EWEB Board of Commissioners — January 7, 2025

0:03 given by staff if an evacuation is required please calmly proceed to the nearest safe exit as identified and directed by staff and evacuate away from the building to the farthest point in the parking lot to allow clear and immediate access for First Responders okay with that we will start our agenda with an agenda check any Commissioners or staff have adjustment or to the agenda okay second item on the agenda is the oath of officers for Commissioners that were newly elected so that would be myself commissioner Carlson and commissioner

0:58 Morris raise your right hand repeat after me I John Brock hi John barosi do Solly swear do solemly swear I will support the Constitution of the United States that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the state of Oregon and the state of Oregon that I will to the best of my ability and that I will to the best of my ability Faithfully perform the duties of Eugene Water and Electric Board commissioner for the City of Eugene oh Faithfully Faithfully perform perform the duties of Eugene Water and Electric Board for the City of Eugene very M continue therein during my continuance therein and this I do swear so help me God this I do swear so help me God congratulations thank you commissioner

1:50 Carlson right hand repeat after me hi Sonia Carlson hi Sonia Carlson do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the state of Oregon and the state of Oregon and that I will to the best of my ability and I will to the best of my ability Faithfully perform the duties Faithfully perform the duties of Eugene Water and Electric Board commissioner for the City of Eugene of Eugene Water and Electric Board commissioner for the City of Eugene during my continuance therein during my continuance therein and this I do affirm under pain and penalty of perjury this I do a affirm under pain and penalty of perjury congratulations thank you commissioner Morris

2:36 raise your right hand repeat after me I Tim Morris I Tim Morris do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the state of Oregon and the state of Oregon and that I will to the best of my ability and that I will to the best of my ability Faithfully perform the duties Faithfully perform the duties of Eugene Water and Electric Board commissioner for the city of e of Eugene Water and Electric Board for the city City of Eugene during my continuance therein during my continuance therein and this I do affirm under pain and penalty of perjury and this I do affirm under pained penalty of purger congratulations thank you great thank you congratulations Commissioners Round of

3:23 Applause okay next on the agenda is new commissioner Tim Morris's self- introduction if you don't mind introducing introducing you yourself to us and the community as a whole well thank you uh Mr Browski thank you um for those that don't know who I am my name is Timothy Morris I am the newly elected commissioner for WS one and8 um I am truly grateful for the opportunity to have both run and been elected by my community to serve in this serve in this seat um I come from a pretty challenging background and have had a lot of struggles in my life and I think that many members of our community are in very similar positions and so I'm

4:08 excited to bring that perspective and these opportunities in addition I work with the low-income community of Eugene and of Lane County every single day and so these are perspectives that I hope to bring as well to this board um and I am truly thankful to my my friends and family who supported me throughout this journey and through all of my complaining um I'm truly grateful to um those who voted me in and I'm truly grateful for former commissioner McCrae who I think really set a standard of what a commissioner looks like and uh I I don't think I'm able to fill his seat and fill his shoes but I hope to set my own example moving forward so thank you uh for that opportunity great thank you and welcome

4:54 look forward to working with you over the next few few years uh we've got some big used to conquer and I'm sure your voice will be a valued voice at the table next thing we have is item from board members and general manager start off with commissioner Brown thank you Happy New Year to everybody and um welcome Tim welcome back Sonia and John um just a couple things I want to like thank customer service for talking me off the cliff they I was one of the 1% that got some little glitch in system and they told me I didn't do something and I yes I did and we agreed to disagree but that's right just we just shook hands we just did the piece but and and it's all good so it's all understood so but thank you it was

5:39 excellent customer service I really appreciate it um just thinking that um I'm going to bring this up a little later too about protocols on how one General consensus thing that we all had and that's the length of the meetings and trying to figure out how we're going to do that one little tiny suggestion I have a few minutes is a few minutes but instead of having to read that prologue about where the bathroom are where the emergency room is and everything we have security here we could print that out and they knew who they know who were staff and they knew who's not staff they just hand it out give it to them instead of us having just a thought I don't know if there's a protocol issue there or not but it's just a way to kind of help streamline get through that because sometimes that takes more time than I think it deserves thank you Mr

6:28 Carlson well I wanted to say thank you to the staff who um I would uh a part of the River Road shutdown that they had to do um to perform some maintenance on water and I think the staff did a great job and notifying everybody about the situation and then um getting the water turned back on by the morning so that was great and um I know it's not easy when you have to shut down a area of that size for that length of time and I appreciate that they get everything they needed to got it back up and running and I had a couple of small suggestions on um kind of maybe some additional questions that that people ask me about just because I was in the neighborhood and would love to you know find out what happened with that and if there are any changes that will be made because we're always in the mode of continuous Improvement and otherwise I

7:14 just want to say uh welcome Tim thank you and this is a new it sounds a lot louder so whatever they've done maybe that's a good thing too so thanks everyone happy New Year Indy I have had no billing water or electric problems in this past month so I'm grateful for that um I just want to say welcome Tim to the board and really looking forward to serving you Tim well thank you and thank you uh for the welcomes and I look forward to serving with all of you as well um I've had no electric or water issues as well my uh whole thing transferred over seamlessly and uh often even without my oversight so thank thank you very much

8:00 that was great um I wanted to take just a brief moment of um after um the general election in November the staff turned around and really started to um provide information to me and try to catch me up and and has done an incredible an excellent job of not only cascading how these conversations are going and meeting with um uh the staff here but um I think one of the things that's not on any agenda or any minutes is um what I've been able to see is the the passion I think from many of our our staff here and and uh just the dedication that I've seen so I truly want to want to thank those who have had the chance to to sit down and uh give me the fire hose and breadth of information that EB is and um I just I I have had

8:47 nothing but but nice things to say so thank you all so much for for that great and for myself uh not much happened for me over the month I did have an opportunity to stopped by College Hill another time when they were preparing for a blast got to interact with Laura and some neighbors that were around there and the all of the feedback that I've gotten from the neighbors has been very positive um they understand that there's a A disruption in their neighborhood but they feel that we've been handling it very well um and so that was encouraging you know I I know that if somebody was setting off a bomb across the street my house every day for a month I would be a little agitated but

9:33 these people seem to take it in stride and and are are happy with what we can do to make the uh inconvenience as little as possible so that's all I have Frank well Commissioners good evening um welcome to 2025 um really thank you for your service and thanks to the the re-upping of two Commissioners and welcomed him as a as a new commissioner look forward to to continuing to work with you and working with you in the future I just had a couple of things one of uh we did uh get back uh the the results of the run to stay warm uh which raised uh once again over $6,000 for our Customer Care Program 6,000 six or 6 it it cleared

10:20 6,000 um that's actually a significant it's about what it was the year before and it's a significant improvement over when we used to actually run the event which we might have cleared 6,000 but spent 25,000 so um it's actually a much better opportunity for us I wanted to thank the community and staff for their participation with that um the other one um was commissioner Carlson we do appreciate the feedback that that you took the time to to give us on our Communications we have implemented some of those already the the GM report that went out just today um included the uh new uh door hanger which talks a more about how customers can prepare which was a big part of the feedback not just that this event is is maybe occurring in

11:05 your neighborhood but here's some of the things that you can do and some of the resources that you can access so we've we've changed some of the other Communications as well but um um there's a copy of the the new and improved door hanger um based on your feedback so thank you for that that's it okay with that we'll move on to the next which is correspondence anybody have questions or input on the correspondence well if nobody else does I will um one of the things that we got in the correspondence is the water system Master Plan update um when I read that uh I was encouraged you know

11:50 obviously I think a a 10-year master plan is is important especially for that amount of infrastructure that we had the question that I had and I would hope could get a response in the in the upcoming months is what was on the 2015 master plan that we achieved or ones that we didn't achieve and the reasons why we felt it wasn't appropriate to achieve them I think a look back is always a good thing when you're getting ready to put a new plan in place and so I didn't dig in and and try and find in the archives where the old one was but maybe just a highlight of some of the major projects that we got in the 2015 one and the Milestones that we were able to achieve and and if

12:37 there were ones what what were the the problems or the reasons why we didn't achieve them and if there's a reason we should put them in the new one that's all that I have Frank yes commissioner Browski uh we do have an upcoming agenda item um which is a full update of the master planning process I believe that's scheduled for February um it's either February March I believe it's February uh where there'll be more of a complete um update um on this particular master plan this was really sort of a directional here's where we are here's where we're going with it um but um within the next month or so you'll get more information great and that would be great information to have in that not just this is our new one but let's look back and see how we did in the past because I know there

13:22 were some people in the room that were a part of that but I wasn't so commissioner Brown yeah I just like a side note that Karen Kelly is speaking at the City Club on Friday at the W Hall at noon anybody's available she's speaking about the water master plan and car also have a presentation mwmc but if I can shake it any be there listen to what's going on yep great I was going to mention that in the board Agenda Report later but I guess I don't thank you for saving us the time okay anybody else on correspondence yes son I just wanted to note that part of the reason that we um have this meeting is that if we want to change anything and how we uh review the general manager we want to make sure

14:08 that we set that up for next year so it's clear for this year how the general manager will be reviewed just as a you know C common courtesy to him and and or whoever is in that position on how that um evaluation would go so that's why we have this meeting I just wanted to kind of outline that because it's and I'll turn over to Frank yeah I think this particular uh correspondence item relates to um not just it's a little bit of background as to where we are in the process um there is the opportunity for the board to provide a dire additional Direction on my performance later in this meeting um this was uh an opportunity to provide the background for that as opposed to

14:53 the agenda item and uh we'll open it up for more discussion at that point right thank you anybody else all right moving on we are now into public input 605 we're a little early on this do we have anybody signed up all right so as of right now we don't have any signed up what I think I'll do is move on to the next agenda item and then at 6:05 we'll do a a time check and see if anybody has signed up virtually or has come in at that point and we'll we'll re uh relook at this agenda when we get closer to that so with that we're moving on to item number seven which is the approval of consent calendar

15:38 a I'll move to adopt consent calendar a second Indy seconds any discussion all in favor I opposed motion carries next item is approval of a consent calendar B move to adopt consent calendar B second second by commissioner Carlson any discussion all in favor say I all right we're whipping right through it maybe we'll be done by 605 okay next is the commissioner barovsky yes pardon the interruption

16:23 just just a note going forward it is um part of official protocol call now that whenever there is a vote relative to action that you identify that it's either unanimous or if there are votes in favor of or opposed to that you actually roster out who is a vot voted affirmatively or negatively okay thank you very much I will store that in my took the ethics class I know who took the ethics class and she said why you took it all right do we need to go back and do that or if you captured it our minutes Rec recorder will capture that in the minutes but if there were an instance where someone in

17:08 opposition we'd want to call that out all right sounds good next is elect V I'm sorry uh one quick point of order um are we just because we we just voted on um action items are we supposed to hold the public hearing before those action items are voted on there's no statutory requirement to do that calendar the consent calendar I mean if there were items that people wanted to do public hearing on they were opposed to anyway maybe just something to consider in the future when we have this if we're early on the um I certainly agree with commissioner Carlson that in standard practice that would be the the most appropriate thing to do um given that we're ahead of I

17:56 don't know that there's anything controversial I think as general practice ractice that would be what we would want to do just uh as a governing body um however there's no statutory requirement to do that okay well that could be difficult seeing how most of the items are action items so we would just be sitting for 15 minutes um but anyways that being said we want to hold off on doing the rest of the action items now the number 10 is election of officers I think I'm move slate um John Broski for president and Min word for vice president second any

18:51 discussion all right all those in favor say I I I unanimous opposed okay next is appointment of board liaison and committees and do we have this up on the screen of what our ones that we have now are Tim for you the these are standing boards and committees that we kind of have slotted in um there's nothing that says anybody is is wed to these so if there's something that you're interested in uh and want to be a part of please uh express it the rest of us the same thing goes for that

19:42 um screen no okay then we will go to maybe I can drop it in the chat for those of you who commissioner barowski would just like me to read those off one at time let's do it first one is Lane Council government governments presently the primary is Sony Carlson and John barovsky is the backup and I'd be happy to relinquish the backup of that if that's something that you might be interested in I haven't I haven't had to use it Sonia is very diligent in that position well isn't Sonia in kind of a hierarchy of the executive committee and she's worked her way up the ladder and I would very be very strong and supporting

20:29 Sony to continue that position if that's what she wants to do I would yeah I'm currently the chair so it would be good to continue forth if possible is that something you'd be interested in as a as the alternate yeah I'd be happy to serve as an alternate if if that's desired by yeah yeah gotta give you something we're not done oh no it's first of many okay go go ahead do we want to do them we'll do them individually or I do them individually okay so you want a motion on all of these I'll move to Sonia Carlson and as

21:14 elog primary and Tim Morris's backup three web Representatives all right second all in favor I unanimous okay next up next up is is McKenzie Watershed Council John barovsky is presently the primary serving in that role there is no designated commissioner as the alternate um generally there's a significant amount of staff involvement U with the Mackenzie Watershed Council as well yeah and that's one where we have a staff member who is on the McKenzie Watershed Alliance board so that's the actually governing board that oversees the Watershed Council so we're we are fairly represented I would love to continue on that if it's the will of

22:00 the of the commission board I'd move that John brosy be appointed to primary representative for eweb for McKenzie wated Council all in favor I unanimous next on the roster the McKenzie Watershed Alliance executive board there is no um eweb commissioner um designated in that role role uh which oversees the M McKenzie Watershed Council um don't know that there has historically been a board member in that role um either that's typically been a a staff role but if Commissioners did have an interest um we could explore that and

22:46 maybe I should explore that before we come back to it yeah and I can I can give a little like I said that one uh we have a staff member who is s who is in that position um and it's a little bit more it's a very small I think there's five people that oversee that and so it's like the executive committee for the wated council um and that's something that she's been doing a great job on and so I would just continue to let her be the the point person on that rather than than have a commissioner fill that spot no reason to vote on that no reason to vote on that one next on the Ross is the U other post employment benefits

23:33 o OPB um representative currently it's John Brown there's no designated alternate uh this is a non-voting position uh that overseas and and guides part of the trust um for um a benefit that is really just no longer uh in existence um it's for past employees um but the board has representation on that it's currently served by John Brown can I speak to that not that I I kind of value the time that I donate and you're non- voting member so basically every quarter you sit there and listen and that's all you do um and you know I don't mind doing it and everything but I just want to know what value if any do does a board member

24:19 bring to the table by using that time is there another committee or or thing I somebody could do that would be better served is there a requirement to a board member be there follow we can call I follow up on that I'll sit there and but you got to realize I don't get to vote and I listen and that's all I do and I could do do it at home or whatever but I'm just saying it's not that I don't like you know I don't have to have the microphone it's just that what is there a better place somebody could put their volunteer time if it's not a requirement yeah yeah commissioner Brown I think it's uh if it's required by the charter then obviously the we would want

25:05 either your continuance on that or another board member the primary role I think has been historically around guidance if there were significant changes in the contributions from eweb into the trust um to have at least a board perspective on what the impact and what the board's perspective might be not that you would be be voting or representing um a vote in this body uh but it would give um staff and the other managers of that trust the opportunity to gauge what the board would feel like if there was a significant contribution that needed to be made from the eweb funds and so I think that's been historically the the role it's been pretty benign in the last number of years because it's well funded and the Investments have have garnered good returns um but we can um maybe postpone

25:52 a vote on this relative to checking the charter if can I make a suggestion I would be more than glad to step up again and do it and you can point me to that position but if there's a point that you know it's it's easier to say stay home I can do that but you know because I mean this year's contribution is less $200,000 on a $20 million deal and we're going to run it right through the budget and that's it and so I'm willing more than willing to do that yeah if if there is no requirement uh for uh a commissioner to be on that board um we can commit as staff to bring the results of those Investments back to the back to this board on a quarterly basis which should be what part of what your role would be or not on a quarterly basis semi semiannually I believe um and so we

26:39 could act in that capacity if if possible yeah yeah thank you um so if there is no constitutional reason for a board member to be represented would it make sense to instead um if a board member or a board perspective is needed to then put it on the agenda for us to vote on to appoint someone at that time so rather than do it today if we need if we know that significant changes are coming do it the month before given I may um given the fact that you look at the future agendas they're pretty SC stough and jam this up on the schedule just go ahead and point me down and then I I can quit you know or do do something we'll figure this out I just wanted to we can fire him yeah yeah I can I've

27:24 been fired for a lot of jobs I'm okay with that um I just wanted to offer that it might actually just be helpful to have somebody there's sort of a watchdog of sorts I mean maybe things don't happen in part because they're you know it's being watched not entirely I mean I'm sure there are poly competent people there but I think it's just helpful to have somebody at the table and I appreciate if he's willing to do it to sit there and you know hold people accountable that's all I do want to say that we value your contribution and we appreciate the time that you give to that and I will follow up as to whether or not it says may or is required in the charter I don't want to

28:09 commit until it again May or shall procedurally I would suggest we go ahead and and if you really want John Brown to do it that the board and I I would uh I would offer up to be the alternate because I'm my uh numbers Guru and so if if you want to miss a meeting you can call me and I'll sit in and do it as well because it does have a position for an alternate that's fine yeah move John Brown as the primary and John barowski as the alternate all right any discussion all in favor say I I

28:56 unanimous right next looks like City of Eugene oh no wait sorry Springfield Utility Board right now that was uh one of Matt's things and so I don't know much about that position Frank can you share with us or John Brown and you sat with that one before I'm on lane electric so it's similar you just kind of liais on and Lane electric has their meetings in Florence and Oak Ridge and Cottage Grove and sometimes it's hard to chase until they're here and their meetings are eight hours long and so um yeah and so uh I've only been to a couple but not for eight hours but sub is just s very similar to us and it's it just kind of lias on just a communication type of

29:41 thing there's no no requirement of any attendance or anything it's just a it's just a communication thing to say we're here if you want us right yeah I would also add that the Liaisons uh with a number of the other government agencies as well as the other utilities U provide staff also a means for governance and Commissioners uh to to speak with each other if for some reason we need something um you know there's an opportunity for a commissioner to speak to a commissioner or a director in in some of these cases and it opens up the possibilities for that um right now fortunately uh we have very good working relationships at the staff and management level with many of these

30:26 organizations but uh many of these liaison positions are uh to ensure that continues at at different levels and so um that's part of the role in this case is just develop a dialogue and and and have that relationship okay so I would look for somebody to volunteer for this position all right I I stand Lane but I'm not going to go to Florence for an eight hour meeting love to say that right now but they do have meetings here so I'll look for a motion schosberg as the for Springfield Utility Board second all in favor I

31:12 unanimous all right next is Lane electrical clup and move John Brown the designated commissioner uh for Lane Electric Cooperative okay anybody there is an opportunity for a alternate if anybody's interested but I'll in favor all right City of Eugene yeah okay so that would be myself and Mindy are we meet quarterly with the city or we try to meet orderly with the city let's put it that way city of

31:57 spring field as of right now we have Mindy and John Brown as the alternate yeah I mean we we had one meeting Bas there's not a lot of work to be done there at this point so I'm happy to keep it unless somebody's really itching to work with the City of Springfield I'm i' stay there too I think the liaison because of the land use issues in Glenwood with Second Source water and all that still need to be we still have have that communication level and that you know Hy John type of thing communication so I'd be more than glad to stay there and I think it's important that we keep that tie until at least what we get through gunwood are you saying you want that

32:42 sufficient I i' take it I know the mayor and several of the counselors quite well and City so I'm happy to I mean if yep I'm happy to pass that on to you we'll do some trading later thank you yes Frank yeah president barasi I would know note exactly what commissioner Brown mentioned uh regarding U working together on the uh wamit treatment plan I would also note that they have a new city councelor who covers Glennwood which is an opportunity to introduce eweb in our project um to another member of council um in Springfield right this one does have an alternate possibility

33:31 I'm also willing to offer as well I think I'm only I've only been assigned one committee so I'm Happ to to step up as well well I'm willing to move John Brown uh as the primary and Tim Morris as the alternate for the City of Springfield okay all in favor say I I I unanimous okay that does it that puts us at 605 anybody sign up no or call in okay public input is we got by our got I would like to open the public hearing or it's not a public hearing it's public comments so I don't know if it's statutorily but I'll open it and

34:18 seeing nobody I will close it okay next on the agenda we're moving right through things is the proposed 2025 strategic goals and organizational performance measures president barovsky Commissioners good evening I really appreciate uh again welcome to 2025 um wanted to uh present you this evening with uh what we see u based on your feedback from last month and through some of our individual check-ins what our organizational annual goals uh will

35:03 look like um or being proposed as for 2025 just a couple of of pieces of background and context um this is part of a normal process um it's one that is required by board policy um it's important that uh under a model like we have where there's a significant amount of delegated authority that the objectives of the board through the general manager into the organization are well understood and that's captured in board policy bl4 along with that uh again this is part of a process that uh we adjust and we work on throughout the year there's a number of different pieces that uh weigh

35:50 into what ultimately become the annualized goals for the organization everything from strategic plans to operational and quarterly uh pieces of feedback that you provide uh we go through a budgetary and prioritizing process uh we look for uh themes which we presented last month areas of opportunity as we see them either based on performance or where we are strategically uh in our in our progress on the Strategic plan and therefore bring back uh this month uh for this meeting uh some proposed specific Lang language uh that we think captures the the intent of the the annual goals as as we want to make as we want to progress

36:35 through I will also note that part of uh establishing the annual goals is also uh it establishes the information that we will be reporting back to the board and working with the board on throughout the year and uh developing metrics around um throughout uh the process to gauge our our progress overall really three business priorities uh are captured in the goals uh the first one has very much to do with the 247 365 uh operational requirements that we have uh what it means to be effective and efficient as we work throughout the year uh that's captured in um a couple of goals that tend to be a little bit more operational we then have some strategic uh interests

37:23 um and priorities one and these came out of the Strategic plan one is uh aligned with energy delivery recognizing that there's significant Dynamics occurring uh across the world internal and external to our our our industry and working with customers to create value over the long term and then both from a water perspective as well as an electric perspective improved resiliency uh and it captures and and the board worked uh with staff and created a resiliency policy uh with were're leveraging over the next few years specifically without getting into the language of and I'll get into the the language of the stated goals um this

38:09 is really intended to capture U the fact that there's going there we've identified seven organizational goals for 2025 uh they will each have very specific Milestones U that we will also develop as part of this process uh some of those um are aligned again with with operational requirements and the intent of this particular slide is just to show that um some goals are aligned with several different um drivers including some of them strategic resiliency for example some are very much driven by newly developed policy uh that the board um has has put forth um particularly

38:55 around resiliency the diversity equity and inclusion um and climate and some of those um areas of interest from a community perspective but the intent here is really to show that um of these goals almost all of them have multiple benefits and multiple uh points where they align either with our operational Improvement goals or um with our strategic goals I won't read these uh verbatim uh they were provided uh in the background there were seven uh goals typically uh what we've done is to State the the action upfront maintain or improve a certain objective uh followed by some

39:42 conditional phrases related to either why that particular goal exists um either you know kind of tying it back to the various drivers or in some cases creating conditions around that particular action item or the thing that would be driven the actions that would be driven by that goal um again there's seven the first one definitely relates to operational efficiency U part of this is to be very intentional and to really improve I'll say improve our our benchmarking and our kpis as part of this including reporting back to the board specifically on type two and type three projects these are larger strategic projects um including scope

40:30 schedule and budget uh we're looking at how we want to Define particularly the type two projects um what constitutes a type two project is presently defined in a um in a board policy we're evaluating whether that whether we would recommend a change to that or not um the other piece of this is to also look at where we want to apply uh continuous Improvement and uh I think it's important important to be able to establish the measurements as part of that um the second goal relates to resiliency specifically there's two things associated with that one is um secession planning which I know the Commissioners brought up last month recognizing that we have certain leadership and vulnerable positions

41:16 throughout the organization uh really looking at intentionally working on bench strength in certain areas and doing that also in a way that's that's consistent and evolving through our Dynamic Workforce model and and that's in particularly setting the environment of which we operate um it's not specific to hybrid work or telea work but is very intentionally driven recognizing that different parts of our organization have different needs and to create a resilient Workforce we need to make sure that we're managing driving motivating working together well across the organization um and the dynamic Workforce model model captures that um but it needs some continuous Improvement continuous

42:01 refinement the third one uh is very much to do with the work that the board is is familiar with around making a decision related to the bond of will power Administration contract and potentially other uh resource contracts um as they evolve over the next year or two uh specifically aligned with some other conditional requirements such as looking at it aligns with the flexibility associated with future business models demand our demand side potential assessment and what that means that's results that are coming shortly and some of our other uh modeling and Analysis and customer programs that will be evolving there as well the last set of goals on the on

42:48 this particular slide um again some of these align with different aspects of things that the board has presented are important uh we do see an opportunity to improve the impact and reach of our Customer Care Program um that has very much to do with inclusive and Equity uh that we think there's an opportunity to do um and also look at the implementation of a prepay program um before the end of the third quarter end of the third quarter was picked um specifically because we want to know where that program and launch that program before we get into the budgeting for next year and the rate the rate impacts for next year um prepay has some

43:33 some definite U benefits to those with limited cash um in particular those um with limited incomes and limited cash and being able to prepay and not have EB require a larger deposit um is significantly important to those um members of our community um the other um part of that goal on the customer care recognizes that right now it's a fairly blunt instrument I would describe where there's a one-time um credit issued uh to people if you couple that with prepay and potentially could um I'll say preload the credit card uh for some people at different levels over time it really

44:20 becomes more aligned with the customer need as opposed to oh this is sort of one- siiz fits-all which is how feels a moment so we see there's some improvement there continuing with rate design on goal number five is to recognize that we need to prepare for certain things this this may or may not be implemented um at the end of of 20125 but recognizing that we have uh some areas where there may be some opportunities to explore some different elements of rate design residential demand charges which start to get recognize that there are certain times when um it's more expensive certain times that are electricity is is um more

45:06 carbon intense um and really managing Peaks which we believe is one of the important criterias as we look forward and recognizing and an analyzing the impact of that from a rate design perspective is part of that preparation um again this is a preparatory goal uh with a lot of different data pieces to do it and not necessarily coming to the board and saying we want to do this um starting at the end of 2025 or the beginning of 2026 but we think we need to have the conversation around what that's going to look like rate design is interesting to talk about uh right up to the point when you actually have to implement it and it impacts cut

45:52 all 50,000 different accounts that we have and so this is a way to facilitate some of those discussions the the other uh part of the um as you know we recently launched a new customer system in a new Financial system and we do plan to um operationalize that further and and take a significant a part of 2025 continuing to improve that particular those particular modules or systems uh we also want to take 2025 to prepare for the Asset Management uh and uh Field Services management portions of the new system which we plan to um work on in 2026 and

46:39 2027 U for those I know one at least one commissioner was around when we did the last work and asset management plan also known as Wham um one of the lessons learned from that was uh it's not about the system it's about how you're managing your assets and how you're managing your work and how you're preparing your processes that's going to make that project successful and um um just changing a system without this preparation uh will will not prove to be as effective as it would uh which we saw with our customer systems and our financial systems a sign significant amount of work went into documenting the different over 100 processes um from start to finish um everything from move in to move out processes to build

47:25 collection processes to to um registering and and just a number of different things and so we have to do the same when we're looking to convert our asset management systems um we do manage almost $ 1.4 billion dollar worth of assets and so um this is an important part of how we manage that process and that work finally goal number seven um is a result of the fact that there's several board policies out there um including an environmental policy and a climate change policy uh we also know there's some external uh changes occurring in how that accounting is done how carbon accounting for example is done uh we also know that some of the original

48:10 goals that we had that we presented to the board um that were originating I believe in in 2008 2009 based on 2010 based base level or benchmarks um had specific goals for 2025 of which we've been on target U but very little between 2025 and 2050 and so we think there's an opportunity to actually figure out what and not wait till till 2050 to figure out um how these particular policies uh integrate with the work that we're doing and so this is a combination of both external changes uh policies that we think we need to align with and work that we need to

48:55 integrate with the other things that we're doing so that was an area that we we saw that was was important to us um with that um president barovsky um these are proposed um so there's a couple of different options that the board has anywhere from adopting these um as proposed to adopting with amendments or sending us back to the drawing board to start over um all those are acceptable options options um we hope that uh you consider these to be well thought out at this point um but at this time I would turn it back to you and if you want me to just post these goals I can do that rather than the I

49:40 can go back to one of these if if you'd prefer um but would like to get um hopefully the the board's approval of these annual goals um or have any dialogue or guidance that's necessary great thank you uh Sonia uh generally I'm very supportive of the goals that are outlined uh the one thing that sticks out to me is that I've now been here eight years and one of the things that I cared very much about and I know the board has mentioned a number of times is uh how do we tackle helping uh with the disconnect between renters and owners and efficiency improvements and it struck me that maybe having it as a outline

50:27 goal would sh shine some more light on that so I just wanted to share that thought with the other Commissioners and see if there were any thoughts um there seeing a couple of head knots Andy um I agree with you Sonia um I realize that it's a difficult problem to to tackle and it's not necessarily all of our on us but I do feel like it is something that we talk about a lot as a board um but we haven't really seen any movement in that and I'm guessing like if the board were all to write what our goals were for the the organization that would probably be one that we all well most of us came up with so I'm supportive of

51:12 that John yeah I agree wholeheartedly with both of what you've said and and somehow if that's the consensus of the board I'd like to see it interjected into this because that was one of the things I was going to bring up later about not just looking at June schedule everything there is recurring and we're a half hour over schedule how do we you know how do we get our ideas to the table and get them implemented if we can't if we can't do it here when does it happen and how does it happen so I'm in 100% agreement with you because that thing about the mentors and how we're going to tackle that you know talked about this one SMUD came give a presentation else I ready to do something Tim thank you chair yeah I just want to share my uh extreme support behind that

51:58 as well and I think I just wanted to highlight I think the last month or last year in November during the conversation of who eweb is it was brought up multiple times of of reaching out to lower income and renter communities and so I just want to lend my support of that as well I think it falls in line with the Strategic plan I think it falls in line with with many of the the mission and vision of of eweb and I think it's a good goal for 2025 forward um our weigh in I I I think there's pretty much a consensus around around the table that that's something that we want to look into I think that we might be able to fit it into some of the goals that are up there I think if you look at number four customer care

52:44 and number seven climate it can kind of duvail into some of those I think um you know if we put an emphasis in in in those two and said that that's something that we're looking for you know custom customer care and the and the incentives is one thing that you know we we're doing a good job and we're working on doing a better job on to me the the I think it's going to come down to we're going to need to incentivize the landlords to do this because we can't put just keep throwing the money at at the people who are paying our bills if we really want to get to the root of the problem it's going to be getting the landlords to have more

53:30 efficient systems and weatherization and those types of things which benefits the renter because their bills will be going down and that's to me that's the hardest part because the incentive isn't there right now for a landlord right now the landlord isn't paying in most cases isn't paying the utility bills so it's it's tough because you you look at it and you go well you can't be giving incentives to these rich developers and landlords who are are are profiting off of these people that can't pay their bills but yet if we don't incentivize them somehow it's never going to happen and so that's to me that's the quandry that we have going forward um how to fit that into our

54:16 strategic plans I think like I said I think if we beefed up a couple of those and inserted that into to number four and number seven because if we if we increase in efficiencies that's going to help our climate goals if we improve uh you know lower the bills that kind of helps in in customer care I I don't know if we need to do a separate bullet I think that everybody around this board feels that that's appropriate um the rest of these I think are well thought out and and taken care of so um that's kind of where I land on this um some of these are not going to be done in 2025 but they're getting a start in 2025

55:03 and I think that's where I would like to see this type of an in MO for Sonia then Tim uh I just I'm not opposed necessarily to incorporating it in one of the other my only um my only caveat I guess there is that it's how it gets I was taught what get what gets measured or what gets managed gets measured and so if you are measuring how well we're doing in that it it's really about how these translate into those measurements and and so if it's couched in with one of the other one are we measuring it in the same way I guess is my my question so as long as the outcome is that we are measuring it and we're tracking it quarterly and

55:50 we're you know putting intentional uh thought behind it whatever that looks like and what we side um as a board then I'm I'm fine with it being combined in um but if it if it needs to be its own bullet to get measured then I guess that's where I would come in we gonna go to commissioner Morris then I'll come to you Frank yeah thank you chair yeah I I don't know if I necessarily agree with including it couched into some of these other goals I think that more than half of the City of Eugene rents their home and therefore it's important for us to be able to include it as a separate bullet point I think also the customer care program um correct me if I'm wrong is geared towards lower income folks and um I don't disagree at all that the uh

56:36 working towards landlords to update and upgrade their systems is supports the environmental impact but I think that this board has talked consistently about reaching out and communicating with the renter community and and connecting with them and I don't think that that's outlined exclusively and specifically in these goals so I I would support um pulling out and highlighting specifically Outreach to to the renter Community right did you want to go first commission go ahead so just a couple pieces of of context um I wouldn't necessarily propose if if the board wants to pursue something related to um Energy Efficiency or Outreach to uh the

57:22 rental Community rental in combination potentially with limited income those those can be two distinct groups um I wouldn't necessarily think it would be better to weave those into what what we have um I do agree with commissioner Carlson oftentimes you you man you manage what you measure I'm not but one one of those um so I would I would um probably looked for some kind of distinct goal around it or an incorporation into goal number one potentially if we're looking to Benchmark and identify key performance measures that we want the organization to pursue um the other piece of context

58:07 I want to make sure that we're pretty clear on um if you're looking to Energy Efficiency especially subsidized Energy Efficiency which is what what we're talking about here that really isn't a cost-saving measure those come with costs and if you're looking which definitely impact rates and so um if the board wants a goal around increasing and to your point um president baravi actually paying a landlord to do things that they might not nor normally do um it is someone else paying that bill for them and so that comes at a rate cost so there is a tradeoff here between um what we're looking to to do for one group

58:53 versus another group and I just want to make sure that that's clear the other thing is that I'm not sure we fully understand um or the board fully understands exactly where we are as a starting point we do have the demand side potential assessment study that we're doing um those results are coming quickly um um here very shortly I'm Brian um which will give us an assessment of what this looks like in our community we have done energ efficiency at over 60,000 individual residences over the last several decades I'm not sure it's fair to say that we haven't done a lot with rentals um I'm

59:38 not sure that that's a fair thing to say until we actually look at what this data uh is telling us and so U and most newer buildings in Eugene a lot of those are multifam they're new construction standards they're they're much different than um the individual um like my parents house the 1953 single pane window um baseboard heat kind of um of house so I think if we want to do a goal like that we're not necessarily opposed to it I think we would want to understand the basis of which we're starting from um and recognizing if there is a a opportunity here that the board wants to invest in and I'll say invest in um then that should be based on u a nice solid

1:00:23 understanding of where we're starting from John sorry um yeah this defies basic business logic I mean to to spend money to sell less of the product and raise rates to do it but I got to remind remind myself that we're a public agency and we're here to serve the public and this is theirs I mean if it made economic sense the landlords would do it and so I think Tim your point about reaching out to the tenants is important but it's more important to reach out to the landlords because the tenants can't do that do any of this without the landlord's consent you can't just go dump windows in an apartment or a duck his heat pump or anything else you got the landlord has to have Buy in on this and so we have to I I think to get them

1:01:08 there to do that but also you're absolutely right um it'll never get done landlords will do it if it makes economic sense it doesn't and so we're going to have to do it and if we have to raise rates so be it I mean you know some areas have better service than others in this community and it's not because we do that on purpose but 50% of our rental pool and the people that are most vulnerable need this and uh this is a commodity they don't have a choice on so I'm raise rates to you know whatever it is we got to do it and so I'm all for so and commissioner Brown there there are mechanisms by with a by which a tenant can work you know bring things to a landlord including income

1:01:53 qualification that we facilitated but but you're right there are certain things that the landlord must approve at some point oh yeah you're not going to put something in the window or even change an electrical boxes change a Cadet heater to anything you've got to have their Buy in so I think it's important we communicate that all of them and get them on bu on um so if we if we put it in the first measure then it gets or in the first metric then it gets measured in a specific way in kpis or are you saying it it wouldn't if it's in the other ones can you speak to that quick well I yes I can there there's a couple ways if you want to Garner the attention of measurement that that you referred to um

1:02:39 one of them would be that in goal number one we typically say we want to perform we want to operate really well and then we'll um as an add-on to that have an emphasis in certain areas where we see opportunities those areas in this case might be um um an assessment and Outreach of the opportunities for the rental um rental programs okay um that because it would be stated that way in goal one we would develop specific metrics um that would guide that U particular achievement of that of that goal and so it would probably be a fair assessment to direct staff in this case to add a clause to goal number one that would highlight the board's interest

1:03:26 in um further penetrating the rental market in with our programs or something to that effect yeah I mean I personally would like to see I'm glad that we're doing the benchmarking study I think it's something that we've been asking for for a while so that absolutely has to happen and then from that we can say okay here's the current state where do we go from here and you know that has been challenging for many years to get so I'm thankful that that's moving forward um I want it to be measured so if we have to put it in one to get that I'm okay with that um otherwise I'm strong supporter of having it be its own separate thing because it's something that we've struggled with for a long time and I would really like it to get that intentionality um I also want to say

1:04:12 that I don't think it's only that we have to pay money into it I think that we could I mean yes it is a a staff devotion but we could go after grants to support getting money to to do that we could also work with our partners and go after legislation that could potentially tackle that in a different way the city is considering um opportunities for how they tackle it so how do we partner with them I think there's other ways besides just throwing money at it that we might be able to get some traction and I just want again to explore those opportunities see what other groups do um to get that so I I would um support sending this back to staff to put some

1:04:59 language together in some form or fashion to accomplish what we've said and unless others want to vote on it this evening but that's my suggestion Indy um I I feel like I'm in favor of it being its own goal and I realize when you look at the goals I mean some of these goals are huge like the the BPA one and maybe maybe to leadership or management this seems much smaller but I do think that it is of such importance to this board that it does warrant some attention and um I also supportive of in the future like the way to address it is maybe to have a work session or something where we could just delve into that topic and

1:05:44 again I realize for the leadership it might not rise to the same level as some of the other goals that are here but for us as board members and what our roles are I do think that it's it's important to all of us Tim thank you chair yeah um thank you commissioner Carlson for saying nearly everything I was about to say so I appreciate that um I wanted to highlight as well that I don't think that it's just a throw money at problem situation but it uh what I've been highlighting is communication and connection with the tenant Community I think that um the landlord during these processes gives a thumbs up but the tenant is the one that opens the door and lets them in um especially to their homes as well um and to your point of there's grants that are

1:06:29 available to help support some of these efforts there's also local organizations and local communities that are working with with both land landlords and tenants to help update their homes or help um redefine what utility bills look like to them um and I think it overall supports our mission as well because it it increases efficiency it lowers the drain on many of these homes that were built in the 70s and are just wildly inefficient so um I I think overall it makes sense to have it separated out and uh I I would agree to to send it back for for additional language so the question that I would have to to staff would be could we move forward with these five

1:07:16 and you bring back another one and we amend it at at a further date or do you want to hold off on all of these if the board is comfortable with with uh the the goals as presented I would want to move forward with those goals um if the board would like um an additional one uh related to um I'll say the effectiveness of um our approach into the the rental market which again I think we have to establish the jump off point as part of that um I would propose that we bring something back at a future meeting for that

1:08:05 February approve these bring one with the direction to bring one back seven wasn't enough we've got to go for eight here so we'll go for eight and um I think it is a separate goal um that that way the board can definitely put its stamp on it as well and uh we would approve these tonight with the instructions to bring back an additional relative to this subject in February yeah and and I would I would be in favor of that because I don't want to just I'm I'm not a fan of legislating on the Fly um I I like to have especially when we're doing year year-long goals have staff be able to formulate something that we can look at and and dig into so I'm I'm comfortable with that direction I moved to approve the seven

1:08:51 and direct staff to bring back the eighth around rental uh disconnect owner rental owner disconnect and efficiencies second any other discussion all right all in favor say I I unanimous okay it is 6:40 we're scheduled for a break but we only have a couple more items on the agenda do you guys want to just push through all right let's say push through I do too have a record here we'll be out by 7 o'clock and I'll be president for life um general manager performance

1:09:36 evaluation criteria so Commissioners this is really the opportunity right after we established almost all of the organizational goals for the year uh Sans hopefully just one additional one um if the this this is an opportunity for the board to provide any other sort of direction or expectation setting of the general manager uh at this point during the year um I I can tell you that um for for me our process presently works pretty well um in particular when we get together as part of my review process for the previous year in March um we do use the annual goals as and

1:10:23 including a number of oper AAL metrics safety metrics other things aligned with our values um as part of that performance that uh weighs heavily on me but if there was um anything else that the board wanted to consider um going forward then um this would be the opportunity to establish that expectation right um so for those of PE people watching there was a an informational part in our our p that goes through what the actual criterias and procedures for evaluating the general manager at this point I would ask Commissioners if there's any questions or changes or amendments that

1:11:10 you guys would like to talk about so I guess I would just note that um so last year we outlined the process for how we would evaluate you this here right so that's that's what's outlined in here so part of what we are we talking about tonight what we would do next year or is it only if we wanted to make any changes midterm to that because I I I don't advocate for making changes mid year for how we set up and how we said we would evaluate you I just don't think that that's personally fair to general manager but I just wanted to check in on what the expectation is here

1:11:55 I think is generally at at at this point um the process that was outlined yet last year we actually for the most part implemented last year um there is a a part of that process that um if there's criteria that that um or expectations that they want the general manager to to work on in the year upcoming so that would be in this case 2025 that the best opport Unity to do that would be to identify that at the beginning of the year so we're at the we're at the beginning of the year so this is really if there's any additional criteria uh other than that's outlined either in the many resol active

1:12:40 resolutions board policies values strategic plans budgets um or annual goals that uh you wanted to evaluate me on then this is a good opportunity to identify that otherwise I just wanted to note that um you know in the past we've talked about you know if we wanted to do a 360 degree review or if there were other types of review processes I don't personally think that that's necessary right now but um this was the time I think that we had a lot at if that was an interest and and I would know one change that I had done personally that we codified last year was that um whoever is in charge of of our Workforce

1:13:26 Services or our human resources department does do an internal survey of direct reports of me relative to certain subjects that we want to evaluate and and um we did Implement that last year and presented the results and so that was something that kind of Incorporated a little bit of the 360 review process of which I kind of go through with my staff as anyway but um it was another opportunity to do that there comments or questions IND the um I guess is there anything that you would like to be done differently or

1:14:13 added no I I I think that again I mentioned it earlier this is a an interesting governance model um a little bit different than some of the other Public Utilities um there's a pretty significant amount of delegated authority uh I think that um I think it's incredibly important in this model the relationship that whoever the chief exe executive general manager is has with the board is incredibly important um collectively as a board but also as individual Commissioners um in this model in particular I think that's very important and I feel like we're in a good spot with that um

1:14:58 so I wouldn't um I I also to commissioner Carlson's comment about changing Midstream I think there are times when um as a group we may look at something and go we're going down a path that doesn't make sense and we need to course correct and I think we have to be willing to do that as well and and um you have to feel comfortable that uh a general manager is willing to take a step back once in a while and go are we really going the right direction here or do we need to change and so as much as we really lean into the goals and some of the policies for guidance if there's ever a situation I feel like I need to bring to the board to course correct on I feel comfortable doing that um if that

1:15:43 wasn't the case I I might feel a little bit differently about you know getting one shot at this a year and I don't think we have one shot we have at least 25 that I can think of um well actually more than that I just 60 um different opportunities okay any other questions um only comment I would make is I I think we kind of chewed this over pretty heavily last year um you know it's always one of the more uncomfortable situations that we have as a board because we have to do part of it in executive session and part of it in public and so that makes it a little Boogie would be the term that I would use um but as far as the process I think

1:16:30 it's good the other thing to consider is that this is a process that I I look at not evaluating Frank I look at it as evaluating the position because we don't know who's going to be in the position going forward so for right now the the metrics and the things that we have in there I think would would be a good template for whoever is sitting in that chair um and that's what I I look for when on this type of a policy not personally how is Frank doing on this one and can I tailor it to him it's the position not the not the person so that's where I'm at and I'm comfortable with

1:17:18 it right any other talks on that okay then that looks to future board agendas I should have this memorized I don't have it quite quite memorized I will make one course correction um president barovsky I did um the um water master plan is actually going to be in in it's been pushed from from February to June okay I don't know if that's still an acceptable time frame it's the next checkin point for that one absolutely that's fine that's just something when we when you do it if you could get bring some of that information that I asked for that would be more than adequate yep we certainly can um the other intent will be I would like to sit down with

1:18:04 the the um president and vice president now that we have the goals established and take another look um very specifically at the board Agenda Report some of these goals should require more check-ins than others and we can map out the year to make it the most productive we can for the board recognizing that there's some recurring events that we could either push to correspondence or keep you know we'll have those discussions um but I will schedule some time with the president vice president to to walk through that excellent anybody else have any questions about future board agendas yes so um May and June 100% of the agenda items are recurring and so and in June

1:18:50 we're 30 minutes over already we've got a meeting a four and a half hour meeting which I don't think makes everybody here happy is there a way you can a look to smooth that out because we have meetings blanketing both sides that have a 100 minutes left and just kind of move something around so we don't have those four and a half hour meetings yes answer it directly yes um there's there's also a couple of other issues going on with June I know of at least one commissioner that that won't be present in June um I will probably miss my first board meeting ever in June um because my wife and I are going on a vacation um I would say the first one ever but that's not quite that part's not quite true um but um we we will certainly do

1:19:36 that commissioner that's that's the intent is to balance this out look at the how the goals relate to that and fit in with that agenda and um try to keep the meetings as as productive and balanced as we can yeah because I was like to say like in June if something came up we don't have any room on on the agenda to where we get it's all just recurring same thing with may there's like 30 minutes I just think that if someday we want to put something in there or have a discussion it's just out there and if we can see that in the future we could kind of work towards that would be appreciated by me yeah the the intent is to do that the other intent is that um I think we have a couple of placeholders for potential work sessions if there's an emerging

1:20:22 issue or something that we want to take a little deeper dive on we can um again the goal for me now that we've established the goals for the year is to work with the president and the vice president to um lay out the year in a little more of a detailed way great Mindy um in our smoothing process I see that next month we still have a light meeting and it's my birthday so um I'm just in favor of keeping that meeting light but obviously we're going to we're going to do what we have to do um but I have a qu I have a question about the work session do we think that we are having a work session in February I'm not sure I mean we I have

1:21:07 to sit down now and look at the goals I'm not sure Tim any other birthdays yeah we'll get to it's April we're good um I I'm thank you commissioner uh I'm looking to you to asked this question is it is this an appropriate time to bring up a potentially missing um topic on future board agendas or to try to schedule or put something on the calendar for a future board yeah okay I appreciate that I um in my onboarding um and learning about um everything that this uh eweb does one thing that I noticed is in March of 23

1:21:53 the board discussed a reoccurring living document of the Dei policies and I um have been also reviewing what annually this board is going to be reviewing and I don't see uh what the the Dei policy review or what the implementation of that looks like so I don't have a specific month to advocate for or anything along those lines but to just include um since its passage in October what uh what Quantified metrics have have happened I think also where um two major changes have happened with including the retirement of of Rod price and he led the charge on that and so I think it'd be important to to re-review that and and make sure that there's no

1:22:39 missing pieces during that show thank you okay and we can talk about that when when we the three of us meet figure if there's a appropriate time or if that's a correspondence issue or something like that that we can put forward yes president barowski I do know that there is internal work going on around uh execution of the Dei policy and where it where it fits um how we're incorporating that um into our work as part of standard um process um the one clarification that I would like to get before we get together on the agenda is and then I'll just ask commissioner Morris are you specifically referring to

1:23:24 to the board's work around Dei or staff's work around Dei those are those are separate issues yeah I appreciate that I am curious about the the metrics from the staff's perspective I've saw I've uh seen the passage and some of the implementation of the goals of of the passage of the Dei and I'm I'm curious if those have been accomplished or um if there's any missing pieces uh from there and if there's any um input from the board of directors that you might need from that okay um for me September 2nd is 25th anniversary and I will be getting on a big old boat to grow across

1:24:11 the Atlantic Ocean on that day so last year I W in September I was remoting in from Italy this time I don't think I can remote it so I'll probably be missing that one just adds up to you Mindy um um and then Tim just for for your information um and this is something that that I learned from commissioner Brown is if at any time a commissioner wants to add something to the agenda basically you put it out there and if you can get three head knots then it it can move forward to the agenda I think that's pretty much the process that it goes forward with so um I think that's where it's at just kind of giving you an update on on actually adding an item to an agenda is is the way that we usually move with

1:24:57 that and it hasn't been a problem in the past I don't think we've I can only think of one time where I didn't make the agenda in my fouryear tenure okay anybody else on future boards and agendas okay we will go around and do board wrapup we'll start with John Brown thank you um Tim good first meeting I love the timing um have to help Lane electric I don't know if you guys know this just raise it rates like 8% but they also raised a basic charge $41 to $49 a month just whether you consume one kilow or a million it's 50 bucks a month and that that's twice as much as ours and we may think about that just keep that food for thought and rate design because that's to me it's pretty smart move but it's not as popular as it

1:25:42 could be uh and uh and then the the comment that Sonia made earlier about not having consent calendar before public input consent calendars have um contracts and are we inviting the public to comment on our contracts by doing that I mean that in 20 years we've never done it consent calendar used to be absolutely at the end of the meetings when I first started this and then we and staff we didn't have this remote thing so staff had to sit there till 9:30 10 11 o'clock just in case somebody asked a question so we moved the consent calendars up but we've never at least I've never seen it where we waited for public input and I've never heard of any public input on any consent calendar item stands the tree trimming issue we had but that was post adoption of the of

1:26:28 the contract so I'm just thinking about the president we may establish if we put back and in and encourage or entice public comment on the consent calendar just thring that out to you and and maybe what we can do we'll talk about it maybe we put the Public Public comment earlier you know it's like put it as the second item then we don't have to worry about action items or something like that I think there's there's different ways to handle it we we have had at times people who were protesting Awards or things show up um for for comment um the con the consent usually will'll get comments around agenda based action

1:27:15 items you know upcoming actions that the board is is taking um there is a you know State statutory um procurement highly regulated procurement process that we go through for these contracts um so generally they've they've gone through a a pretty thorough process it's less important probably in that case although like like I said earlier I think it's probably good practice um but not essential in the sense that if there's some adjustment um like like tonight was a little bit of of an adjustment um but I think historically over the last couple years we we've had public input and then we've moved into the consent calendar

1:28:01 after that I still think that's appropriate I mean I know it doesn't happen often but there is another way to do it we just structure the agenda such that it comes up and we put the other time pieces earlier not not that we changed the order but we just say okay this is only 5 minutes this is only 5 minutes so then we're always a little bit after the actual time starts alternatively well and the the reason that I brought it up is that it seems somewhat analogous to the budget in in some ways if somebody has a protest against something that's a of monetary value we'd want people to be able to have their say on it it doesn't come up often I just wanted to make sure that you know we're consistent and we don't usually have that problem so I don't think it's something we necessarily need

1:28:47 to change every time it's just maybe if it comes up in the future we watch out for it that's all yeah thank you chair yeah I I would support um keeping it as uh uh keeping it a little bit later I think I this is my first time coming from the audience but I was able to see from that perspective and there tends to be some late comers and I think we're on Eugene time quite some quite a bit so um I think I hear what commissioner Carlson is saying and I do agree but I think also just keeping room for for those who who couldn't quite make it um and especially those who are public transportation um we've had a few people testify that they biked here so making sure that we're leaving time for that as well Bo wrapup Indy anything for

1:29:34 you any other wrap up for you uh for me no thank you for uh electing me president hopefully I'll be able to have all of our meetings End by seven o'clock that will be my goal for the next year and I'm sure that staff will uh help me out with that as much as they can we we can do that every month if you would like um president barovsky there you go no no time for comment rank you're up anything from you had one last comment yes so in in keeping in the spirit of everybody we talked about the length of the meetings and trying to figure out how we could shorten them we have a little red light that beeps up there when we're out of time and if we could just be cognizant of that a little bit more because I think policy or not

1:30:20 policy but protocol history has had it where we have 30 minutes on the agenda for an item staff gets 15 and we get 15 and sometimes that's not adhered to and so if we could just be aware of that because if staff takes 25 then we're automatically 20 minutes behind and uh because we all want at least three minutes whatever it is so to do the math if we could just be a little bit more conscious about that that would help us be a little bit more efficient with our time that put us after 7 o'clock so thank you very much all right with that we're Obed