EWEB Board of Commissioners — February 6, 2024

0:03 I'm just going to briefly um give everybody who's here tonight a quick overview of some safety um just so everybody's aware uh thank you all for being here tonight um I want to point out that e management and sub subject matter experts are here in the room and virtually and the meeting is live streamed and recorded um for those uh who are to speak tonight please speak loudly and clearly um we're going to the public testimony part will begin in about 15 minutes um but I just want to give you a few other pieces of background there's um the public testimony is welcome sign up forms are available at the front of the room if folks haven't signed up yet please make sure you're signed up visitor access is limited to the board meeting room and the restrooms which are out the hall here in the event of emergency uh please

0:50 follow all instructions given by staff and if an evacuation is required please proceed to the nearest safe exit there are three of them in this room and evacuate away from the building building to the farthest points of the parking lots uh and with that we're going to do an agenda check any items from Commissioners on the agenda have a clarification question please so um storm de we have questions and comments about the storm you wanted those to come to the regular schedule agenda or items I would prefer that those come during the the storm debrief okay anything else on the agenda good um items from board members

1:36 and general manager s yeah I just have a question on the background information we were given Paul gave us uh on Second Source I noticed now that last time I heard it was 90 million now it's 100 million how did that happen I think it's been in the capital plan at 100 million for quite some time0 time we have to go back and look at the numbers was it 70 90 and I hadn't seen a 100 maybe I've seen your moment just wondered how that we haven't changed the silver scale of it originally it was less than that back in 2016 I know as well and just through escalation and and inflation it's it's gone up I just want to make sure that I'm communicating

2:22 people that thank you yeah um I wanted to say that I attended the celebration of business support youb and being that meeting and then I had a con a contact from a constituent who had some concerns about payments that I just wanted to raise really quickly um they seem to be told and I did check in with an that um it wasn't the cas but somehow they got this impression that if they leave the check in the box and it's before I it's after 9: then if they say that they in there and they leave their check that can count

3:08 just like now we don't have um you know an easy it just makes sense to me that we make sure that all of staff and such know that that is an option for them and that they so they don't get their power picked off again everybody's experience is a little bit different so maybe that's not an issue they were also um a bit upset about Walmart pay apparently um we can one of the options that we have is to pay at Walmart and but charges $2 people that are kind of most at risk already now we're asking them for $2 I just if there was interest in talking with that about that for just wanted to

3:54 raise that in case other Commissioners have concerns about that because people who are already not able to be banked and now are in a terrible situation that seems like another hindrance to them so know it's only $2 that seems light to some but it could be really detrimental to others we can't hear you I'm sorry it's hard to hear you sorry sorry I'll speak up thank you um and then uh I think that we had talked originally about Friday that we were not going to do shut offs on Fridays and recently been updated that we don't do shut offs in the mornings on Fridays which to me kind of negates the whole purpose of not shutting off on Friday because if

4:40 you are getting shut off on Friday and you can't actually do anything about it because you're at your job then you're going to be shut off all weekend long so if there was interest from other Commissioners I'd like to talk about that maybe how our plans go those are the three things especially in light of the recent you know storm and situation um I know that we're going to have customers that are going to have difficult pay because they're going to have higher bills and I just want to know what we're doing to make sure bills because this is going to be a situation

5:25 for I had the opportunity to do a ride along After the Storm I know some of the other Commissioners did too um that was really um it was good to see firsthand a lot of the damage and destruction and also to see the crews hard at work out there so I appreciate that opportunity and then also I um attended the evening open house at Hillard Community Center for the um colge Hill water storage product project and um it was a small but talkative group that showed up and it was great to hear what um well fol seemed very engaged and um eager to participate in the

6:13 pro thank you I also attended the celebration of business and I did get a a of Applause for all of the all of the people that helped respond to the ice he got a nice round of applause um I had a chance also to interact with some of Cruise during the ice storm uh one of the things that jumped out to me was one of the one of the crew members came up and thanked me for uh buying the new bucket truck last month uh they said that that was really good and they were really happy that they got the smaller one because a lot of times they have a hard time getting the the big trucks down some of these smaller roads and access areas so he said thank you for approving that consent calendar it last

6:59 month and I said bar you're welcome thank you for off the the line so then for me items you want to sh um I was just gonna respond to um commissioner Carlson we we can uh reiterate back to Commissioners what our policies are relative to payment um there are a number of ways you can do samey payment but Walmart is just one option there's there's sever others um and will'll mention those and and the fact that those typically get to that point 50 days after they're originally due and so um what those policies are including when and how we could shut off there are uh certain things that override that if

7:45 we're have a a hot weekend or a cold weekend or a holiday weekend there are certain exceptions to that and we'll just summarize that back to Commissioners as a followup if that that work all right um anything via correspondence you want to speak to Frank um there were there were two pieces of Correspondence um the first one I was just going to um pass the vaton to Deborah Hart for a moment so without looking over my shoulder I'll just pass it that way was a good I am right behind you um yes this evening we had a piece of Correspondence around the program and and I just wanted to

8:33 introduce you all to our grants specialist tan deol she's here this evening and so feel free to ask her any questions about the material we provided anything that um that comes to mind or reach back out at a later date but I wanted to make sure I put it face with uh the name that has brought us about $20 million since 2020 in grant funding yeah thank thanks Deborah um I think when when people look at at funding and how we approach it um we want to align that with our strategic priorities so things around resiliency developing resources and

9:19 things like that it's a perfect alignment um we used it significantly for the Watershed recovery work up in the McKenzie Valley to protect our watered so um's worth at least $20 million to us right now and thank you um the other one was um a brief legislative update as as you know this is the short session um short sessions used to be for Budget realignment um now there're for a few different items um and if there were any questions we' be happy happy to answer this it's just now getting started so potentially more developing on that front but other than that created I I think there was 125 bills introduced today on the short session

10:06 any of those relevant do you know any of those rant to there could be I don't know Jason's on the line there were a couple that we're keeping an our our eye on um one of them in in particular is around um immunity for the use of public spaces um that's one that that believe that was one of the ones that was introduced thanks all right we'll move to uh public input I'm going to provide a little bit of background before we dive into public input just for anybody who's providing input we have 10 folks some signed up tonight um so welcome to the public input session this portion of the agenda is dedicated to committee members an opportunity to address the board about

10:52 any eweb topic or issue respectfully request that all speakers adhere to our public policy or public input instructions and code of conduct that are provided during this the sign up to speak process and much of it is is up here on the screen um I just want to call out a couple things uh we don't typically engage in back and forth after there's public testimony there'll be an opportunity for board members to respond but we just don't have uh this situation set up to provide a conversation but highly encourage any of you to reach out to any of us to have a more personal conversation if that's something that you're interested in um and with that

11:37 we're going to start with we have two folks on phone and the remainder are here in the room we'll start with the folks on the phone um so Kathy ging you have three minutes hello uh this is Kathy ging um eweb should change its rely on us motto to do not rely on us not talking store outage you did the best you could but about promises to rate payer owners when 100 plus rate payer owners attended eweb meeting demanding no digital meters the first optin adopted in USA was capriciously changed to opt out and then another arbitrary decision by the board without

12:22 public input to an opt out being defined as no radio turned on just the having a digital meter you should have heard Roger gray when he lied about cyber security when board member inquired about it although gray and Bor had received a copy of a white paper from Israel called smart grid insecurity and he attended a cyber conference the next month key issue as eweb now forces digitals on all homes when about 5% formally opted out it is shocking eweb staff and GM did not promptly halt digital installs after OSU research documented in 2023 by Brian bull part-time KLCC reporter and uo assistant

13:08 journalism Prof that smart meters can be backed uh can be hacked for power grid sabotage with power grids being increasingly targeted by domestic extremists researchers at OSU are warning that a basic utility device could be corrupted devices called smart meters are commonly used by utilities they can measure customers electricity data or remotely shut off power but uh the two people who did the research I won't say their long names right now told KLCC that hackers can use smart meters to cause variations of demand for what's known as a load oscillation attack if some bad actor essentially were able to coordinate hijacking some

13:53 meters it wouldn't take a lot they could actually propagate this Cyber attack into causing physical stabilities in the grid okay and I want to tell you that there are people right now in the community uh talking to a constitutional attorney to file an injunction against eweb not only because of cyber insecurity and 12 pages of fires and explosions that were sent to eweb 12 years ago but also because of the health issues those of us who are not you know affected as much by health issues we're not so stried in about that but I will tell you folks you are going to cause harm and injury to these people like an 80-year-old woman who called me and she might be one of the next speakers so I just want to say that um this is an

14:39 issue uh that has uh health issues it has cyber security privacy um a friend of mine is a Georgetown educated attorney and he said the first thing that came to mind when I describ smart beers was the Fourth Amendment right to privacy this was reiterated by a woman who wrote an article for the Georgetown law review over a decade ago saying privacy is being violated by the wireless technology finally Dr okay is that it okay thank you yeah thank you very much and next is a cochrum uh hi there dear board president Dent McCrae and EB Commissioners my name

15:24 is a cochr I live in Ward one and I am a local climate Justice organizer and mother first I wanted to thank EB employees who work tirelessly in the field to restore power after the recent ice storms in light of the climate crisis as well as health and Equity concerns it is imperative that we transition off of fossil fuels however due to the same climate issues we are sure to see increases in frequency and intensity of extreme weather events like the ice storm that meant that may affect power infrastructure I ask the EB work to increase resilience by engaging in robust Community engagement increasing localized power generation and distribution investing in batteries and other storage Technologies using smart grid Technologies and prioritizing

16:09 infrastructure hardening today I would like to focus my testimony on a few of these issues locally generated and distributed Renewable Energy Systems mean power generation closer to the point of consumption this reduces vulnerability to transmission losses and widespread outages like the ones we just experienced e should prioritize investments in publicly owned renewable energy Generation by leveraging funds from the inflation reduction act and strengthening its solar incentive by taking advantage of programs like the solar for all program to help lowincome customers receive much-needed solar Bill savings while increasing resilience on the topic of storage I want to encourage eweb to consider introducing virtual power plant into your next integrated resource plan vpps harness the latent

16:57 potential of households and businesses thermostats electric vehicles appliances batteries and solar arrays to support the grid these devices can be flexibly charged discharged or managed to meet grid needs and along with other measures could help combat Mass outages during extreme weather events and have been used successfully in other cities I personally have multiple appliances that could be integrated into such a system there is much more that could be said on these topics but for now I wanted to thank you all for your time and consideration this evening and again thank you to those that helped restore power after the ice storm thank you a uh so then we'll move to the folks in the room and um next I Havey stone that will be followed by Cindy

17:48 Allen do I just stand here yeah or at the table whatever is comfortable for you thank you my name is Mindy Stone and I think I'm in Ward for I'm an owner customer of eweb I love my analog utility meter I do not consent to having my analog meter removed and replaced with a digital smart met meter I'm noticing eweb here and now that I grant eweb meter readers permission to enter my property to read my meter eweb is not authorized to trespass on my property or designate a subcontractor to tr pass on my property with the intention to remove my analog meter and replace it with a digital

18:34 smart meter you all as members of eweb Board of Commissioners are not granted greater authority over the owners slash customers who who are customers of eweb each owner customer has the right to object to products and services that an owner customer believes is harmful to them regardless of your opinion the unique quality of a utility service is that it is for the most part a monopoly in that a customer cannot pick and choose from a list of utility competitors for service the fact that eweb owners customers who live up the McKenzie river area will not

19:19 have their analog meter replaced with a digital smart meter means that forcing a digital smart meter on anyone in any another geographical area of eweb service area is discriminatory and the board's action to force a digital meter on any owner customer is akin to enforcing a mandate as we all know now mandates are not laws this is wrong and E web's board does not have the authority to course Force impose their will or edicts on any utility owner customer finally I'm sharing with the board a November 2018 Oregon pu media release document

20:07 with a statement quote after extensive public process the Pu require that customers be given a choice to decline smart meter installation unquote No PUD can have greater authority over utility customers SL owners then the Pu grants any private our Municipal utility I do not consent to replacing my analog meter with a digital smart meter and I'm just saying you've been noticed so thank you and I'm going to hand out this um 2018 sure you can hand them um to the staff yeah perfect that's great thank you appreciate it thank you next is

20:53 Cindy and that'll be followed by Tana sheer I am a person with extreme sensitivity to RF radiation because of surgical implants after an accident to my head a letter from my doctor is on file at eweb there was a capacity crowd at eweb in 2013 when Dr Paul Dart gave his two-hour presentation information derived from an 18mon study by a six-person medical team

21:39 140 Pages including footnotes was given to the board the video is on YouTube some of the effects of RF radiation include increased inflammation changes to the heart and brain altered endocrine hormone function especially melatonin needed for Sleep damage to the DNA increased rates of cancer diabetes and obesity Etc The Who classifies it as a 2B carcinogen in the same category as aestus Leed in DDT shortly after Dr dart's presentation the documentary take back your power was released General David Petraeus state attorney generals the prime minister of British Colombia

22:24 doctors researchers Etc discuss smart meters and serious concerns regarding health privacy Fourth Amendment rights fires cyber security risk of a centralized grid to solar flares and hacking Etc later in 2013 the eweb a board voted for an optin this was not the decision wanted by the majority of those who spoke at the capacity event but this option was said to give Choice opt into a smart meter if wanted one or keep your analog meter if did not in 2018 the board changed to an opt out and people who did not want a smart meter sent in letters which I did families for safe

23:10 technology sponsored capacity attended programs with World recognized experts daphna T over Dr Martin paulen and Josh Joel Soul an additional program with Dr Paul Dart and Pete Sorenson our County Commissioner videos were sent to eweb and are also on YouTube little about Smart Meters since 2018 yet last friday people get a robo call saying that a smart meter would be installed within 15 days I do not consent to this en join with a letters of liability presented earlier to the board by Lisa oxman no smart meter and no trespassing signs except for met meter reading are posted under my meter as was suggested by legal

23:58 consult forcing smart meters on people who do not want them does not agree with earlier eweb commitments thank you next is Tana Shepard followed by Lisa oxman right hey people it's me T Shepard otherwise know as eoi I'm here um I haven't been here for a few months I just wanted to come back and express my gratitude for grant funding for education in 4J and also for bethl and Springfield thank you and McKenzie um just a quick little update of what's been happening um in the education World um one of the best things I'm doing

24:43 right now is working with 4J climate Justice team and 4J with our high school students and they have a couple of things they're working on a clothing swap in the next couple of weeks and I will put out a invitation if you'd like to come it'll be on Friday the 23rd at concentric sky and um they also have an um an opportunity to speak to the 4J School Board to address climate um resolution policy and what are we doing about it not enough um and and then um as far as getting out into schools right now uh it's kind of the Alternative Energy time of year and so wind energy I have that actually bolstered a workshop coming up with that and so we'll have that out in um many classrooms year um

25:28 more than usual and then the EV challenge um is back and we're hoping to bring an event back this year and so um sign up has happened for that we've received the ramp funding um and then also just a couple other things coming up um working with the science team on the regular and also doing some other integration across other um subject areas and um our third grade every third grader and uh 4J will be reading the stream story and it is a salmon related um thing that ties into tribal history shared history as well as um water and salmon education um and then this storm has kind of got me thinking about the disaster preparedness and I think it's time for forj to say it's like stop

26:14 saying it so scary and I I want to start making some videos to kind of lighten it up and um just get the kids thinking about things that they could encourage their families to do especially reunification plans feel very important to me I um we're just wildly underprepared in forj if the big one happens so I acknowledge that um bir I'm doing some Eco chick visit so it's kind of a variety I put a menu together and teachers are just kind of reaching out for various things that um I just kind of tailor to what they're wanting but it's all water energy and climate things um and then kind of an exciting development is I've had a meeting with 4J grounds and they're very interested in um Greening our grounds and I am very excited about that and having more um opportunities to actually work outside

27:00 of just working with the kids and actually get in with the adults and hopefully make some change that way so we can actually do more for the kids so again thank you very much and um yeah stay tuned for invitations to things thank you right next is Lisa oxman followed by Allan good evening I would like to use a few of my second to say thank you I really appreciate the work that hard work that EB did to help restore everyone's power we lost power my name is Lisa live at 345 East 34th Place Eugene Oregon 97405 and my account number is listed on this letter of liability which I hope

27:46 you did have a chance to get I gave copies for everyone at the last board meeting to all eweb Commissioners including John Brown Sonia Carlson schosberg excuse me if I said your name wrong John barosi and Matt McRae and the general manager Frank Lawson dear above stated this is a notice of non-consent to installation of any Wireless smart metering device Poli oxman hereby prohibits any electronic or Wireless metering device Hereafter referred to as a smart meter from being installed in or at my residence of 345 East 34th Place Eugene Oregon 97 405 this letter acts as a formal notice in any liability for

28:31 damage or harm resulting from these conditions being violated rests with the recipients of this letter the meter manufacturers and any subcontractors involved in a smart meter production installation or operation homeowners have the ultimate authority to decide what technology is installed in their homes not utilities who government protected Monopoly prevents residents from choosing a competing utility provider smart meters are surveillance devices and they violate our Fourth Amendment right to privacy in our homes guaranteed under the United States Constitution all portions of the political Spectrum agree that it is about individual freedom of choice and Resident owners basic property rights

29:16 Smart Meters have been called into question as a fire hazard and as such these devices have been responsible for fires explosions and other serious safety problems Smart Meters have caused documented Health prods the burst of the radiation emitted by their antennas considered by the World Health Organization to be a class Tob carcinogen Smart Meters typically overcharge and inaccurately represent usage when compared with reliable accurate analog or electric tronic meters smart meters and the smart grid risk security and liability of the electrical supply by open opening a new portal to hackers I'd like to complete my letter by saying for these reasons but not necessarily limited to these I require only the electromechanical meter

30:03 without electronic internet components be used in connection with my account I will happily self-read the meter accurately track the usage billing and happy to have a reader come onto my property sincerely Lisa oxman owner Residence at 345 East 34 Place Eugene Oregon 97405 again thank you you are amazing and I do not hate you I just want to sleep at night next is Alano hi I'm Alan gorano and I live in 1907 gramp street I was away for almost

30:51 7 years and while I was away I got told by the people in my house about Smart Meters being put on so I called in web said do not put a smart meter on my house please I came back and get a letter in the mail saying we're coming around s a hired company is coming around to put the smart meters on the house I called in and said I do not want a smart meter well the wireless will be turned off on it I do not want it anyway period I like also like my analog meter I also believe in the no trespassing except to read my meter statements that were made out here um and one of the reasons I was given over the phone is that well the parts for the analog meters are not being made anymore it'll be hard to repair I say so

31:38 if you're interested in just saving money then why don't you just wait until the meter falls apart or stops working and then replace it with something why hire a company and spend all this money to force things upon so many of us that we don't want that's just going to cost more money and continue to raise electric rates which I've seen them raise a lot since I've had my here bought my house in 1999 so anyway I hope that we the customers can be respected and listened to and gone along with when I voted for EB Commissioners I was looking on there what's your stance on Smart Meters I saw no statements to the effect didn't know who we were voting for that would affect

32:23 who we're voting for so on that note I want to thank you also for things like you have customer care saved my neck a few times um including right now thank you and all the work you did with restoring power thank you for all of that um and please let's make happy customers here really would like to work together and I also make a big request because I don't have a running vehicle right now and there's a lot of people in Eugene that don't and it was a very long cold bike ride to get out here tonight and it will be a very long cold bik ride to get back into town so in order to invite more Community input please maybe we can have these meetings someplace closer into town that more people can

33:11 access so well I guess that's it I'll give up my 30 seconds to someone thank you so much lwh house by Sabrina seagull take my name is Mo loh house I live in West Eugene um and like many people here I've been damaged by Smart Meters um I went through the minutes to to realize how the current policy was made and um I saw there was a very careful process in 2013 and there was a very Rush process in 2018 but some of the people in the room were concerned about that and one of them was a commissioner helgason and

33:58 when the policy was changed he uh he included an amendment and that amendment was in a manner consistent with the original principles of advanced metering so any changes in 2018 had to be implemented in a manner consistent with the original PR principles of advanced metering and uh I went and read those and there are 11 I'll just share one with you increase customer choice this was a principle that's supposed to guide our activity as a utility increase customer Choice customers should be able to refuse the installation of a smart

34:45 meter develop programs and services that give customer choice not mandates which is to require people to do things customers should be free to opt into programs that interest them such as time of use rates or to remain with standard eweb rates customers who opt in should be allowed to opt back out so just to hit a couple of these consumers should be able to refuse the installation of a smart meter develop programs and services that give customers choice not mandates customers who opt in should be allowed to opt back out this was the board's decision that these principles would guide the new policy the principles are not guiding the new policy how do we as

35:30 a community get you to respect your own decisions what's the mechanism you're not hearing that people have been hurt and then more people will be hurt you made a decision that's legally binding how do we get you to respect your own the changes would be made according to the principles in the initial decision the changes are not being made in accordance with the principles stay in the initial

36:15 decision policy is being uh illegitimately exercised how do we get you to respect your decisions I'm available I've reached out to all six of you uh I got response from one of you I don't know if your emails are still blocked from the so-called spam attack but I'm interested in connecting with you thank you very much next is Sabrina SEO hello foro thank you you um please um hear us because U

37:01 lives are in danger um maybe you're not aware of it you're not aware of the science and you don't you're not taking it seriously somehow you're it's just not registering but I'm going to read this which um uh letter which part of this these this letter which uh discusses why it's still unsafe even if you turn off the radio frequency microwave emitting part of the meter it's still there's still a phenomenon of dirty electricity that gets on the wiring of our home which is still a health danger um uh there are two kinds of radio

37:48 emitting uh emitted sorry there are two kinds of radiation I I want to preface this by saying I'm an Electro sensitive and I'm really affected by all the Wi-Fi in this room and it's really getting to me right now and this is why kind of a smart meter I have no Wi-Fi in my home I have no emitting cell phone um I I became electrosensitive from having an electric car I believed in all the you know environmental you know stuff about the climate and it's just not made for human beings and electric cars all this wireless remote you know radiation and

38:33 sending of information it's not biologically sound it works for machines great you know but not even better than wires but it it works for machines but it doesn't work for human beings and I'm a living suffering Testament to that you know it just is harming us um so there are two kinds of radiation emitted by the smart meters um radio frequency radiation which is rfr and electromagnetic frequency radiation or EMR The Meters emit rfr when they are transmitting data about user consumption they emit EMR due to the switching mode

39:19 power supply the smnps in the meter that steps down electricity from AC to D this is required to operate the meter but not to deliver power to the residents or business this power supply emits high-powered spikes throughout the wiring of the building 247 it affects building users whether or not data is being transmitted to the utility your policy of allowing customers to opt out of transmission sorry of transmitting data only addresses one of the two problems thank you um B big help G very big problem thank you and last is Joshua

40:15 for I'm here to announce this letter of liability my name is Joshua K uh 3212 van Beren Street Eugene 97405 to all eweb Commissioners Commissioners including John Brown Sonia Carlson Mindy schosberg John barovsky and Matt McCrae and general manager Frank Lawson here above stated this notice of non consent to installation of any Wireless smart metering device uh Joshua Korn hereby prohibits any electronic or Wireless metering device Hereafter referred to as smart meter from being installed at in or at my residence of 3212 and be Street Eugene Oregon 97405 this statement acts as formal

41:03 notice and any liability for damage or harm resulting from these conditions being violated rest with recipients of of this statement and you the board um and all members the meter manufacturers a and any subcontractors involved in smart meter production installation and operations homeowners have the ultimate authority to decide what technologies is installed in or on their homes not not utilities who whose government protected Monopoly prevents residents from choosing a competing utility provider smart meters are surveillance devices

41:48 and violate our fourth amend Amendment right to privacy in our homes guaranteed under the United States Constitution all portions of the political Spectrum agree it is about individual freedom of choice and Resident owners basic property rights Smart Meters have been called into question as a fire hazard and such devices have been responsible for fires explosions and other serious safety problems Smart Meters have caused documented health problems the bursts of RF radiation admitted by their antennas considered by the World Health Organization to be a class 2B carcinogen Smart Meters typically overcharge and

42:33 inaccurately represent usage when compared with reliable accurate analog meters which I already have installed on my home smart meters and the smart grid risk security and reliability of the electricity Supply by opening a new portal to hackers and others who wish to disrupt these services this is a major cyber security problem created by smart meters for the these reasons but not necessarily limited to these reasons I require only analog electromechanical meters without electronic in Internet components to be used in connection with my account I will happily self-read the analog meters and accurately track the

43:19 usage billing for energy consumption on my property making available the meter for reading confirmations with reasonable notice sincerely Joshua K and uh incidentally in the UK I have heard that some some uh utilities are allowing emailed photographs of the meter to uh to help with uh billing accuracy Joshua that ends the public in period for this meeting and at this time Commissioners are given an opportunity to comment if the choose and we'll start with um yeah thank everybody for coming out um I was here during all the in 2013

44:06 and 2018 so I've been through it um I do have a question a couple questions for the general manager could you have a the salmon Watch program was my favorite I know it was very popular with all the kids and I thought it was very worthwhile and I you know I not going to get into dialogue with but I just want to know if way why did it go away because that was the one program that I got so much positive feedback from students from chaperons from everybody about how the kids got to raise a little salmon fire and to S them loose and learn the whole cycle and so if that's gone away I'd like to know why and then um just a question on analog who owns those meters could you speak up just a little bit so hard to hear it um

44:51 okay I'm doing the best I can I'm I'm par here too I'm not hearing any so I'll I'll do the best I can that we're working on the Acoustics of this room so I apologize could you could you who owns those meters sure so the the meter is an asset of the utility the utility owns operates and maintains uh the meter as as one of the assets that that is owned by the by the organization unlike and it has been uh there is legal precedent for this that the owner of the resident does not get to choose which metering device that they get to select for their house that is made by the utility and that's been supported in legal cases um throughout throughout the country um and so um

45:36 through our customer service policies um having a metering device is a condition of surface but that device is owned and operated and maintained by the utility okay and question about Smart Meters so a digital meter is and a smart meter are almost synonymous it's a digital meter until you turn it on and then it becomes a smart meter is that correct there's really three I would say classes of meters the analog meter which is electromechanical in nature uh there were digital meters digital meters started to be deployed um pretty significantly across the country in the 1990s um those are basically um using digital technology to provide a digital

46:23 display um smart meters are an evolution of that um they U have the ability to communicate uh when they're not communicating in essence they're operating like a digital meter thank you thank you that's all than yeah I guess I'll just real real real quick um you I was here when we we voted to make this change in 2018 and I just wanted to note some of the things that cared about and still care about you know the safety of staff is one of the reasons that we that I personally voted to change to having smart leaders because there are people out there that are not okay and to threaten our meter readers there are

47:08 people that threaten them with all kinds of things when they're out and about and it's not safe for them in the general public and one of our our first and foremost reasons is around safety so safety of our staff is a part of that that is one of the reasons that I voted to support it I also voted to support it because we don't have access to the meters anymore and the analog meters are not accurate they're full and we are finding that when they're replaced they're not accurate um and another one of the reasons and I'm I've been very very diligently listening to all of you and I very much appreciate what you're saying and I don't doubt that you have issues with my challenge is that we are in a society where we have to work with the things that we have and the cell phone

47:55 phes themselves that are out there of which I am sure there are many many in this room and for those of you who have challenges with that I'm very sorry because if you're out in public there are so many cell phones and the the amount that RF that cell phones give off is like 12,000 times the smart meter and I've I've done research much research on this throughout the the time pair and this is part of the reason why the smart meter is such small piece but the amount of benefit that it can give to our customers I did feel overweighted and that's that's why I've done this this is why I voted for it and any of you feel free to to reach out email me I know you have many of you and i' I've listened to it um but I I just want you to know that

48:43 that's why I did and I appreciate that you are coming out and talking to us those are some of the reason thank you I didn't catch your name I'm sorry Carlson thank you Sonia thank you from either of you Andre no I would um I would just point out there was a number of people who commented about the the the history of this the the history of this predates probably all of us including commissioner Brown um this has been part of a public process for 26 years at the organization um and um through that time uh We've

49:29 developed policy um its Management's um intent to fulfill the policy as it is today as it has evolved get to today and that includes the complete deployment of of Ami technology with preserving the option to opt out uh which is the non-communicating mode and by the way not just in town but also up the McKenzie Valley is our eventual uh plan as well so um that's the course that we're taking and that's the approach that we're taking and and this is partially because of this board but also previous boards um Who provided Direction and supported the development and approval of policy along those lines we feel confident that we have

50:14 everybody who's testified tonight their information in the system accurately so that the meters are turned off so they are not admitting what did she say we we will um eventually if they or when they get a a smart meter that they will have opted out thank you all right so that ends this portion we're going to move on to the ice storm recovery and update

51:01 so president McCrae um thank you for the audio record I guess my time um just wanted to make a few comments about the the ice storm recovery um also there's um all the members of the executive team who are here that can answer questions on this topic as well um this is not a report out on what I would call The Good the Bad and the Ugly this does not include our um after action reporting or the hot washes we call it for things that internally we would be and say this went well or this did not go well this is really a recap of the situation that we were presented with and the response and the result of

51:46 how we responded to that the a little bit of comparison over the last what would be considered sort of three major storms 2016 there was an ice storm that was fairly localized um affected eweb significantly did not affect some of the utilities around us um this last ice storm which two ice storms not only affected eweb significantly but also um UD um as we know Springfield Utility Board Lane electric and just give you um now I will say these are preliminary on on the right uh assessments but um U

52:33 significant number of restorations um over and and impacts over the the couple of weeks that we worked on and responded to this event 38,000 Services restored um is significantly larger than than what was referred to as snow mageddon in 2019 um and also the ice storm in 2016 um the um the injuries well not listed there were um proba I think about 11 in total those were and one was a recordable industry injury excuse me um those were primarily early on in the response uh as it really slips and Falls

53:19 um those first few days were pretty treacherous um as as you can you can imagine um I did want to point out um again you can kind of look at this um 250 or more internal staff members responding and pretty significant when you look at just the the fact that we replaced 92,000 ft of electric wire um and rebuilt about a third of our system it seems like over those over those two weeks um there were also really some other significant impacts and we think about about the the electric side um but we have to point out that this event affected generation significantly and also our water um Department um Hayden

54:06 bridge and really the foresight of of this board to uh approved the investment uh in resiliency at the Hayden Bridge Water Treatment Plant uh prevented some of the issues that that might have come up if we would have also in the middle of an ice storm restricted water use um and so we had pump stations that we had backup generation we lost uh fiber Communications which is an important part of our protection systems um and probably the largest impact on transmission that we've seen now I I wasn't born in the Columbus Day storm so I can't I can't really go back that far but um probably the heaviest damage that that we've seen um on the um that

54:53 transmission side um but really wanted to acknowledge that Generation Um and drinking water were also part of the event generation dealing without power outages the the main transmission line from Carmen Smith um was um was impacted at a time when uh Power prices were significantly stressed throughout the Northwest not just because this affected EB but also because of the impact um during some of those peak times that's about $40,000 an hour of um Lost Generation Um capability in in the region so that's pretty significant um also wanted to acknowledge U the fact that um there were a number of different incident

55:39 commanders I did want to acknowledge them Tyler nice in particular Bo macki um Karen uh was an incident commander and Scott movich was also an in Incident Commander this was the first time we uh implement mented a full IC across the entire organization simultaneously um we did not have separate ics's we had a full IC um there was a lot of logistics um support for the crews people see the crews they tend to be the one out in the world uh but a lot of logistics takes place um during that time a lot of planning and design takes place U those of you who have been involved in seeing some of the behind the scenes work understand that and so

56:26 uh it really safety is very involved uh so it's really an organizational wide effort so I wanted to acknowledge that go ahead with the next slide I'll This was um basically how the restoration the anatomy of every storm is slightly different um and so um you you can see that some pretty steady work along the way but really pretty amazing that uh within the first few days really we um as an organization restored a significant number of services within a very short amount of time those those last thousand or so um were extremely difficult difficult locations some of

57:12 those locations not accessible um and so having to to cut our way down dear Horn Road um and some of those things was was pretty treacherous and there were just aspects of this that we could not get to next slide please the communications there were really three or four different forms of communications one was just direct um speaking with people handled 25,000 calls U during this time and one of the things I'd like to point out um is that while we did have one routing issue um kind of in the middle that we had to respond to uh for the most part we were responding and and picking up phones which was significantly heavier than normal uh

57:58 within our Standard Time in in this case most of the time in less than a minute um and so really wanted to compliment the customer service staff for um being flexible being able to operate in different locations um I did a survey um this was an informal survey so it's um I did it with the crews and a number of other people um while we were in the process of rest in people about 34 of our employees at one point or another went home at the end of the day to a house that had no electricity um and so it was pretty significant it was a significant impact on staff as well as the community and I don't think anybody um appreciates the

58:43 sense of urgency that that we have um more than more than ourselves so um Direct Communications through the phone also um go ahead with the next slide a few other um news media traditional media a number of different um active reports going on uh then um we also social media social media um is always an interesting one because you get a lot of piling on of either The Good the Bad and the Ugly however you want to want to look at this um for the most part um social media was was supportive and positive and understanding of the difficulty of the situation that um the community was facing um and

59:29 also the difficulty of trying to answer the question very specifically which is when is my power coming back on that's that's we are we're rebuilding a very complex puzzle until we get to a point where we're very close to you know working on your street or your service um it's a really difficult thing to answer and so we have to answer in generalities at a time when people want a specific and I know that Commissioners feel that as well because you're called um with the same information that we have um I will say we were communicating really well with what we had available to us uh the information we had available and you can see just the number of posts and and things and then website um 432,000 views is pretty incred for

1:00:15 this size of community in that amount of of time and so um really took a a multimedia approach to this um and U and I think overall feel pretty good about the organiz feel very good about how the organization responded brod can maybe weigh in a little bit more he's been involved in storm response a little longer than I have um I've been involved in multiple storm responses since 2010 um I really found the organization to have a good combination of a sense of urgency and importance without a sense of pan iic and um felt like there was really good teamwork um focusing on the right

1:01:01 things U making sure that we were doing what what we could um and so wanted to complement those involved in the recovery in the restoration and thank them for that I did want to see a rod and specifically Karen had anything they wanted to do um the the other thing I will note is is um this the rough estimate for the cost is about $8 million for the response or so um again de over my shoulder is is probably um a little more in tune with this um and we will potentially um get uh three qus of that back through FEMA if all those processes go correctly BR

1:01:48 did you want to add anything and then maybe Karen I'll just say real quick I I I totally agree this probably one of the smoothest Restorations that I've of this magnitude that I've been around um and the other thing it was is a very Regional event too all the way up to Portland so uh we had lots of U I can't believe we got the materials we did in the time we did um so I mean just everybody hats off to to customer service purchasing Warehouse so many things that went right during this uh or wrong depending how you look at it but uh so many things that went very smoothly the spirit of cooperation the IC um you know we continue to practice we we um do these things in the off time and I I think that's really The Testament is not how you behave as in

1:02:33 the storm but in these off times we're spending a lot of time and effort practicing and getting ready for for these kind of things so um and we we stand up our ICS seems almost too often now but yeah yeah I just say a couple of things that that stand out is support from the community and how important that was than to our crews who are working days for 14 days in a row uh having that was really critical and the visits that Commissioners made did make an impact on the cruise as well so want say thank you for taking time for that uh we did have the line tech department um run their hot wash this morning so you know we did have a lot of things go

1:03:19 really well and we've learned a lot of lessons from years past um but we do have a long way to go as well things that we can fix for the future and a lot of that does include preparation um and then just personally I want to thank uh the board and board's past for some of the decisions you've made um on behalf of the utility that have led to us um sustaining fewer problems in these events so I had the opportunity to speak to the media yesterday about um Hayden bridge and how they survived the storm with the backup generators and similar to when we had the chlorine shortage it it was critical that these kinds of decisions that are so forward thinking and proactive to consider you know what maybe a you may

1:04:06 think it's a low risk and then it happens and it's it's like buying insurance for us is kind of how I described it um and it's paid major dividends so I just want to thank you all for your attention to these kinds of things and your support for all of us um and then uh just another thanks to all the crews and all the other support staff who were involved I hadn't been through a storm like this myself um and the way I describe it was it was I was an awe at how many people were working together without um killing each other and getting the job done and um doing it so well and with positive attitudes which was really stood out to me too um you know people were not stressed they they like this kind of

1:04:51 thing and I I described it as oddly fun because it's a time to really come together and that was incredible to see so so lots of positive things but lots of work to I don't know that all of us like it um say that but it was oddly fun is how I said it and just to to sum it up I really think that these kinds of events both reveal character and build character and I I think they revealed a lot about the organization and the teamwork and the professionalism of the organization also I think it it builds our character to know that we do have the capabilities to to do this but also improve um every time we don't get a chance and very fortunately to test this

1:05:36 very often and so really proud of the organization still we're going to go through our hotwash process and have a list of things that we want to do and improve on uh and then finally just thanks for the bucket truck as uh you know as one of our Prov mates would have would have wanted us to pass along so back to you Mr President great thanks son well again big big thank you to the team here they did such a wonderful job and I think that even speaks to you know the people who came and testified I remember in 2016 and 2019 we had people that were angrier at the response so I know that we've come a long way in spite of

1:06:21 the fact that it was a much stronger storm that we got hit with twice back toback so um just huge hats off there I did get to do a right along John and I uh went through and we saw some of the damage around Hayden bridge and how it's just you know line after line after line even though you do think that you have all these different backups it's the same the same storm hitting that same area so um I'm really glad that that was uh able to connect and I was very very impressed each of the crews that we met with well we kept we kept kind of missing them it was like I think they were just moving along so quickly it was like oh and they're done oh and they're done too which was great um but they were they were the for the people that we saw they were smiling and cheerful which to me was incredible given that

1:07:07 these guy they were out there for 16 hours a day in cold bitter chilling conditions so I just again big hats off to them I I am curious that the 38,000 number is that that's customer lines right that's you know out of our what 90 ,000 we have we had 38,000 there were 38,000 Restorations of different Services I I can't say that those were all unique 38,000 there might have been some that got hit by the first storm we recovered them we restored them and then on that Tuesday night they may have gone down again but that's that is Services if you look at the average number of people impacted per service it's probably three it's probably 120,000

1:07:53 people were directly impacted one way or than just approximately and then I I did want to note that um so on our outage in ACD regular call queue it says that the outage was out on the 20th and the 21st is that right how is am I reading that this slide correctly but we we thought that it was only out these two days the 20th and 21st when our call lines were the gray bars on each of the days are the outage calls that they took and then the blue bars are the regular customer service calls that they took so there's outage calls every day from the 13th to the 26th okay and so when did we have

1:08:39 the the issue with the company that it was the day that you and John Brown tried to call in and and got routed to a voice she remember exactly she that was well I call I just ask you because yeah I called on the 18th and it was two days before back so that just leaves me I why can't we have an online form I know there was an email about it but I just hear it again can't we have just an online form because if I have a cell phone and I call and I can't leave all of the information and then my power's out for a long enough time that my phone is now dead now I can't get you the information nor can I receive a phone call so just in the present outage

1:09:25 management system there just is not the sort of mechanism to get that input into the system it's just the the system would not allow it there's no import capability to it we are looking we will in fact uh within the next year or so have a new outage management system that we're going to be implementing uh there may be ways for customers to provide some situational awareness uh this is something that we're going to talk about in our uh in our hot washes um I kind of P I personally believe that the communications of what we were communicating and what we had was was great um I do think that we can look at

1:10:10 improving our situational awareness um further leveraging our smart meters is an example of that and directly feeding an outage map um is a potential option to do that um customers ability to to do that would have to be have some very specific method so poll number corner you know there might be ways to incorporate that um but we haven't really in talking with other utilities found that just you know sort of free form ability to be very beneficial I mean what kind of questions do the person who's intaking information manually and typing it into a computer ask name address where's your outage what's your address I mean that all can

1:10:55 be a fillable form that people could literally type in online and even if it doesn't automatically type it they could copy and paste it over I'm just it it feels like to me they could upload photos so the new so the the photo part is is that further information is is another step the next outage management system you won't even have to call we will know we'll know what's out of power and where and so any further um acknowledgements the line is the line is down or there's a tree in the line that would be a second step of which we will evaluate what the options are thank you so Sonia to speak to your point um

1:11:43 during the outage we had our Comcast our exfinity line down and you can't really call all them well you get caught in Some Loops so you can can only submit it online and um it was super frustrating because you don't know where it goes at some point we got a message saying that our case was resolved but like our line was still down so um I hear like I hear what you're saying about that but also not perfect the online system I don't you know I think that from our perspective and this is this is important feedback for us from from both Commissioners we do want to understand

1:12:30 how we can improve our situational awareness and there may be a number of different options that that we look at there I don't know that we want to use Comcast as our basis for comparison um I probably shouldn't say that um my cable will be cut off later tonight um but I do think there's ways of which we can I don't want to call it crowdsourcing information but there is the potential that we could supplement what we're planning to do going forward which is to automate more of this and Rod and I've had a number of discussions about where there's the potential to automate and tie things together in a in a more efficient way so that's one of the things that we'll be reviewing over the next few

1:13:21 weeks um so I did receive quite a few unhappy emails from people particularly people who live um U River and um mostly there were towards the end of the storm when power was being restored in many other places and they just felt like they didn't know when their power was going to be on and I know that you had put out messages I I saw them that said you know it will take up to a week or something like that but um I'm just wondering in the future I don't know what the answer is but maybe think about how we communicate with people who live in more rural areas I don't know eventually if we can well if they have um cell phone coverage but you know send out like one of those um emergency

1:14:07 alerts or something that give them some information or something like that just because like you said the thing that I think makes people the most upset the most nervous is just they not knowing um and not everybody is maybe one face book or on all of our major channels so that was that was just one thing that I heard and then the other thing was a email that I sent out to IC and all the Commissioners but it was a local grocery store that had a question about their power and they kept trying to call to talk to a customer service person just to get some information that they could then relate to their electrician to make some decisions and they weren't ever able to get to a person so I'm just

1:14:54 wondering also in the future about um I don't know key businesses or businesses that provide a somewhat essential service if there is um like a point of contact for them where they talk to a person well um several things that very last slide we show show all the crew and everybody and M around there I just want to point out that there is a when we were there there's a sign on the wall that says Let It Snow really I think it was left over holidays um 8 million bucks is that you said power went from $100 a megawatt to 1,700 a megawatt to buy does that 8 million include our cost

1:15:40 to purchase power no those are just direct costs those are direct costs so we don't get recovery of of that no not from price increase because it I'm assuming the person over my shoulder is agreeing with me because no those are those are not directly reimbursable but the Lost revenue of the $40,000 an hour that we lost from carbon we don't get that either no okay um then uh the company that failed us that where we we called in and we never got called back we I got a robo call day later um we paid money for them for a service or a system and it failed do we have any recourse against them I don't know we'll follow up I don't know whether our specific contract is with them um I it was really responsible of us and I think

1:16:26 about past storms that we actually did Rob will call you back um in some cases we direct called people back as opposed to just leaving you out in the cold so to so to say I know you were in the cold a little bit I think all of us were um because we did have a situation in 2016 where there were 5,000 calls that went into an email or a voicemail location that was that was actually not discovered until much later but I'll we'll follow up and check that contract I like comment on the on the outage map it seems like it's challenging to use when you get a mass of of outages I mean I looked at it today because there was an outage in my neighborhood and uh it

1:17:11 still has you know 34 customers being being restor has still storm information on there and I I find that map challenging to you because I can go all the way to Seattle with it I don't know why it has that scale on it you know when you margin things and lastly on this last you know I've been through three of these been a few years and I noticed and I got pictures of it again this time that the the Pu is not making the communication people trim so all the low line lines that are on all our our polls are there and the trees are on them and the trees get full of snow and ice and they bring the whole system down and we have to pay for it how come we're still letting that happen why aren't we going after the Pu and Comcast and Quest and all those people that are making our rate payers have have to pay money to restore the facilities because they don't trim the lines you and I share

1:17:57 that that concern commissioner um I do know that there's some things going on legislatively to either help or hinder hinder that there's there's actually been some reversals of that the other direction that puts puts more burden on the utility um but that that is something that um and let Rod comment here in a minute um I I feel like there's um um well I don't necessarily believe that the utility should be responsible for their trimming I do think that if there's cost that we can capture those would be fair fair to recoup through our joint use rates um The Joint use rates are pretty specific formula that's been developed through a

1:18:43 state process so there's some there there's some challenges there but um I'll I'll yield to uh to Rod if he knows anything more at this point I drove around by the way the my neighborhood and it was exactly the same way um there were trees that e web had trimmed we are you know legally obligated to do that it's a safety driven process and then below it there's Communications lines that trees are just laying all over and the poles are sort of stretching and and look very awkward so I we understand the situation I don't I don't know where we're at but solution well where the legislature is so PC recognizes this um and so their

1:19:30 first solution was to get the electric utilities to be responsible for the whole thing and then back fill the the comms so naturally we all push back on that um so and this is really starting from Wildfire mitigation too so um recognition that comms have more to play but they have shortened uh Cycles down to to finding and billing um of some the comms the comms are are I in some cases are starting to turn around their their tree trimming and but it it's still an open problem now you just drive out 34 in blam you know that in that section you'll see trees that have been there for 30 years and they're just dragging all that system down it's going to bring down feeder lines and neighborhoods and everything else and we get the bill for it I you know I brought this up before

1:20:16 and we can do something about it we learn about R is um do you know if that's a pu docket or is that a legislative solution leg well the legislative piece comes from the Wildfire but then the Pu that was it's a pu no argument at all from management commissioner we need to find the mechanism to be able to to to try to do that um the the flip side of being more you know taking on more responsibility from a tree triy perspective just makes us that much more popular with some of our our customers in the community when we start more aggressively trimming trees there's a there's a social toll

1:21:04 there yeah thank you thanks um a lot of the things have already been touched on by other Commissioners um one thing that I would like to bring up and and maybe ask if it could be done was um you know we've we've talked about our all of our our crews and how hard these guys up in the yellow vest work through this there were also a lot of contract people that worked with us our tree trimming Crews uh you know I watched a guy climbing up in a bucket truck going in between lines to to cut down a tree um also our M Mutual Aid responders would it be appropriate for the board to be able to send a letter of

1:21:50 thanks to to some of those uh uh contractors and and other utilities that set crews in that would be something that I would be interested in doing especially the tree service I know that in the past we had some issues with the with one of the tree services that we contracted with not so much about them doing their work but just the way that they did it and the professionalism that I saw uh the tree Crews that were out there incredible and so if it's if it is appropriate I I think something coming from the board some those outside agencies would definitely be appropriate I think they would very much appreciate it and we we'll facilitate it I I would I did sorry um president

1:22:38 McCrae I I do want to comment about the outage map um the the outage map the technology of the outage map um is is not the issue it's how we we've been feeding information in and out of it um again there's part of this is the situational awareness peace and aspects of this that that we need to improve it's it's pretty effective um when and we have I have to complement our our is and GIS teams who made some adjustments in Midstream because it had some misleading information on there about the number of Crews assigned to things and and such um again that's an artifact of how we how our processes interact with it um but

1:23:24 those are some areas that we want to improve because I think it works really well for a one or two small outage where you can go in and and see where the status is when you get a a larger outage where more pieces of the puzzle of falling on the floor and you're trying to to rebuild that U it becomes a tool that's less effective so we're gonna take a look at that I just have a few comments uh I'm was really grateful that our water treatment operations continued without interruption I know one of our neighbor utilities did not have that happen and I was just grateful to have clean water coming to my house that I didn't have to worry about um so super grateful for the

1:24:10 Investments that we've made collectively there um the staff communication to the board that the emails we were getting was super helpful the responsiveness of the liaison between the board and the crews work was super helpful I was able to get questions answered very quickly so thank you um you mentioned this FR that e there's been an emergency declaration and um I know the county is pursuing Federal funding to help reimburse um and I'm very optimistic that we'll get a significant reimbursement which will help some of the sting of that $8 million bill um I found the outage map to be really helpful um and I know a lot of people were using it and between that and the communications um outward to the public that we did a really good job um FR

1:24:58 agree that the field cre just did remotable work in really difficult situation and appreciate their effort um I will say the self-reporting outage map that would be made available by smart feers sounds amazing I look forward to having that come online um a couple of questions um one about backup power from medical devices I know that we've started to um do some work to support people who have medical devices that require electricity especially as we look at Public Safety shut offs for wob fire we've leaned in on that front um does that extend into all of EB's territory or is it just in areas that are prone to Wildfire I believe that's started only

1:25:45 in areas for for wild I think when when we get into to looking at our new CIS system and classifying customers there may be ways that we can flag that also to commissioner schlossberg's point we don't differentiate Solly at this point based on the kind whether you're a grocery store or a restaurant um you know we do have a a list of our top 50 customers um as far as emergency response priorities and that would be um wastewater treatment plant pump stations Emergency Services hospitals those those tend to

1:26:32 be in that in the category of of that but there's not another tier that we have necessarily below that um and so um our new customer system hopefully will have the capability to identify a little bit more around that I'm also surprised that something is like a grocery store or does is not have emergency backup generation for certain things that are refrigerated or other other things um just because of the availability that you can now have um during a time of of need so uh we do have a backup generator um program um that we might look and see if we can help facilitate more of that for resiliency purposes so that's a

1:27:17 residential program we might look to expand that to commercial if necessary now I'm mostly thinking about um residential you know people who are medically fragile right and I would be supportive of us taking that program that is helping people in a one expanding it to all of our territory given storm like this that had several people without power for a week I mean it's it's really hopefully unusual circumstance but where we've also seen um these big storms stack up with every few years now and it feels like backup batteries that can help people get through this without medical um challenge could be super helpful and I think it'd be a good use of our funds to help that happen um I also think um the

1:28:03 same with the water storage I know in the past we've done a lot of work to U help people buy water storage containers and um you know again we were really fortunate that we didn't have any issues with our water but I think just to hedge against that possibility that additional investment in water containers and help many people get prepared um would be valuable I would support that and then the last question is around um Mutual Aid Crews I was really happy to see the amount of support we would get from um other unities nearby uh we do any yeah I was going to make us a slight new want to to that um this was a lot more of a local I'll

1:28:51 say Broad impact it wasn't just EB all of the other local utilities all all the way up to through Portland were impacted most of the crews that you saw Beyond eweb Crews were not mutual Aid Crews they were contracted Crews and so it's there's a little bit of a Nuance there partly because all of the the normal um potential that we have for local Mutual Aid was was taken up and then some so it was a little bit of a different different category um did we have um any supporting Crews contracted or Mutual Aid Crews uh pre-positioned given the forecast or is that something that we've done in the past yeah the answer is yes

1:29:37 I mean we we actually went into IC two days before the storm um we made a number I'll call them reservations um to different organizations um I want to say at one point um I recall our Incident Commander saying that we had reached out to 30 different contract Crews multiple person Crews um some of these events and depending on the timing and the anatomy of the vent it's not just more crws more better um depending on where that is and so yeah we we had um also started to pre-plan uh the purchase of materials and and um support um Logistics at that point I think that was on the 11th if I recall on the St really kind of started

1:30:23 on the 13th and so we had done some pre-planning work for that thanks yeah the one other um point I wanted to make was um really felt a lot of cooperation um with the City of Eugene and Lane County through our liaison officer um a lot of communications there as well as other utilities who were communicating with us um as well um and so um sub um for example um utilized EBS Water trailers water distribution trailers um during their response and so this was back and forth on a number of different fronts but definitely wanted to acknowledge some good collaboration with the City of

1:31:10 Eugene and and L County specifically sorry one more thing we walk away from this um recognizing a few things you know electricity used to be called a modern convenience it's no longer that it's a modern necessity um I think we we recognize that if you look at this event probably the one word that I would categorize this with walking away from it on the other side of it is opportunity There's an opportunity to look at this from a individual preparedness perspective uh from a community preparedness perspective and also how we going to position ourselves to be more resilient we know that's an important

1:31:56 thing for for the board um and and for staff from a design perspective from a asset from a people perspective you know uh from a financial perspective so all of those things really you know as much as these are challenges there's opportunity here and I think that's that's how we approach it and um we're going to see what we can learn and and the a little bit more of a complete report will come back to the board um either in March or April depending on on how polished we want we want to deliver it uh to the board but either March or April the board will get the the after Action

1:32:41 Report just one more quick thing maybe Rod can answer answer this you know when it when I looked up there and I saw 80 Transformers that must have pretty much dug into our backup supplies is that going to have a negative impact on some of the plant that we had going forward to do Replacements and stuff like that I know that we Transformers has been something that we've had an issue in in the past you see that the ripple effect of this being pushing off some of the the needed category to things that we have planned coming forward uh not that I've heard of we in fact kind of St Ed up a little bit and then the the suppliers really went to work for us uh and all the people in

1:33:27 this area by bringing in they they called All Around other Utilities in the whole West and and brought in Transformers so i' not expect him too much impact no a Transformer business yeah or you could be alignment too I bet you can make I could climb that ball I I couldn't do it all right thanks moving on to board acting uh consent calendar a I move to approve a move by barosi seconded by Brown any discussion discussion support say

1:34:18 I uh consent calendar B move to adop consent calendar B by Brown second second by barowski any discussion discussion all right all in support of just County please say I I I pass unanimously um that was quick resolution number 242 the upcoming electric utility Bond here comes the crew if you need money go to them I feel like Deborah should get a a foul flag she can just throw over your shoulder if you say something wrong would be entertaining F I think she'd prefer like a shop

1:35:06 call yeah I think we all actually that way more that um good evening president McCrae and Commissioners for the record I'm Deborah Hart I'm here this evening with Aron Balmer they acting in charge finance manager and we're here to talk about issuing electric bonds um in 2024 we have a brief presentation and then uh can answer any questions before we ask for your approval to go to City

1:35:51 Council you so EB's approach to to financing Capital Investments uses a combination of our current rate Revenue um reserves contribution and Aid uh grants and debt financing consistent with the 2024 budget and long-term financial plan that we were just here with in the fall we are seeking to issue 64 million in bonds to fund Electric Capital uh projects over the next couple of years proceeds from this issuance are slated to finance further investments in Carmen Smith as well as substation resiliency and reliability projects uh that you've seen in the Electric Capital Improvement plan we last issued debt to finance Capital

1:36:38 investments in 2020 and that process netted 46 million in proceeds and that is funded investments in Carmen C substation Ami and the downtown Network so with that I'm GNA over to Erin to talk about uh the market thank you Deborah good evening Commissioners so when evaluating the bond issuance Process Management considers whether it would be beneficial to refinance current outstanding debt this slide shows a long-term overview of the 30-year Treasury and Municipal Market rates the takeaway here is that interest rates have declined in recent months and are for C to moderate further through

1:37:28 2024 so these current market conditions present an opportunity for the electric utility to refund bonds originally issued in 2012 and Achieve Debt Service Savings of approximately $270,000 2012 bonds are callable which provides an opportunity to efficiently refinanced while issuing new money bonds for capital projects green line on this graph shows the existing Series 2012 Debt Service and the bars show potential Debt Service after refunding periods with the most notable potential savings are 2029 through 2032 and 203 depending on markets we would be

1:38:13 seeking to refund all for a portion of the remaining principal amounts and we'd be looking to optimize the present value Savings in terms of the issuance process this slide highlights the board's touch points along the way tonight uh we are bringing for the board's consideration a resolution requesting city council authorization for the issuance and sale of electric utility revenue and refunding bonds as the board is chartered by the city city council authorization is needed and we are slated on the city council meeting agenda for February

1:38:58 12th following city council authorization a public notification process applies to the new construction funds and is an opportunity for voters to petition to have the issuance on a ballot there's no public notification needed for the refining p as part of the due diligence process in all of this the board has provided a copy of what we call the preliminary official statement for review and then prior to bond pricing and sale management would bring back a supplemental resolution to the board requesting authorization for staff to proceed with the B

1:39:45 reads so management is seeking new money for Capital Investments and refinance in to improve existing Debt Service obligations recommends approval of resolution 242 on insurance cess for the city and with that pass it back to you president M for session thank you yeah um the 47 million arment is that last time I heard we were 190 million in running and is this another 47 million on top of the 190 we've already spent the the 47 million I believe you're referencing was the issuance we had from so that's a prior issue and so

1:40:30 we're just re financing the 47 million that's in the 190 I'm getting lost in the numbers the 47 million I believe you're referencing is our issuance for 2020 we did use the proed so that's that's in in when we got the number that we we uh perament cost us like 190 to license that number for Carmen is much larger that's not an additional amount corre yeah the the amount that um we're looking at at least with this year for Carmen is 24 million I believe that's in the capital plan yeah and that that would be funded by the proceeds from the ass okay okay so you're G to you're G to go for 47

1:41:15 million part of that's to refinance what we issued in 2020 and the balance of 20 million is going to go no cost plan so we're looking at issues 64 million this time our last issuance in 2020 was 47 million within uh we have an opportunity there's a small amount of outstanding bonds from 2012 and since we'll be in the market we are looking to realize some savings from refinancing those bonds we didn't refinance them the last time because it didn't make Financial sense okay so it says 47 million but it's really

1:42:01 60 I'm just looking on page two of of the uh and it says that 47 million in type three projects for for the Carmen Smith license deployment but you but you're going to go out for 60 million I just kind of I'm trying to keep track of what carman's cost is and so we're at 210 2 now 47 is refinance existing debt and then another 20 million for new expenses correct then help me Frank no the the total that you'd heard before from Carmen Smith as a total cost this is simply the method of financing that cost this is not in addition this is not adding to the scope or the cost of the the total forecast for Carmen this is a way of financing that so it's not additional and it's not has anything to

1:42:47 do with the fish issue no okay right so I think I got down thank you and I just caught up to your $47 million figure in the backgrounder and that is uh that would be planned costs over the next three years for Cari the $64 million is how much of that is going to the refinance or to to retire the old bonds the 64 million would be new money in terms of the refinancing component we have just over 15 million in outstanding principled remaining on the

1:43:33 2012 and so it would be something 15 million or less sort of thing depending again on how how we can optimize as savings so so we're going to the city we're asking for the uh ability to bond 64 million we're going to use some of that $64 million to retire the old we're going to go on top of that so we're actually do we have to ask the city for 80 Milli million we're asking the city to authorize the refinance of up to 15 million depending on market conditions uh and 64 in new money and then I know I know we won't know this

1:44:20 number until we actually uh issue the bonds but how much of the 64 million is going to get chewed up in in interest and and issuance cost how much how much Hard Cash do we get out of A $64 million bond that so that's roughly the amount that we expect to receive them proceeds when we borrow 64 million there um there may be a premium on those bonds that provides a little additional cash um I can get that interest on that right we pay interest on pop on top of that yes okay

1:45:07 so our I guess that's what I'm cost what what is our cost for that $64 million interest in fees in terms of yeah in terms of the underwriter fees and what have you of of that initial sale process I don't have the number off hand but it's very very minor in terms of the interest isn't very right interest is is not and this is how how long are we going out 30 years 30 years so 30 years at 6% under 5% um then the last the last thing this is just procedural um and it kind of goes

1:45:52 to one of our other items coming down here as far as what we can do as far as board members and representing board in front of other bodies uh I think it's appropriate that we uh we make an appearance at the city council uh to say thank you ask them you know they're they're the ones that has to give us the the a um so I know that staff sometimes has done that would that be appropriate for a board member to to go to the public testimony on Monday night and say thank you got ask yeah so currently we are slated as a consent item right and staff

1:46:37 will be available remotely I did just want to share that and there have been times when I think we've done a presentation with they've not asked for that time so I guess I'm asking head NS from the board if if I were at that public forum on next Monday and just express our gratitude would there be any problem with that I would support it wholeheartedly you're going to be there in that line anyhow they thank you very much for volunteering just kind of goes to the like Dad can I borrow $64 million thank you I if I'm available I may do that I have one question um just about where interest rates are

1:47:24 going right now it seems like they're headed down where we any comparison or is there any way for us to put this off six months or a year and so um so that's an interesting question uh the market believes that interest rates are going down and because we're borrowing over an extended time what the market believes the direct ction is going will ultimately end up being priced into the bonds the things that about would be some sort of a a shock or unforeseen event right before we were pricing it is still a little bit of a

1:48:13 crystal yeah president mccre the the bond markets have been relatively stable compared to sort of the inflationary pressures that that we've seen um and and also I I think um Deborah was trying to explain that a lot like a stock you're not buying it based on what you think today's value is you're buying it for some future value and so that is reflected in the fact that I I think we're seeing four to five% kind of ranges for people with our credit rating as opposed to what you're seeing in the inflationary markets so so it you know I think I think we're you know somewhere between four and 5% is probably probably reasonable for at least de at this point um it doesn't look like in the next six months the the

1:48:58 FED is going to move significantly um I think they've indicated that their March meeting they're not maybe in the summer they start to but that would be threee to that people would be sort of making their assumptions when they go into the market and and we do our pricing and yeah and respectfully though like four to 5% right that's a huge range on a 30 year on $6 right mean it seems like a quarter percent here is Wasing real money for sure and and if uh and if there is reason for us to stay out of the market a little bit longer we do have a little bit of flexibility there with rate stabilization and evaluating where we're

1:49:43 at for our capital projects um but generally speaking Our concern we we have seen more favorable rates for sure or 2020 was more favorable than that as was the massive refinancing yeah it's good to know you have some flexibility and I appreciate that you all are pay ATT to that use the flexibility since we're looking back at 2012 T up on this map what interest rate were we at at 2012 that makes it favorable to

1:50:29 refinance since because this is you know relatively High compared to years depending on which maturity the uh the rates do vary and I'm not sure that yeah now but we would not refinance unless it was favorable to us and right now the forecast is that it will be favorable to us it was not the last time you and how given that I mean we 12 years into that series I mean if we make the decision to do this and the rates go down we could refinance again if it makes fiscal sense to do so rates dropped significantly enough to make it work and and our financial advisor and

1:51:15 our H writers are quick to to communicate when they see those Savings in the market so when bonds are callable we really start to look at uh what kind of savings that we could see do we get any hurt from calling them back or I just understand that that's part of the financial process these as long as they're call we can call the call feature in terms of the our instruments process having a call feature on the bonds factors into that initial that

1:52:02 thank you for enduring our interrogation really appreciate all the answers and always happy to answer questions we will be back a couple more at a couple more points on this on this okay do we need we do need a on that resolution move to support resolution number 242 okay moved by Carlson second by schlosberg any discussion support say I I I pass unanimously thank you thank you uh we'll take a 10- minute

1:52:48 break that's not too bad right all

2:03:31 agenda and do you want I mean it says you V commissioner so we can just toast this ourselves or do you want to do your Preamble how do you want this President mcra just a quick Preamble um you did have some discussion with this before um a background memo describing a few of the options that the Bo to talk about talked about this is really to provide guidance to um the liaison which in this case is the president and the vice president around topics that the board would like them to discuss with um Council leadership on an occasional basis and this is really your discussion we'll take notes and um make sure that it's clear after the fact great

2:04:17 thanks uh so everybody has the memo that we were provided I think we looked at this last month eight of that memo January 31st yeah I I personally don't have anything you to add to that list I think it was a pretty comprehensive list and still working on a number of the same items so a lot of it is updates on what we're doing and then a continuation have anything to add I just support the list that we developed and continue to

2:05:04 work yeah um it may fall in here but one of the topics that that I met with last time with with commissioner Carlson um was and it's something we brought up here before is uh EV charging infrastructure and I don't know if that would fall under the decarbonization bullet point or not but I know that that's something that that the city has has asked us about and we've also done I don't know where it goes to but it maybe a bullet point that would be worth at least adding in there um be under the decarb or or isn't it in the silt

2:05:57 pip frame spend talks about EV charging and it talks number four oh yeah okay president M that the discussions around Sil was a I'll say it's a hold over from past discussions with this board um I think it would be appropriate to clarify when we talk about EV charging what the city would look for in a relationship with eweb kind of a a little bit more clear roles and responsibilities aspect to that as you know we do have a a grant process there's there's ways to look at funding we we do get some funding through the

2:06:42 clean fuels program with the state that we allocate back to since that's based on the number of EVS we try to allocate that back to EV related things but I I think from a staff perspective we would want an understanding of what the city's looking for versus what they're expecting eweb to bring to that so a little bit more of a definition there yeah that that's what I was talking about just I mean they ask about oh what are you guys doing on EB charging being it just being it it's only Le thing it's not we're not making policy or or funding issues but make letting them know where we are on those things that's why I think it would be a just a talking

2:07:28 point we have under programs of public interest and potential partnership uh resiliency and I'm just wondering at your next meeting or something um just talking about disast I don't know if there's anything in disaster prepar or something but just kind of talking about maybe there's maybe there's some opportunities there I I like the list and everything I just you know hopefully we can get into a discussion about some of them because like on that using Sil increases in Silt compensation and L taxes we pay 6% of our R to the city but um just uh you know so we can prioritize those for for me I would much rather the money go to giving incentives to the rental pool to

2:08:14 weatherize than EV charging um you know if I had to pick one or the other I'd want the rental pool because they're the people that are probably more challenged with our increases than people that can afford EVs and so I would hope that we could focus on that as a priority and then uh resiliency thing you know disaster preparedness um somehow get the word out better than it is on our water you know our emergency water stations because if like you say we got a two days Supply and then we're going to be out for two months and how are people going to survive and they don't know uh 90 I 90% of the people 95% of the people I talk to don't know that we have these emergency water stations stationed around with pumps and the ability and it's there but if it's it's no good if

2:08:59 it's there they people don't know it's there and then an emergency we're not going to be able to communicate we have the big earthquake we're not you know we got to get that word out now and tell people where to go to get water and so I would hope we emphasize that with the city and then lastly um we're going to have a discussion about adding things to the eweb bill um I'm really want to talk about that as a board because right now it's an ewf Bill and two of those four charges aren't ours and we get blame you know we get laid with the grief about my M will bill is increasing and when they're increasing storm water and and waste water nothing to do with us but we get we get tag so I want to talk about that at Great

2:09:45 length yeah thank yeah um commissioner Brown the um I did have a discussion with city manager maderi about the some of the explor it's it's truly exploration at this point around sources of revenue or methods of of revenue for the for the city um if it looks like it's the option that um eweb could be a potential Channel um I did um invite city manager Mader to come and discuss that with the board so um that invitation is open depending on their

2:10:32 approach and and her schedule um I would work with President McCrae to figure out where to get that on the agenda um historically uh the city has used Sil for their general fund that's that's been um I I'll I'll say um an area where they feel like it's it's their decision to to spend that um accordingly and and not for eweb to um provide guidance on on where and how that is spent um it's also uh something that's part of of how the the silt agreement which goes back decades was was uh eventually agre

2:11:18 to um and so it is it is a requirement that we have and it's it's 6% of of Revenue um I I have not talked with the city about I'll say non Revenue works that you have might be incorporating into their rates um but that's that's something that might be um something that we could bring up I'll leave that one big do you do you you know if the council can choose to add another expense to our bill without the PO is that possible so um the the way that and I can't remember whether this is a charter or a code city code

2:12:04 issue that um eweb has has to agree there's there's no choice for eweb when it comes to I think it's fluid Management Services or something which would be storm water and wastewater be we are obligated to provide that collection method um Beyond those two um it it is at the discretion of the EB board if there are other fees that the city would propose to us that we act as their collection agent on but those two are required I'm good yeah I'm fine thank you question I'm curious that there any

2:12:49 policy goals or themes that we have that baked into here I mean it I know there's a lot of opportunity for for us to think about projects um staff level but I'm curious if I I'm not coming up with any policy agenda where there's really thing where we might work with the council itself use this as a way to advance policies that we're working other than actually this you know Revenue collection there like place to engage with them for sure but if they're other things on your radar not from a policy perspective um I think one of the areas that we're trying to provide um much more direct feedback

2:13:38 to the mayor and Council on is through our our climate guide book and the specific results that are associated with the ew what ew work is associated with the goals they have around climate action plan and uh we work really closely with City staff on how those are measured and what categories those are in and we'll be providing an update with our 2023 results sometime this spring um but that's a that's a that's the Tactical execution level it's not at the policy level but those are the kinds of things and then we work very closely with the the city on the schedules associated with Street repairs and things that um

2:14:25 are mutual agencies are needing to coordinate on so there could be there there may be one thing that would I think be at a policy level we do eventually have to make some changes to the public Facility Services plan which will need um Council approval City of Springfield approval and Lane County approval for our uh to change the um the metro plan that facilitates our building of a second water treatment plant on the wamit and that that will be something that we will need um policy collaboration with between Council and the board and that would it would be very helpful to bring

2:15:11 that up in the leadership discussion yeah I propose we add that here an IEM start yeah we can start that yeah all right so I'm he hearing support for what's here I'm not hearing anybody suggesting we remove anything heing some extra emphasis on some of the items and some work on the the second water intake mostly landus there right anything else that I think you need to actually this is an action item yeah um I I would suggest in the motion that

2:15:58 you add support for changes to the public facility so as part of the motion to add that I think that's a very specific policy objective that I would recommend you add at this point okay move to add the purp to the not the purp Public Service public Facility Services per my f is just with a p okay like that's close enough fer you know perfect I Mo to add that to the poliy to the agenda second right everybody in support say I all right so we're adding that and and then work not making any any other

2:16:45 changes is that sufficient your needs I think now we need to move to approve the city of on agenda all right second by flber second by Carlon iously all right moving on to the next item the McKenzie Valley meeting in the morning so uh president Cay Commissioners good evening again for the audio record this is Frank Lawson general manager um you received some information in your general manager's report about a bunch of changes to the upcoming

2:17:31 McKenzie Valley meeting we do on an annual basis have a special board meeting um traditionally a board meeting without um approved actions but as a work session um the opportunity to meet with uh part of our extended territory up the McKenzie Valley um the formats for that meeting go ahead next slide please H the format for that meeting has evolved and changed some Through The Years um some of the things that we've received feedback on from from past meetings is that the format that we have doesn't necessarily

2:18:16 facilitate a a very good dialogue between Commissioners and those who have particular interests that they would want to talk to Commissioners about um it it becomes a bit frustrating both uh from a a government's side uh from your side being able to have a dialogue um as opposed to be the recipient of uh a a lot of of um input um and also from a customer perspect perspective um I don't think it facilitates it so um and yet we also have a lot of really good things to communicate eweb has a very strong presence in the Mackenzie Valley we have since 1911 when we built our first um one of

2:19:05 the first um Power generating facility it's our it's our drinking water source we've been very instrumental in uh both the electric side and the water side in the McKenzie Valley with lots of different programs and opportunities for our customers in that in that area so there's an opportunity here that we need to look at as how we interact with that the what are the suggested ideas and this is again for you to deliberate on is potentially looking at at something as more of an openhouse dinner approach um if you've attended the analogy that I would use as if you've attended the major customer lunch in something a little bit more

2:19:51 along those lines as opposed to providing just an an open mic platform uh for people questions could be um gathered Consolidated um either responded to formally at the meeting or informal or formally after the meeting um but it would give an opportunity for Commissioners to have direct interaction with um with those who are from that who would choose to attend and so this was a little bit more of a of a different format and approach to it um the some of the topics that uh we see as as relevant um which have some of these are similar to past meetings that we've had up there

2:20:36 um there's a lot of watershed work um some of that is recovery from the wfire some of it is ongoing um management we have some large projects that are in in different states of development the Carmen Smith relicensing um the decision to decommission the leberg hydroelectric project another one prepared an ice storm there's a lot of wildfire mitigation there's a lot of of topics that are relevant so we'd like to get your feedback on if if there's one or two of these that you feel like are more important than the others um not that this is necessarily a democratic process in what those are going to be but just to get a a flavor for your topics but

2:21:21 this is an opportunity for you to have a discussion and provide um management with feedback on your your thoughts around the format your thoughts around the topics um we may have to look at the location depending on how many people show up for dinner um that's something that we'll have to to uh take into consideration but um any anyway we we wanted to present this idea to you and get your feedback and with that uh president McCrae I'll just I'll just turn it back to you and listen John I already know who's going to sit at my table and what the topic is going to be so uh decommissioning and I I you know I

2:22:07 want I'm gonna have to get staff to give me talking points because when they say how come you're tearing the dam out I say well the feds say you have to if you're not going to generate power and they say well have you a to move I mean it's GNA circular compation and I'm going to you know it can go sideways real quick and but that's the the real on the living all this other stuff is but you know what all our our public participation has been about they're they're mad and this is going to be a really good menu for them to express their frustration and so I want to listen and I want to make sure we listen and they feel they've been hurt but I want to make sure that people like myself we we probably have five different answers to

2:22:52 the same question and we have to speak I think with a common Voice or whatever because we will get divided and you know I I think that would be really important and then the other thing that I didn't see there is we T we did the C of the cost of service allocation and we said 14% up for the U River residents that has died has not been talked about but I know will Rutherford and others are really against that and and uh and they don't like the fact that they pay 60% of their bill that goes to the city general fund they get no benefit from it and so those types of things me are going to be um things that that come up I mean

2:23:39 um so first of all on your talking points I think it is important that we develop a consistent understanding as to why certain decisions are made and how we communicate those so I think that's that's important I think we all have slightly different perspectives on that decision and how we came to it and we we need to maintain that Integrity um but there are in in the case of of your example about why the dam has to come out there's some very specific reasons for for why that's a that is not just a good choice it's also probably an inevitable Choice um so I think that that's understood and and we'll make sure that there's plenty of time to prepare for whatever topics we think are

2:24:26 going to come our Direction um the um the other one relative to an UPR River rate um is something that um we planned on having a discussion around when we um had more detailed discussion around raid design um it is um something where that's a particular area that has a higher cost to serve um I think it's it's not illogical to think that if you add two hours of time and travel uh to service an area that that's right off the top as well as tree trimming and some of the other things that are very intense in that area that there would be a difference in the cost basis to serve that that area um similar to what we do

2:25:13 with um pumping charges in the City of Eugene there's there's very very um distinct cost associated with living at elevation versus at the base valid level but rather than deal with that as a distinct separate subject it um our preference would be to have it in the context of overall rate design and at what levels and how do we look at Cost distinction and how do we account for that so that has not been lost it's it is um so it hasn't been forgotten um but um I think we feel it's it's better discussed in the context of rate design in general and lastly is it appropriate to invite

2:26:00 Steve morisy or somebody from the county Heather commissioner Buck because that transportation thing is huge about if we tear that Dam out they don't have a bridge across the river how do they get to their properties and that's not our problem but we have somebody there to he'll take that away from our conversation that to me would be very helpful go and count on I think if there's certain partners that the Commissioners would like to invite we certainly welcome their their attendance I know that the emergency manager a few years ago attended the U River meeting and that was helpful to get the County's perspective um during some of the Q&A that came up around

2:26:45 emergency prepar ESS and so I think that's appropriate in this case as well and whether it's um um the administrator mro moer heisy or someone else it would be an appropriate person from the county that we would invite so I'm a little mixed I think um that if we didn't have a highly contentious issue going on where there were um a group of angry people like people who want focus on um singular issue and they're really unhappy with us I think that obviously they they can um talk to us about what's

2:27:32 frustrating but when I think about last year's UPR River meeting at that meeting there were other people that wanted to speak about other topics and there wasn't really a space for it because there were so many people that came to really just talk about the decommissioning um and I do fear that if we have this format that again it could be overrun with that and again people who are opposed to decommissioning absolutely have the right to tell us what they're thinking or or talk to us about but I want to make sure that it doesn't just turn into that but that there's space for people that are interested in other topics or have things that they want to share so I I do worry a little bit about that

2:28:17 um I like the idea of it being more informal and um more more relaxed and and less like up us up there you know it just feels like us against them is really not what we want at all so um I don't know I'm just I'm just a little mixed yeah I think um commissioner that's one of the reasons that we wanted to explore the format change was we felt like the um controlling the environment a little bit more would facilitate some of the quieter issues um as opposed to the issue of the day the opportunity to

2:29:04 interact with Commissioners oneon-one and truly interact as opposed to seeing the formal stage and and that as well as having an opportunity to have your questions addressed not just whoever writes the most bold question on a piece of paper but look at the different variety of questions that come up I I think is another way of encouraging people to to speak out our intent is not it is to potentially bring out voices that were drowned out in the former format and so um that's why the it's not just one format throughout the meeting there's an open house piece there's a dinner piece opportunity to interact and then there's

2:29:49 the opportunity to have a Q&A presentation so there's we're trying to actually mix three different formats in a meeting hopefully to get people give all people the opportunity to interact um the other thing that is still valid is that and I think sometimes I I I know I lose this occasionally all of you are very accessible um Direct ly through email anytime I I so it's it's hard uh when you hear a customer say oh we can't we can't there are lots of ways to get Commissioners their message and have an interaction you're you're very accessible to people on their terms also

2:30:36 so this is a way to organize to commissioner Brown's Point organize some thoughts and messages potentially control that in a way that doesn't facilitate misinformation which I think um was one of the things we found last year there were things that were said that were just blatantly incorrect um at the same time providing some people the opportunity to express themselves so I think that's our attent of commissioner well and I really like the idea of pairing a staff person with us because oftentimes we get asked technical questions which we may or may not know the answer to and that's when sometimes we inadvertently prate things that that we shouldn't because we misspeak or something like

2:31:21 that so I think having a a staff person with us um and in terms of the topics I think that um absolutely people are going to want to talk about that I do think that the ice storm that that will be on people's minds uh Wildfire mitigation I don't know we we don't often get questions on Carmen Smith status occasionally we do um Watershed recovery I feel like we hear from our partners in Watershed recovery but I don't know how many like questions or concerns we get from Folks up

2:32:08 there when you raised the topic about um you know different people not like being ground out it made me wonder if there was an opportunity to use that use that bigger room in the back or if people want to talk specifically about leeberg that maybe that is the like after you do the presentations and the you know dinner kind of mingling then and you do a presentation you talk about here's you know what we have okay now you're going to break out into different groups one of the groups is you know a Weber Topic in a separate space and then maybe some of the ones that are quieter stay in that same room I don't know I mean then there's like a rotation of sort of communic the different topics I don't know if that's helpful or not it's just

2:32:55 something that that idea made me think of I I think it would be great to have more people conversations because being able to know just having somebody stand up and say the three minutes it's so awkward and it changes the room and then it rils other people up and you can have the actual dialogue with them so I really appreciate that staff um are thinking about this thanks [Music] um I think it would be helpful if we could lean into our partners a little bit more in the presentations as well um I'm thinking directly I you know when we talk about Watershed recovery and pure water partners and stuff we've got staff

2:33:40 that have have done that presentation now for four or five years if we could have some of our partners that are utilizing those programs and I'm thinking Jared from McKenzie FL said Council uh some people from the trust get up there and talk because those people have one they live up there they work up there every day and they're they've got gravitas with the people that are up there more so than somebody that may have an eweb badge on their thing so if we could lean into some of those Partners I mean if we went if we talk to Jared mcken Watershed Council and said could you just give five minutes on what ewb some of the the programs that ewb has helped initiate up

2:34:25 River I think it would it would be received a little bit better than if it w not not that our staff isn't isn't doing a good job of of putting that message up there but I know when I'm sitting in that room with those people like this Thursday I'll be sitting in that room with those people and the people that are also in that room res Partners up there they guides they're the so these people have have good working relationships with people up there so that would be something that I would hope we can maybe lean into on some of the presentations um and also I think I don't know if we need to go into the whole R design uh conversation at this point because we're not ready to

2:35:10 but teeing it up a little bit maybe just saying you know as a EB as a whole we're looking at this so that it's not once we go and start doing rate design later this fall and and next spring it's going to be a year before we go back up there and they're going to say wait a second where how did you guys decide on this and just letting them know that maybe you know rate design is something that we're looking through as an organization and it may have an impact on on your class of customers you know just even at that level so that you know when it comes up on on our agenda they they may know to look in on it and maybe want to give us feedback uh that's just something uh kind of a trust issue

2:35:55 that we have because we only do go up there once a year I know that they can reach out to us and they can watch our things and do all of that but it's still our our one-on-one contacts are are yearly basically and so if if there's a way to tee that up in a in a non adversarial way that might be helpful so I have just a few thoughts um I likewise am grateful that we're thinking about a different format um I I actually think skipping presentations all together might be helpful I just think it can create an awkward Dynamic and having something that's just openhouse where we're all available to talk with people about whatever they're interested in and we

2:36:40 have staff on hand to speak to all of the issues especially leeber hoping Lisa and Mark will be there um they need to be there if they can't be there we need to reschedule you know I I think that gives us an opportunity for for staff to answer questions while we're there hearing people's concerns and it could be on all the topics and all of us could move around to wherever it seems like you know there's the most interest or wherever we have questions um anyway couple of the topics that I think would be interested are preparedness modifier mitigation I think those are both going to be interesting and of course leeberg um I don't know if people are going to be willing to or ready engage in rate design until we give them

2:37:25 a number I think like as soon as we start saying here's what this means to you and your bill um we don't know if it feels like it's a very technical exercise that is gonna really engage people the way other programs that we have might um anyway I know you just got a bunch of different feedback from all of us so I'm not sure that gets gets you what you need there McCrae I'm used to it just you know five different people five different opinions um I think that um having partners involved I I think those are those are good ideas um we are

2:38:11 even looking at um Adam Spencer as uh if there's an opportunity to MC or facilitate questions if it's a little bit beyond an open he's a resident up there he's lived up there his whole life he he knows people there but we're very cognizant of the the trust issue The Insider kind of issue um some of the issues are more informative than they are decision oriented and and I'll use rate design as an example um people will speak out against rate design if their rates are going to go up that's that's the the feedback that that that you're going to get it's not going to be it's unfair if my rates go up um but like a

2:38:58 lot of decisions that this board has to make you have to look at um Equity across the the entire service territory City of Eugene and up River and so now teeing it up for context that hey these are some of the things we're going to look at as part of rate design makes makes some sense um um but if they get if we get in too much specifics too soon it's going to be well I don't like that result so I'm going to challenge the process and if you challenge the process and that doesn't work then you discredit the people who are driving the process so there's this this um chain that um that can occur I

2:39:43 do think it's probably appropriate to to highlight that this discussion is coming but it's coming at a broader level we're not isolating one group saying we're going to change your rates we're looking at how we appropriate appropriately design our rates to facilitate the long-term outcomes of the organization and for the better of the community that's a that's a different way of framing it up and I think that's probably appro that if that's what you meant so I I think there is an opportunity to just look at this differently I'm I'm hearing some receptiveness to yeah we think the format that we use probably wasn't as inviting and productive as it should should be um that more of an

2:40:29 openhouse dialogue engagement opportunity is is is better um this is 3% of the territory and you devote a significant amount of time to um meet this part of our of our customer BAS Bas on their terms and I I could think that's uh that's worth noting so um ra is maybe maybe an um was anything else that would be valuable feedback I know and in our Communications team have been really taking a hard look at this Jen CL J hiding in the back um and looking at how we approach this to be just more helpful

2:41:16 to Commissioners and our customers and so I don't know if there was anything else that specifically an or even Jen you can yell from the back um that might be valuable to know from I think everything's really been covered well we plan to do the same informational flyer in advance so folks will have a takeaway where they can get some updates on kmen Smith and some of the things that we may not go into detail with at the meeting aside from having a tbling for it so there'll be other ways that people could get information to in writing and online commissioner Brown yeah um I just got the river reflection just came out this evening and a story about uh

2:42:02 septic need to fix eweb expands grow grant program so apparently we have a million dollars in arpa money that expires use it or lose it in September we're replacing up to $35,000 per septic system up there that's what this article says if that's true um can we uh really promote that this because I mean you know septic systems are the biggest threat to our water shed and we' replace them and we've got this money and use it or lose it um I know I just there's there's an opportunity here and we'll talk to our yeah I just want if that's available I'm not sure I would agree it's the biggest threat to the to the water it's certainly a threat to the to the water there'ss you know that know it's it's what you're thinging but yeah we'll uh take a look at the communications um if

2:42:48 there's money that expires we it's definitely important I know all the arpa money goes away in September to a lot of people are scrambled to figure out how to spend it it's just say say the article does say that it's part of arpa and it's a million bucks it is does good people at Lane County help me SS like our Communications is doing good made it in the paper commissioner Brown I'm getting lots of heads that yes that's correct and then we'll seize that as an opportunity let use that to replace all those septic tanks that aren't working up there so what we're doing yeah yeah you doing amazing work to get septic systems replaced commissioner McCrae is personally digging the holes themselves I am

2:43:40 digging um I I'm just curious in the past when we created The Loan program for generators um I wonder if that's going to be part of the I know it's I know it's in May but maybe it'll still be fresh enough in people's minds having the ice storm and being out to remind them that we've had this program for a number of years and I'm also just curious how many people have taken advantage of it and used it to support them because we I know we say rely on us but they're U River and there's lots of trees and they're very far away and there's often so much damage up there we can't get up there for days and days and days so we recognize that this was a situation and a difference and I just I would think it would be important to highlight that and and

2:44:25 share I agree commissioner um I think when we talk about preparedness preparedness takes on a different level when you're living in a remote area like that and we will certainly make sure people are aware of all of the things that we do to help facilitate preparedness including that program and you will get sort of what the latest numbers are for participants in our year end report so you you'll get some visibility on where we are with that but I think in our after action reporting we're going to have to look and that right now is residential only do we do we expand that do we look at that a little bit differently so it's um but yes as far as UPR River preparedness has

2:45:10 to be a topic that uh we provide a lot of information on okay one last well you can do the last one but I'll do one before then and then yeah uh so the in terms of Partners we have a new County Emergency manager I think it'd be good to extend the invite to her um I also think organ Department of Fish and Wildlife with the leaper impacts on the Hatchery there um and other impacts on fish it might be useful to have OD fmw there what you thinking um I'm getting feedback you know Lane electric is undergrounding a lot of rur stuff and and I've had several people say how come you're not undergrounding they are and help just don't have to answer now but just be able to answer that question of how can Lane electric underground their rural facilities and

2:45:55 we don't because they are doing it we think a little more time to answer that one just a quick thought to the um you mentioned communicating with Folks up River or somebody did I can't remember who but that's a challenge right and so it's different than Communications in town and so there's a handful of folks um that we've talked to um getting ideas about how we can better communicate like signage or whatever good opportunity to talk to people and get ideas around that terms of letting people know this meeting happening H happening but during an emergency how do you communicate with people with poers out the internet out is different um the water systems are

2:46:42 it's a different culture up there you know and they have water water systems and all those kind of things that um anyway during outages uh struggling how to best reach out to people so I've been sort of on the side collecting ideas Janine pesi uh and's been working with Robin and some folks from Communications teams trying to throw some ideas together so I think that would be a listening thing say where did you get information did you go down to leeber store did you go to Takota you know where did you guys get your information when you had no phone no internet and no power so that we can get the information to those touch points thoughts on that too that we should this

2:47:32 week anything else on this topic what you need I so yes I did thank you all right uh future board agendas anything you want to cover here or you just questions from the if there's any questions we did um commissioner Carlson we wanted to make sure you were available for the upriver meeting I think someone said You' ried the invitations and oh I just wanted to make sure that well we can follow up separately for that but I don't have any furthers on the board Agenda Report okay any questions about agenda

2:48:18 else all right uh board wrap-up you want to start no good all right nothing you uh for me I am excited to have new audio and visual or is it just audio in this room I'm looking forward to having tools to make it easier is there a time frame for inst um we couldn't get it done this time so mid oops about this um for sure by say for sure on anything we're still waiting some Key Parts was in the TV somewhere between the equipment is scheduled to arrive somewhere between March and April there's some things going on in here that we can't disrupt

2:49:05 so it could be March but more than likely April but anyway that's tet at the moment there was there was one long lead time item that was delaying things okay just real quick I just like to acknowledge there's a new little students here from the journalis plas and thank you very much for staying through it I mean that you really got it it out because I sometimes want to get up and leave early myself so thank you for joing interest what we're talking since they stay to the end do we get like more likes or something more advertising dollars or something I just like to acknowledge what they're doing and everything thank you good luck and uh yeah a couple of quick items um you know after the ice storm to there's some thoughts on again if we have an

2:49:52 emergency event like this how do we as a community work together and utilize our public assets so are we partnering with schools are we partnering with I don't know you know we had we had stores that had tons and tons of food that went bad there I know this is not an energ sort of thing but it is a community sort of thing and eweb is very good at at reaching out and working with our partners and I just want to again think about creative ways that we utilize the resources within Community to provide shelters to get food to places where people need it um and so I I just want to know what venue we have right now

2:50:39 where these different groups these public assets are actually talking and making these kind of communications Happ we can follow up more specifically but I know that I believe there's a I think it's within the county a resiliency task force group where uh I know after the event um there was discussions around schools and other things we're part of that group um and so um so are we going to have like a community hot wash event after I don't know specifically but I know that um we'll follow up and see what the plans are um from from the county so that'll be our follow-up item just to

2:51:24 that um and then we have the river trip at the end of May and I know in the past we've had some input discussion about who are inviting and that and I haven't seen that yet so is there a list that's already been developed any discussion around that when are we going to send invites because it's not that far in the future I don't we don't have a list at this point um we can we can follow up and see if if Commissioners have particular targets um that's probably not word don't write that one down so um we'll we'll follow up with a a game plan for

2:52:10 that great I'm G to be quoted as our partners our friends yes our partners and our friends targets invites yes oh you and your utility speak um okay that's that's actually all I have for thank you we have 30 million gallons of water on South Eugene and our new reservoirs that's still in process we're still in the commissioning days correct then we put it filled them up and we're bubble guming the leaks and we're so a little bit more than that that also doesn't go in writing the bubble gum part yeah we'll figure it you

2:52:56 now the the commissioning process is very detailed we're in the process of that we ran into a couple issues we want to make sure we address them now while the contractor is still under warranty so we're we're being uh pretty meticulous in how we approach that so and and we've communicated with the Oregon Health Authority around all this so there's they're quite aware of what's going on um yeah that's all I got very good from you Frank I hope not all right well being journ