through this and helped me understand better the the whole you know the whole project in the context that really helped I guess perform by thinking about it um I think for with all the reasons to state in this recommendation and especially just the risk of ownership and just the uncertainty and Regulatory uncertainty

2:05:57 that comes if we try and need to operate this facility and I I certainly think that this is the best way to go it's as we've talked about there's no there's no good option here right it's all the worst or the the better of bad options um I'm supportive of this and I appreciate all the effort that's gone into thank you for trying this six ways probably a dozen ways from Sunday um my team all that hurt to get us here

2:06:43 I appreciate that certainly I the one thing that I I don't want this recommendation to send the message that this was a decision between fish and Power or fish and electricity oftentimes decisions around that involve dams are um we tried to look at this much beyond that um looking at the risks the regulatory risk the climate risks to generation for example from a water perspective as well and not turn this specifically into electricity versus a fish issue there are by removing the dam but the unobstructed flow the water quality has

2:07:28 navigation has some recreational benefits fish benefits to it but we we didn't want to portray this as a discrete fish versus electricity issue there was a lot more that went into it than that and I and I know that the commissioners collaborated and went through that with us so I I wanted people to understand it wasn't one versus the other jump in I really appreciate the thought and the recommendation and I as I mentioned before you know that the cost is one that is going to be a big driver for me and one of the biggest reasons why I'm supportive of the direction

2:08:14 [Music] um the power generation issue it's so risky to me that you know will we be able to do it how long can we even get power out of it how much water will actually be flowing through I mean our climate is changing it's going to look very different the amount of water up there will be very different and the community and the PowerPoint there are going to need it we're going to need the quality that we can provide by doing other work bigger to continue to provide water for our community so thank you for all of the the hard work I will be looking forward to this I I know that at our last meeting especially or

2:08:59 in October we wanted to do more Outreach um I would still like to go into the public I'm willing to support those this evening but then I want to still go out into the public and talk about the reasons but behind quite at least I support this very very critical that we show that this is best of the worst things there aren't any great decisions here but there's a lot of effort that went into this and none of the impacts are there's going to be winners to all of them just the way it is so Carlson I think you're out your Outreach intent is consistent like

2:09:45 our intentions as well we we are starting to plan a number of different events in the coming months some of those are highly linked you know this decision IRP all of those dealing with with resource issues those become a nice natural fit to be able to go out and speak with the public about so we'll be coordinating with you a lot on that and other Commissioners as well the one that I mean as I mentioned last time I wish that we could keep the dam but I completely understand that that is tied to the power generation power generation being so very happy and potentially far more costly than what is even in this uh

2:10:31 get into a project like that and the fees associated with it and the legal process and all of that is just so risky to try to redo that um so I understand why the recommendation came out to you for damn even though I was trying to look for kind of a could we get rid of the generation but also keep the dam so we could have the recreation side of it I understand where stuff is coming from and I do appreciate that the extra effort after our last meeting to reach out to various regular private agencies to confirm those points that we were replaced right with that yes um

2:11:17 thank you uh yes um you know when I got on the board and even before I got on the board I knew that this is going to be a on our agenda and I was a full build it back put it back to where it was you know and the more I learned the costs all of the things I see where I see how we landed where we're Landing but that's sad after that meeting that we had where we went through all of these things I would like us to if we do move forward with it in this direction to look at the full decommission and try and bring the whole Corridor back to pre

2:12:02 done take it all out if there's if there's money or ways that we can do that that would be something that I would be leaning towards that mentioned it at one of our last meetings it's like yeah it's more expensive way all of our liabilities it puts the rivers puts judge in the creek it puts Cogswell Creek none of us know what Johnson Creek and Cogswell Creek looked like before the stand went in that could have been perfect spawning uh things for these trout and and salmon and Lamprey we don't know because none of us are around and know what was up those Creeks 100 years ago so I would want to keep those options open especially as money comes in and bring

2:12:48 that back and say and right now we're you're saying it's a two to three percent higher cost to our ratepayers but if we could get that down to a half or one percent I would like the board to have an opportunity to weigh in on that and say is the cost benefit there for us so that's something that I hope we can continue working on it over the next decade thank you and John Brown your question um yeah just a comment and a question uh Mindy did your concern about the uh the lake going away um but there's a some pretty good examples in on the Rogue River where they've taken out two dams recently in the last five years where they were lakefront homes and other Riverfront homes and so I think staff and people

2:13:33 will be able to use some some real life examples of uh how that transition occurs um I have a question about if if there is a you know sentiment for some to uh to return to service but if we did that and then got shut down five or ten years later because of the water flows and and uh then wouldn't we have to also I mean we spend 250 million getting it back running and then we got shut down wouldn't we have to spend another couple hundred million tearing it down after it was shut down that's correct so we it's a huge Financial Risk if we return to service and then the flows are such or the regimens are such that we can't really use it and then we have to

2:14:19 shut it down and we just spent a quarter of a million a billion dollars on it and then we have to spend another couple hundred million tearing it out after that that would double our expense okay so that weighs in on me about the about the overall cost I know it's an expensive option to tear it out but it's it's not the cost it's the cost per year I mean I um the future liability we could be strapping rate pairs with it could be double what we do if we return to service so uh that weighs heavily on me

2:15:08 [Music] um so to your point John brovski about um the whole pre-project conditions and from my understanding is that if if we choose to support this we go down that road and that road includes plenty of options that we don't have to decide on now and that will just become probably either clear or more complex as we continue down that road not cutting anything off or we're not making the decision um and so I agree with John that if we do um go to um or support this that um I too would lean towards looking at uh um

2:15:54 project conditions um but we'll get to that when we perhaps later my other thing is just about a comment that you made Frank about getting rid of a local generating actually and I just want to make sure I know we will but that we we keep that as a placeholder when we look at the IRP and when we talk about that more I know that as a board we've indicated that we value locally owned generation but we haven't really delved in and talked about like what does that mean and I know some people might look at this and say well you're essentially looking at getting rid of a local source so I wanted to that we Circle back to that and it's

2:16:39 something that the board has already indicated support commissioner schlossberg I do believe that in the context of the IRP we are going to run sensitivities around sort of checking the value of localness relative from a transmission perspective and the value of localness really being from a resiliency perspective really which is probably the primary driver for that not necessarily that we are enamored with owning or operating a facility locally it's the value that its location brings to how we approach resiliency and

2:17:24 reliability that that's what I have read from you and the other board members is that's that's probably the primary Dragon reason and I think your point is absolutely correct in the context of the IRP which were in the middle of also has to be a consideration uh just one comment to barowsky's point about um I I too would be supportive of a full decommissioning if there's a way that we can make that make sense and I understand there was a remarkable cut through a run that went up Johnson Creek prior to this project are you around in the 20s I was not but I took spoke with some people in Fisheries who uh said that that would be one of the benefits if that's the way

2:18:10 things went we will plan on incorporating that vice president Carlson in the record of decision I think we've we've tried to make it clear that we are recommending this as an initial course but using the word we are preserving the option to pursue the full decommissioning if that turns out to be practical and feasible so the period is that at least from two or three board members that that would be something that that we should incorporate in the record of decision and and from my perspective it's just the cost piece that's so different if the Outlook was much closer

2:18:59 all the decommissioning because we have less liability with the long term continuing to operate and maintain it's still surprising to me that that's that it's so much less than just cutting it it does game over the long term that but I know there's there's a lot more Earth moving that comes out of it so all right so then I think we need to decide want to oh it's just Direction at this point so you would bring us back for both in January I'm interpreting the feedback that I'm

2:19:44 getting is to pursue with this version of the recommendation to a record of decision we will bring it forth for potential action in January but of the board wishes to deliberate the specifics of it a bit more in January but we have to make somebody apply as well we won't resume any uh necessarily approval of that action but we're getting General support and feel like we've gotten the direction that we will bring back for a proposed record of decision in January so I have a question on a record of decision can we can you put in there

2:20:30 timeline check-ins with the board into that record of decisions saying that we want specific check-ins as to decision points uh you know not just like okay go you've got the record decision because once you get that in your pocket if it's an open if it's doesn't have that in it you or another general manager or a staff can take that record of decision and move forward with it is there a way to build in check-ins at certain periodic points where we can look at the the full decommissioned and you know say at two years we went in or at three years the board wants to know what the implications would be of a full decommission as opposed to a stored

2:21:16 water conveyance is that something that we can build in as well we can build in a number of different ways of working with the board on that I'll I'll have to figure out what triggers those those would be the commissioner the board already has certain spending Authority so we're gonna we're gonna be spending money the board's going to know it we also can build in certain reporting regimes and other things whether we have all of the specifics relative to a milestone map for decision I'm not sure but we can we can have some discussions I think what I'm hearing is this is not a set it and forget it kind of the you know Authority that you're granting that we want to be able to have ways that the board can continue to

2:22:01 participate Monitor and be part of the process and so we'll thank us I would have something to my other board members is that something that you would be would be interested in or supportive of like it's like it's for that and then we had like periodic updates and we got it more um but I think are you talking about having something that's more structurally like well I mean manufacturing we've had updates on the water tanks right but we haven't weighed in on I mean this has this has a bunch of different Hoops that have to be jumped through and without us kind of putting

2:22:47 it into the record of decision it doesn't necessarily mean that we we have input on that other than the budgetary input so I I just this is such a generational and Legacy project that I and I'm sure that it's Frank's it's Frank's intention and staff's intention right now to do it but I don't know that Frank's going to be here in two years or five years or ten years when these when these decisions are going to be made and so that's why I'm trying to to kind of protect it so that there are periodic check-ins and and approvals of the board on the direction that it's going I would State just from an organizational perspective having Clarity around that

2:23:32 would benefit myself would benefit any sort of executive leader staff As Told fighting guidance around that so I don't think what you're asking for is perfectly reasonable in fact beneficial it helps with the transparency it helps with monitor where we are in the process there are some natural what what I don't know and I'll have to work with with um Karen and Lisa and the team on is Are there specific Milestones that we can call out as part of that or is it does it start with just periodic and then it evolves from there so we'll we'll have to I fully agree with what you're saying I think it's to the organization and the

2:24:17 communities benefit to do that I just don't know quite how to structure it yet okay and we can do that we'll incorporate that thank you okay uh last new information that causes any thought of maybe this isn't the right path there's a change in the line of thinking and just periodic updates the third way to build that and I'm certainly be supportive to the point about local control too um we did we voted to re-up Carmen that's significantly much bigger generator what's the scale again of Carmen versus the name plate on carbon carbon is about 100 megawatts now

2:25:05 its average output is typically 28 to 30 25 to 30 average megawatts one of the differences in Carmen and lieburg is Carmen there's a certain ability to shape the output so we can generate higher outputs at at peak times and then back off as we manage water Lee Burgers simply run of the river so whatever the river is there's a limit on how much we can run through there so it's a much different type of generator and it's much larger scale again just for purposes it's like it's three times larger think of it that way from an average output perspective

2:25:50 okay it gets much different it's more than that okay I just wanted that for books in the room okay all right so with that um not seeing any other comments do you have what you need oh Karen Kelly I'd like to just say one thing coming from my 27 years that's my experience never have I ever worked with a board who's been as engaged in any decision as I have with all of you in this one and I just want to say thank you because as you mentioned it being a legacy project this team has had this Weighing on us for a long time heavy on our heads and hearts and knowing that you're engaged you're paying attention it's just as important to you and to your constituents as it is to us it just

2:26:36 it means a lot to have that support and that engagement so foreign wrap it up and we'll come back for another round next okay all right we have scheduled a break from return on time let's do that let's come back at eight well real quick

2:35:57 thank you cheers uh good evening commissioner staff uh everybody out in Virtual lands record my name is Rod Bryson assistant general manager feels like we could all take a big breath here this is going to be a light and Airy conversation probably compared to some of the other things that we've done but we'd like to talk a little bit about organizational goals tonight the the post um in the the background and

2:36:44 you've probably seen those uh so we'd like to give some feedback on that and any other priorities that down I'll go through a few things and probably this slide looks familiar we thought it was shown last year in fact both these slides will look familiar but I just wanted to remind people where we're at in the process and in the gold forming um right now we're in the yellow section there talking about drafting goals and these are organizational type goals that the staff will then take after they're approved and start building the the work plans for for the following year for 2012. one of the things that that struck me

2:37:30 when I was thinking about this presentation a little bit is uh you can see the Strategic plan is this big overarching thing that that we all work with and uses our Guiding Light it feeds into the the yearly organizational goals that we're going to talk about and I think it was kind of interesting we just got done voting in the uh they're approving the 2023 budget which also funnels up to the the long-term financial plan so the long-term financial plan is The Guiding Light for for our financial pieces and this is uh the Strategic plan and the goals are how we get our activities and programs and I think it was commissioner Carlson last year brought up an interesting

2:38:15 question so why why do we plan our goals after we plan our budget and that's stuck in my mind a little bit and so as we went through the process this fall of both budget and talking about our plan and where we're going in the and again this is not a perfect answer but but there's a lot of synergy between the Strategic plan and the long-term financial plan and how they they work and they interact together and so uh I think that even though sometimes that kind of seems a little outward and if you're probably to get down to the minutia of details yes but in the big picture of the Strategic plan and the goals we come up with that are working alongside the the financial plan there's also uh I guess I could also refer to one of my favorite consent

2:39:00 items uh it's a staff will manage experiences through the budget process and board policy well you can see here we manage our organizational goals through our our feedback and the pushes the reporting uh through the quarterly plan so that's just some thoughts on that this slide I think I'm going to skip and just sort of combine with with this one here and again we talked about these last year um we tend to group our goals into several uh groupings and the way I kind of think about it is we do a lot of work and and we need to do that work really well in our missions to deliver water and electricity affordability and all these things and so they these are the things that that we need to do really well that's the business fundamentals and sometimes things come along like

2:39:46 substations blow up or you know whatever it is that breaks and we go out and fix them and then we address them sinkholes I mean we've heard a lot in here about uh problems and issues that that come up and so there's other goals to Target those now we have to do both of these things really well and we can't get to our strategic work and the Strategic work is of course things that we want to do different in the future these are things that are going to change our business and move us forward to the next Generation that kind of thing but you can't do those kind of things without doing your Basics well so we wouldn't be building a second water treatment plant if we weren't doing our first one well if we weren't doing our business funding Val as well so I just uh we put in some

2:40:32 typical kind of things here to illustrate some of the goals and things that we think about to help you think about prioritizing and so forth just to give examples so the other thing I thought about a little bit and so on the slides here will be the the five goals essentially that was put in the background or uh you don't need to read them but you've probably already looked through them again so at the end of the this few minutes here we'll go back and allow you folks to talk about these and I can thumb back to these if needed but there's three things that sort of struck me when I when I looked through these the first is that words matter in working with Frank I've really gave a

2:41:17 deeper appreciation so it's an example of that if you look in the background you'll see goal number one says uh operational performance so I changed the word from operational performance to operational effectiveness what's the difference well in my mind anyway the performance is something you do Effectiveness is something you do but it also has an idea and and it conveys a sense of how well or what you're going to do you know it doesn't have to be it has to be good enough right so so I think there's some ideas there that could be played with that has been finished these out for the final we will come January

2:42:03 second thing that jumps out to me is the the people matter and I all the time talk about getting stuff done and Building Things but we need people and that's the goal number two is Target Workforce culture you just can't do things with without attracting and retaining and growing employees right and so as you think about number two there there's a lot going on um but those are targeted at trying to meet the things that we need to do with people and how how we use people and how they get done and how we grow people so uh the third thing I point out is is

2:42:49 priorities um and again uh going back to goal number one there you can if you have been thinking about priorities through the year or whatever now's your chance to kind of bring these in and so the example is is this goal number one where we've said okay we're we're doing our stuff um but we also need to focus on data management and that sets us up for two things it sets us up for a more efficient operations we've got all this data out there imagine that that's kind of uh all over the place so we're going to improve our operations by by having a plan to put up one place but we're also going to set ourselves up for our strategical PES to implement that efficiently then

2:43:36 you can combined data so that's just an example of that and with that I'm just going to turn it back to you vice president Carlson right comments discussion you want to jump in and I can't see you but if you'd like to jump in please wave or give me an indication all right I'll just um yeah I'll wait in I'm gonna throw in on one thing in particular um but then I may come back for a second

2:44:23 round if that's okay um I overall I think the goals as they're proposed here are are the right ones you all thought a lot about this and though I think you may have invited us to word Smith just now I don't think that's actually what you intended to do you explain about you know Precision with words there's uh the the Dei goal at least as it's kind of referenced here is is under Workforce and culture and there's no question in my mind that that's a big piece of of us addressing Dei within the organization in terms of hiring practices and and the

2:45:08 way that police are treated and things like that but I also think there's a component of the EI that's how our customers um interact with the organization and so from my perspective I would concede in that Dei goal more reflect that kind of global uh approach then over approach on Workforce really focused yeah I think yep both internal and external I I think have to be together yeah okay well I'll jump in um I don't go that as well I'd like to see what the email policy

2:45:55 and other than that I do think I like the change of the word to Effectiveness right where you were going when you said performance first so it actually shows that you're have a goal that you are achieving it's not just okay I've done what I needed to do but it has a measurement the change there and otherwise I mean I expected that the goals would be more narrow because the goals themselves are so large that we're not going to have so many that you know we really want to focus in on the projects that we have going on and and this in and of itself is still an amazing amount of work so I'd like how succinctiveness but also recognize that it's it's still a huge undertaking

2:46:42 all right you commissioner um I appreciate how the first two are kind of meta they're not like specific projects and then the last three are more like specific um like with the the Enterprise Solutions and the IRP and the um Second Source like those are specific things but the first two are more really about culture so I appreciate that you've taken kind of like a dual look at the station but um um yeah I kind of building on that uh

2:47:29 I like that how the fact that you measure these and we see them on the quarterly reports and you know and some of the other organizations that I'm involved with the Strat plan I want to see Things fall off the Strategic plan some things can live forever but I I like to see you know this is three years and do it and get done with it and that's what some of these other ones down you know the EES that you know some of those things that that obviously the you know the the meterings and those types of things someday we'll try we'll drop off that right um and so that's important to me as well you know I think a strategic plan

2:48:14 we should be adding things to it each year but we should also be completing things each year and that's where the the little the little uh you know gas Gates that we see on the on the quarterly reports gets us and I would like I like the fact that we're doing that and I'd like to see that ones that have finally things are more towards the green and then we can drop them off because that gives us the capacity to bring out new things and that's you know if we're if you're spending all your resources on things that are just going and going and going that were meant to be dropped off then that's something that I I would you know give thanks to but you know things like Dei and some of

2:49:00 these other ongoing goals of the thing resiliency Effectiveness positive Workforce things those those live on forever but also I want measurable things that we can do it move on and find other important things to do so that to me is one of the balancing that I think you've hit here thank you John Brown comments I'm I'm good with with what I've heard I don't really have anything constructive to add or say so uh just say thank you very much interesting the kpis that fall out of these

2:49:46 thank you um do you have a direction you need moving on to the next we have annual board policy review this is the six other pages we're now on page 923. I would like to actually have a section where we talk about the customer impact um or the the customer survey outside of this anyway we'll get to that okay okay um that was a large chunk of the 900 Pages anyway yes so um

2:50:32 vice president Carlson Commissioners good evening and there's there's a couple of purposes that we have slated for our annual review of board policies one of them is that we recognize that there are a significant number of board policies of which govern how we interact uh whether that be delegated authority or um certain conveying certain priorities that the utility and so we have a recurring opportunity in December to review anything that the board has noticed or or wishes to to bring up with staff the other piece of it is that

2:51:17 um we agreed when we were changing policies or modifying policies that we would let those run for a little while and provide those as opportunities for the board to or to to see if there's any additional feedback it's sort of like a like a pilot program if you want to take a little bit to show up a shorter look at a policy that's been modified for some reason or another and and there were a number of them that over the last couple years have have been modified for different reasons some of them administrative some driven by a special circumstance such as board attendance we that used to reflect in-person attendance we obviously got away from that during covid so we wanted to

2:52:03 operate operate in and recognize the difference in the requirement there some things that that we've discussed discussed earlier um and then you know we do have a few that have been suggested or you know one that we just talked about um in the the diversity equity and inclusion part of that being proposed in our 2023 goals that's something that we will work with the board to develop not just for the policy itself but for the purpose uh and the the driving reasons why that's important to the utility and and you as Community Representatives um and of the community both directions

2:52:48 and then also it has been suggested to me by by commissioner McRae that that um we look at a policy kind of similar it may be in structure to our climate change policy but something around resiliency we do recognize that from a policy perspective we view resiliency not just from an asset perspective but also from a financial perspective from a Workforce perspective for example and it it may be an opportunity this is something for the board to discuss this evening whether that kind of policy would be helpful to the board

2:53:33 that there are times when strategy rolls over into policy that this would be an example of of that the climate change policy is another one a value that is is driving some of our strategies so that's that's something that you can provide some back on and then I I heard one earlier around um the limits of Authority for the board to approve I think commissioner McRae brought up the 150 000 whether that's still appropriate this would be an opportunity to review that um I will say that that originally was set and um and then we as part of

2:54:19 that I can't remember if it which El number it is a TMA no we agreed to report quarterly any contracts between 40 000 and the 150 which is the board approval so the quarterly you see a quarterly report that talks about all those contracts that are inside of that window and if we were to push that up to a higher level then we would also look at that we would want to look at that reporting structure as well so this is an opportunity for the the board to provide feedback discuss new options we are proposing one specific change that we can bring back if the of the board indicates support for this and that's in the

2:55:07 the climate change policy adjusting the Baseline Year from 2009 to 2010 and that's um it was originally set in 2009 that's where we were in the process we had enough data to support 2009 2010 however better aligns with the city of Eugene's Baseline as well so we thought there was some benefit there um to uh to align with our with our local community so that's a specific request and then um another one for your consideration is to whether we would look at changing our approach to minutes um now that we have technology and recordings available whether we the

2:55:54 board would be supportive of going to what would typically refer to as action-based minutes that would include who's in attendance what the subjects are basically approvals and those types of things as well as agenda stamps to be able to track a recording where it was actually deliberated and so as opposed to I'll say a a novel of what we're talking about trying to abbreviated novel it's a Reader's Digest version of what we're talking about um it would be more of a here's the actions that occurred here's what was discussed and then um here's where you can find that discussion in a different

2:56:39 form of media so that would be something that would actually save staff pretty significant amount of time other than that this is this is for your feedback your comments um your guidance Mr President Carlson we'll turn it back to you right jump in yeah yeah jump in I don't think that knob will be very uh easy to sell I I completely support the idea of reviewing the detail of meeting minutes given the technology we're using today I think that makes a whole bunch of sense thank you for proposing it uh the purchasing controls policy um I did a little bit of quick math and so the policy was adopted in 2017 150

2:57:24 000 and if we followed inflation it would be everything over a hundred and eighty thousand dollars today so it just you know there's just that kind of constant creep and I think um trying to to build in that element escalation so that we're not constantly having to debate whether or not we're right asking the right uh threshold would be useful I don't you know whatever is easiest in my opinion would make sense there and I don't you know I don't know what the rest of the board interested or not I just looks a little bit trivial but I was I I would say that from uh from a staff perspective we take all procurement seriously yeah um whether that's ten thousand forty

2:58:09 thousand within the threshold outside of the threshold there is a process by which we think that it's important for you as Community representatives to be a part of I like round numbers so I would not tend to I I would say you know something that's a nice round number 150 made some sense you know does that mean I might go for 500 no I'm just I I don't exactly care what the number is I think it's up to the board to decide what you're comfortable with one of the things that we did look at when we bumped it from I think 100 to 150 was how many contracts is that really entail you have a feel for what it entails now some of those may fall off uh again I think your intent is to

2:58:56 sort of keep reviewing this so I'm I'm comfortable with changing it but really this is this is where is the board comfortable with with what we're doing we do report all of the ones that are below that above the 40 000 so it's if the board wanted us to bring back something that's that's scaled a little bit more today's dollars we'd probably bring back 200 000 just to grounded but this is for the board to provide guidance online well I have a follow-up comment on that particular ly remember when we had because it was during my time being moved it from 100 to 150 and that was when started doing more of the reporting

2:59:42 on those smaller grants and some of that was due to a timing issue right I mean they were smaller and then we had to wait 30 days to get the board approval and it was more hindrance to the general operations of the organization there's a trade-off for the administrative pieces of it but like like I said I don't I don't want to convey that we just because we don't look at this and go oh let's keep let's do three contracts at 149 000 to get around the board that that's not what we yeah we were very specific about it so we really there there is a trade-off in the amount a little bit of trade-off in the amount of

3:00:27 administration we do but I I can't say that there would be a huge difference between 150 and 200 I I think to commissioner mcrae's point is this something that we just want to continue to evolve and pursue it is 200 000 is point uh oh five percent of our budget now so it's it's becoming increasingly small detail but I'm going to defer to the board for what you're comfortable with it looks like John Brown has a question so I'll open it up to him is it on this same topic yeah it is and we're just talking about the Public's policy on the amounts that come to up on the consent calendar I I was around when we did ten thousand and

3:01:14 uh and moved it up but Matt there's a there's a reason to have oversight and whether it's 150 or 200 because I'll go to the story of when we had a 77 000 contract to plant some grass and staff had it in at prevailing wage you're paying forty four dollars an hour to plant grass and we we did it and came back and cut it in half because we questioned it and so um it wasn't the dollar amount it was the message we sent to the people about don't just make an assumption and that's real money and it was it was more the concept of doing that and so it's it's not that I question staff and and whether or not what they're doing is right and it's like I noticed you had a question or somebody had a question about the Woody debris up in the on the river and why is

3:02:00 that doubling again um I still want to be able to look at look at at those whether it's 150 or 200 that's fine because I still look at the ones on quarterly too so um it's it's just to make making sure that uh you know we're supposed to be good stewards of the Public's money and we watch how this is spent because there's some pretty big contracts and the little ones are just as important as the big ones to me so I'm okay with raising it to 200 but I just just want to make sure that it doesn't say that we're not going to keep looking at it you've commentary yeah coming up this effect yeah hey I agree with with John Brown I mean fifty thousand dollars here fifty thousand dollars there pretty soon

3:02:45 you're talking about real money and you know earlier on we were talking about eight dollars a month speeds a lot of a lot to some people well fifty thousand dollars 150 000 means a lot and I I'm with John Brown those are the ones that I look at when I look at the consent calendar I read through those and and if I've got a question I'm going to raise it and I'm I'm perfectly fine with 150 000 and you know the the process is already in there we're not changing any process if we leave it at 150 so I'm I'm fine with leaving it at 115. I'll have a lot of comments on you okay overall yeah and just to wrap it up for you and then if you want to send me to I couldn't find

3:03:30 like 150 and just leaving Genesis right now doesn't matter to me I mean if I'm fine with 150 but what I'm hearing you say is that periodically at least we look at this so that you know it's not 20 years from now and we're still looking at contracts that are 100 and you were just trying to build in something where we didn't have to like stay on top of it but yeah I also don't have strong feelings I think you'll be a 25-year board member yeah I think one of the more important things that we look at is the difference between consent calendar and consent calendar B so consent calendar a if we follow our standard processes and for example go out for rfps develop you know three bids and come through that comes through as consent calendar a

3:04:16 consent calendar B is structured a little bit differently so if we don't get the appropriate number of bids for example that's where it goes to consent calendar b or if there's a direct negotiation or there's a resolution or so we decided to go with two consent calendars almost because if you if you go if you want to not approve a consent calendar day item it starts the whole process over again and that actually by itself can be very expensive so that's why we decided to go with two different types of consent calendars as well okay all right so I think we've kind of covered that particular topic then um just general policy comments then

3:05:05 I just I support um shortening the minutes and time stamped I think that's it yeah and then the only other thing is um I know you're not specifically asking about the GPI policy we're going to talk about that later this year I just really want to make sure that with that um we're just getting part of it not so much like what you know is proposed for the agency but I think for us there's probably whoever is do some work with us just to make sure that as a board that we are using best practices and that are aware of anything that how we can improve the Dei

3:05:56 um yeah I'm fine with the two recommendations going forward I I still have a little bit of pause on El for we talked about that in July that's the extraordinary or the compensation and benefits and being able to pay bonuses sign-ons and stuff like that I'm still a little leery about that with the state law to England give a bonus to one person that everybody in that class has to be offered that same thing so I just want to make sure that that's been really run through through the Bureau of Labor and and our legal department because I know it was suspended it was suspended during the pandemic but it's not suspended anymore and and I

3:06:42 just want to make sure that we're okay with that because what it says is that you can give sign-on bonuses you can't give um the limited term objective-based pay agreements and stuff so I'm just want to really make sure that what we did follows the bowling laws yep absolutely it was legally reviewed also I think there's there's the caveat that um Within These policies that staff reviews those periodically from a legal perspective to make sure that we're being Equitable in our compensation practices for example so that's that's absolutely part of it and and to that it's it's kind of the same thing that that was talked about earlier on when we were talking about trying to build the

3:07:27 workforce culture you know if if I hire somebody on and I'm teaching them how to do my job and they're getting a 25 000 bonus and I'm doing it that that can definitely go to culture you know we've seen we see it in the nursing trade right now and traveling nurses come in and are being trained by somebody and they're making fifty dollars an hour less so I mean that it goes to that so be very through the judge battle when you're using the alpha that policy John Brown any general comments on the policy

3:08:13 sorry um no I'm I'm good with uh The Voice rest as written and proposed I'm I'm okay with the way it's um thank you I'll jump in uh I appreciate the effort to put in a resiliency and look at a resiliency policy and what that might entail and that's a great recommendation so it's reading through the policies the environmental policy and the sustainability policy and those sort of seemed like maybe they were maybe about it something could be combined I don't know maybe there were maybe there was a piece there but I also noticed that there were some of the policies that had concluded maybe there was one that looked like it

3:08:59 concluded and I was just wondering if that could be removed if it was done we'll take a look at that for sure I'm looking at steam utility transaction yeah that could be yeah yeah it's done okay do we really need to keep that on the books anymore we'll take a look at that and then um um supportive of moving 2009 to 2010 if that kind of helps us align the video for that and then in terms of the minutes I I paused on this and I thought I like that that people have the ability to search through the minutes but I'm guessing most people don't do that anyway and so if we if we only have the records and people

3:09:44 really want to know more about how we got to that I would actually rather than look at the video because I know the stuff to their best of their ability you know try to summarize what we say but that's really it's really hard to capture the you know the emotion and the work that we convey in it in just a few words in a small summary and and so I recognize and I recognize that that takes a lot of time I'm often the one that has issues with it so I am supportive of moving away to just a record of decision um in spite of the fact that I asked to fix it for the next month and I will but we'll note it in these minutes that

3:10:29 yeah yes yes thank you for bringing up the greenhouse gas change it would be nice to know what that figure is what the difference between 2009 and 2010 is and I don't mind changing it but I think we should know what that number is and still try to achieve the 2009 goal even though we're we're basing it up 2010 so if we could know what our internality are that one year difference how much it is and if we can you know we can find out yeah when we propose the change well that would be something that would be helpful to me it's not the bigger gold the intent of the change was not to make it easier something that would make it look like all of a sudden we've achieved something

3:11:14 additional right that we can quantify that and um and I think we should still try and reach the 2000. all right gold I'm an absolute perspectives Mr McRae um you were the one that proposed to be the resiliency policy I don't know if you wanted to kind of sell that to the group what your intent was yeah I put you on the spot no no I was totally gonna ask for a second round so that's thinking because I diverted us all on this question about inflation and that was silly um so yeah no that was actually my my last comment was around a resilience policy I think there would be value there there's a couple of things that to

3:11:59 me could be baked into that um among other things we talked briefly about a seismic standards of buildings as something that we set some expectations about do um buildings and and the standards the other is um you know we talked about it today the localness of our um of our energy generation that might be a place where that gets reflected and then you know that it's like the IRP as that continues on I'm sure there are other things that might fit in there and and help you know just provide clarity about where the where it wants to go a couple of ideas there

3:12:47 I guess the only comment and I agree that those are those are good things I guess my question to the staff would be how when you go about coming up with that policy what I mean how one how much work is that going to be and two I mean that could be it could be as as narrow as we want all all of our buildings to be life safety you know or it could be huge saying we want to have but you know 100 megawatts worth of power Within 30 miles of here transmission directly I mean it could it's a it's a big pot and how do you how do you scope that

3:13:33 I think that first of all we have to recognize this as a board level policy it's not an operational policy so it should provide guidance that leads us to be able to answer other sort of specific questions and so in these three areas so I'll label them infrastructure Workforce and finance there's Financial there's there's probably certain things that we can use to to guide us going forward and let's take the seismic standard for example I wouldn't call out a specific necessarily I wouldn't propose that we call out a specific seismic standard what I would propose is that the wording would be such that if we have critical assets that are necessary for the ongoing operation of

3:14:18 the of the utility under seismic conditions that they would be designed and built to be able to serve the purpose that their design has been built for from a seismic perspective now that if if we are building a a bathroom at Liebert park that's going to have a different standard than if we're putting something next door here that's going to be critical to our operations so we would we would want to structure this that provides the guidance necessary but not necessarily calling out disability so we'll we'll have to navigate that to be to be honest and we'll have to explore that a little bit um this is how if that was your intent yeah exactly

3:15:06 but we'll have to do a little catch ball back and forth between the board and staff on what this may look like and we'll see if we can land someplace productive there are definitely principles around that so I've got some ideas on that and Rod's kind of within within his scope looking at at um business continuity in general for example and resiliency is is a component of business continuity so we'll have some further discussion okay I think we've wrapped up that item correspondence Awards

3:15:54 you're done button I did I did have both a flu shot and a coveted booster yesterday so it was absolutely cranky this place a lot for rankings this place a lot it's probably too much information um um there were four pieces of Correspondence the integrated resource plan um a reminder that we have an upcoming conversation next month around the the officer and Liaisons um a wildfire review and then the year-end audit planning um is we start this time of year every

3:16:39 year and I didn't know if the board had any comments or questions for staff on that and if if you don't then I can proceed into the board of gender report any questions on correspondence but yeah just briefly the draft IRP that is now public is super helpful I think the way it's framed is is going to be great to help us have conversations with people about whether this means interest of or the needs of the new web customers so thanks to the team for putting that together uh I'm super eager to see the time frame for public Outreach I know I emailed to this extent but you know for the rest before I think there would be a bunch of value in board

3:17:24 members attending as many of those sessions as we can just to hear directly from folks what they're you know their thoughts about the IRP as it is our our thoughts are both participated that way but also providing the board with materials that you can speak to the subject as well um on on a number of these topics whether it be um Liebert or Jason Jason left Jason's um comments about funding for potential Second Source IRP to be able to have presentation materials leave behind those types of things we want we want to be able to supply that to the board as well as

3:18:10 use our online calendar in fact you'll you'll notice we're starting to use the board agenda report to put public Outreach events into that report as well so um you know there there is you know a workshop coming up in February for example there'll be a lot of Outreach so I think this is this is important time uh for all of us to be to be out there with the with the information engaging you know truly genuinely listening to public feedback so I just want to throw something out as far as the agendas go I know that in the past we had a

3:18:57 not so successful joint City of Eugene Oregon uh anything but I I still think we should try to reach out to the city council and try it feel those wounds and and and start to work collaboratively with the cities with the city council they've got a lot of things that interact with us and I think it would behoove us to try and get that back on the agenda at some point in the spring of our early summer next year if if possible again the last one wasn't very productive and maybe there's a different format but it it happens in

3:19:43 um but I I think that that's something that's valuable and I would like to see us try to uh to get into an upcoming agenda I know in the past week had a joint meeting with the Springfield Utility yeah that again no okay so it's been a while since we tried to do that I don't know if there's a benefit there if the com you know if we're still trying to work with them in the Water Source or not but if we are I think it would be valuable to that forward to my other point was on the customer survey I appreciated that it was provided in the almost a thousand Pages um but this is I mean these are our

3:20:30 customers and I would like us to actually have some time to talk about just you know the survey and what came out of it I mean we had a report a number of years ago that I'd like to look at the comparables you know where were we at where have we come I know some of that's in here but it just it to me it warrants a discussion on you know what we do with this information I would like to see it come back so that we actually delve into it see what does this mean because it has implications for you know other organizational goals and such and we adopted the the goals there but if there's other outcomes that come out of here that we're not doing well or you know we could learn from I'd like to have that be part of the discussion

3:21:20 um also since our packet is 975 Pages or at least mine on my computer looks like it um it's hard to then dive into something like the customer survey like by that time reading through the packet I don't know even though I put it off till later it's just it's really hard to digest that information so I too would like um be nice just maybe have a little presentation it doesn't have to be a long thing but just some so just to clarify there were we did I believe it was August went through our customer survey that was our sort of General customer survey are you now our plan so maybe this is why okay I didn't get started that way so okay our our plan is to do a number

3:22:06 of different types of Outreach that that was a you know residential only probably going to look at some other demographics specifically and we could incorporate some things into that the specific sort of subject-specific survey was a much smaller group and part of that as well I didn't know if you wanted to take extra time to look at that but we did unfortunately commissioner Carlson that was the meeting that you you weren't there that is when we went through our our overall customer survey and talked about some of the deeper Dives and some of the outcomes I didn't you know we we can look uh and see what's upcoming relative to different kinds of Outreach I know we are looking at doing some customer luncheons for example you know with the drivers with the commercial

3:22:54 um of our population so but I didn't I didn't I apparently just forgot so I could strike that from the minutes before we confused you that was with the 970s pages iarded the upcoming board agendas and information and I guess I just want to put it out there to my fellow commissioners I represent everybody so if there are meetings that are part of your ward and you can't go to or um want a buddy to go with you um I'm happy to attend some of these

3:23:40 meetings but sometimes it's just hard for me to know because I know you know other people might be there so and then the other thing I mean Matt mentioned it earlier the work session that we had where it was free-flowing and we were talking about Liebert was very helpful and and I think it was something one of our better things for me for gaining things so if there's I'm open to those types of things that I don't know about the rest of the board but but you know if there's issues that are more than a 40-minute presentation you know 20 minutes from staff and 20 minutes from

3:24:27 us that that you feel would behoove us put a poll out there and see if that's something that we would want to do a special work session on because I think that those are sorry there's this howling noise that comes out I thought you were looking at my my idea of saying you I ain't coming for another meeting it's about ghost actually anyways so that that's just my my idea if there's some things that are that take more than than what we can do with it and end up here at 9 15. I would I would be meaningful to them

3:25:13 I am in agreeance with that record my face all right okay any other comments or correspondence and Portage and yeah the only thing I was going to mention is on board agendas we we have started adding more of the community outreach we're also going to make sure that those are on the eweb calendar there's an online calendar as well that we're starting to to fill out so we're trying to build in next year the potential for some of those work sessions depending on where we are with Comics so when you say eweb calendar is that on the side is

3:25:58 eweb.org calendar um or you can just go to the main page and there's a calendar I think link on the first page right now those show board meetings and a few other things and we're going to just start filling those in with more of the community outreach type of work these lunches that you mentioned he said that Commissioners would be welcome to attend do we have to worry about forums at those type of thing potentially we might but we have enough time that we can provide notice it's um I that's that's not a hurdle for us I'm good oh all done thank you

3:26:57 nope Frank I just have one thing and you know this is I don't know where 2022 went really um but wanted to thank the board for all of your engagement really this this past year it's it has been quite a year it's been all kinds of interesting opportunities and decisions and things to contemplate and collaborate on and um you know as Karen said earlier relative to the Liebert project you're in your engagement and your your care of of the community is is really noteworthy and appreciated by staff so this is our last meeting of 2022 and just wanted to thank you for a good year I think we got a lot accomplished not everything that

3:27:43 we wanted but a lot of what we wanted and we'll look forward to coming back in 2023 and and getting more done next year so I just wanted to thank you I wanted to thank John Brown for uh for his leadership this year and holding forward sorry you said no I'm I'm heartbroken but uh you know this is the only I've only physically missed one meeting in 16 years that I'm I think I'm okay to look the remote part is makes it a lot easier but it's hard to follow it's much more difficult to track things when uh you're on the zoom that it is in person so I highly prefer

3:28:30 in-person meetings awesome thank you so much well thank you for the thank you all right and I did want to thank no no sort of next me will be voting on you know board positions so you know think about those and we have our discussion next month that I I'm on El Cog currently and I'm currently the vice chair president one of those I'm the vice up so but um so if somebody wanted to do that they would step into that role I'm more than happy to continue doing that and being in that role

3:29:15 so I'll just throw that out there and also happy doing this role as well so if anybody else wants to make notes there oh I'm just gonna say it uh tomorrow night is the Mackenzie Watershed council meeting it's at the International Paper uh boardroom over in Springfield but I'm sure that now that we've had this little discussion tonight there might be a few people that well I wanted to talk to me tomorrow so anybody else wants to copy more than more than welcome but I will report back at in January as to what came out of that great well thanks everyone for a great

3:30:00 meeting thank you thank you Sonia we returned