Board of Public Utilities
Regular Session
March 19, 2025 ~ 5:30 p.m.

Los Alamos County
Council Chambers

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Yes, go ahead, please.

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Good evening. I will call to order March 19th, 2025 meeting of the Board of Public Utilities.

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Welcome everybody to another evening of fun and frolic. We have all of the voting members of the board here tonight, although Matt Huebner is on Zoom.

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Utility manager Philo Shelton is on Zoom. Juan Rael is sitting in for the county manager And he too is on Zoom.

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So we actually do have all of the seats occupied, just some of them are remote.

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First, I'd like to ask or open the floor to public comment.

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If there is any. Public comment in the chambers this is a good time on any item that is not otherwise on the agenda, I should say.

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Is there any public comment? And do you have any online?

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Thank you, Chair Gibson. If anybody online would like to make a public comment tonight, please use the raise hand function.

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When Chair Gibson calls for public comment and if you're participating by phone, you can press star nine to raise your hand.

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If anyone wishes to make public comment right now, please go ahead and raise your hand.

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No one has done so, Chair Gibson. Okay, thank you. That brings us to approval of the agenda.

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The only item that we have on the consent agenda is approval of minutes and i'm going to make a specific motion for that rather than the consent motion But we'll just do it at that point in time. It's nothing substantive.

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So I don't think we need to amend the agenda to do that.

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Is there… a motion to approve the agenda.

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I move that we approve the agenda as presented. Okay, second. Okay, moved and seconded. Any comment?

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If not, all in favor And you have to he's a thumbs up. Okay. Ah, I see him there now. There he is.

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What a nice background you have on there. Okay, motion passes five to zero. The agenda is approved.

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On to the consent agenda. As I said, there's only one item there.

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And I'm going to make the motion that's on page five of our agenda doc.

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With a little more specificity. I move that the Board of Public Utilities approve the minutes of its February 5 And February 19, 2025 meetings.

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Seconded. Any discussion? If not, Kathy, please call the roll.

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Member Heppner? Member Hollingsworth? Yes. Member Knockley? Yes. Member Stromberg? Yes. And Member Gibson? Yes. Thank you.

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Motion passes five to zero. Yeah.

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Clay, there is a seat up here with your name in front of it if you'd like.

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Yeah, and this one right here even got your name tag in front, so you know who you are.

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And Philo's online so You can fight over who's going to grab the microphone when it comes time. Just let me talk.

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Okay. That takes us to… a couple of public hearings.

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Excuse me, ordinance introductions The… Starting on page 18, I think it is, of our agenda doc.

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We don't do ordinances very often, so I'd like to review the procedure here and we have some extra wrinkles with one of these tonight Let me go through procedure first before we turn it over to Karen for the substantive presentation.

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We have two rate increase ordinances. Or rate ordinances i should say Tonight, they were both They were advertised for introduction.

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And an introduction of ordinance only requires one board member And any board member, any voting board member can introduce an ordinance And it does not need to be seconded. There's no vote taken. It's just an introduction.

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And usually that's all that happens on the introduction night. They just get introduced And then it goes to a public hearing, which for these is scheduled for the 16th of April, our next regular meeting.

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And that's where the substantive action normally takes place. There is one difference between us and council.

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In that the council cannot really make substantive changes in an ordinance, in a proposed ordinance at a public hearing.

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If they're going to make substantive changes, it has to get re-advertised and re-heard. We can if we wish.

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So we have a little more flexibility at the hearing. The first ordinance 02365 is on electric rates.

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And it really covers two or maybe three, depending on how you count.

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Topics. There's a general rate increase For all customers.

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And it also would implement a new rate structure for residential customers which would be time of use rates and demand charges.

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This was intended to be two separate ordinances. It would be introduced in parallel, heard in parallel, go to council and all the way through as far as they went anyway.

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In parallel. Last Friday morning, I understand the county attorney opined that We can't do that that we can't do two ordinances in parallel that amend the same sections of the county code.

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So staff scrambled and combined the two. To meet the publication deadline of Friday afternoon.

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As often happens when you do something really fast, there were some rough edges.

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So, uh. Staff in particular Karen and scrambled Monday and Tuesday.

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Even though they didn't access to their files on Monday because all the county files are on the cloud so But they still they got it done. They revised the ordinance that had been published.

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I think they did an excellent job of doing that iron out the rough edges At least most of them at least most of them also rather clever clever clever clever cleverly outlined for us in yellow the paragraphs that would implement the time of use and demand charges

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So if we choose to separate those out and not hear them at the same time, but hear them.

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And just go forward with a straight

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Clean rate increase ordinance that's really easy to do the way they've done it.

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Kudos to you for making our job simpler in that regard. We still have to make a decision but It's simpler to implement the way you've done it.

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The… So that's how that one wound up being a bit messy.

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We did have some significant discussion. We've had significant discussion on both parts of this for some time.

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And including the last work session two weeks ago and two of our members were absent So I would like to tonight to give them the opportunity to ask questions or make comments if they wish.

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On either of these proposed ordinances tonight. Even though normally we don't do a lot of discussion during

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Introductions. Also.

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Recital on the recital ordinance says that uh says that

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Do we lose the recitals in the… what was handed out?

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You may have. What was handed out left appears to have left out the recitals.

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I'm sorry. Disregard. You can see I'm trying to scramble here too and do things too quickly.

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It does say that it does say that Utilities manager, after receiving comments from the board.

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We'll present the final amendments and electric grade ordinance on April 16th.

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So we're going to open it for comment and question and discussion this evening.

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But so I would ask board members to hold off on introducing the ordinance until we complete discussion.

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But I don't want to go too far into the substantive issues that would be more appropriate for next month. Is everybody straight?

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Thoroughly confused. Okay.

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With that said. I will turn it over to Karen to give us the staff presentation.

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On proposed ordinance 02365 which relates to electric rate schedules, electric customer service charges, and electric energy charges.

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Karen? Thank you, Chair Gibson. Let's see. Assembly

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So as Chair Gibson said, with the introduction, we don't always have a presentation, although we did last time, I believe with GAS and with electric we did do a little bit of background I think since we had some new

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Board members. So I want to first do a introduction to the rate ordinances and then also just walk through kind of a little history about how we've gotten here.

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Wait one second to get the…

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There we go.

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Now on Zoom, we're seeing your whole screen, Kathy. Give us just one moment to… get zoom

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Just give us one moment.

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Okay. That's perfect. Thank you. If you can go to the next slide.

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Okay. As the chair said, tonight we are introducing the ordinances on April 16th is when there will be the hearing to consider the ordinances and vote on whether or not to forward them to council.

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Council will have an introduction on May 6th and then June 10th is when the ordinance hearing would happen at council.

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And then all of the rates The initial set of rates go into effect July 1st of 2025.

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And then I'll point out where there is a second rate that would go on July 1st or 2 Next slide. So just as a reminder, this is a slide we showed last time, but last time we had three ordinances. Now it's two. So the first one is 02365, which we're discussing right now, which is the electric rate.

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And that's 9% as of July 1st, 25%. And 8% as… July 1st, 2026. And then it also introduces the Time of use and residential demand rate design, as well as a rate that would be effective beginning July 1st of 2026.

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But I won't talk about the wastewater, but we'll be doing that next.

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Okay, next slide.

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So we thought it was important to go back and talk about how much discussion we've actually had.

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About time of use, residential demand and moving toward this type of rate structure. We've been working on it for almost a couple years now.

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Worked with our consultants we've also attended advanced classes that on electric rate design, which included time of use and residential demand.

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So on March 5th. Just a few weeks ago, we did do the rate ordinance overview and did go into details on the time of use of residential demand rate, including what the rate structure would look like what the rates would be, as well as comparing to our neighbors.

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On February 5th, we also did an update on the implementation status.

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Talked about the fact that we needed the rate structure to be able to put to do the software implementation.

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And again, talked about the rate structure, gave an example of that, and then proposed a timeline which included bringing this back to you now.

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October 2024. There was another electric rate design presentation and that explained how the primarily how time of use and residential demand were being used across the country.

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And then discussed next steps, which included coming up with specific rates.

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April 3rd of 24 uh we our consultants, GDS, did a presentation of their electric cost of service and rate study. And we did a presentation to the board which identified why we needed the revenue increase.

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Recommended a new billing system to implement demand and time of use.

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And talked about these alternate rate designs. Next slide. January 17th of 2024.

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We. Presented a work plan for how we would implement time of use.

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And demand and presented that to the board, laying out what we thought would work for a timeline for putting this in place.

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And part of the discussion at that point was we went out to bid.

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As you all know, and look to see if there were alternate billing systems out there because our current billing system couldn't do it. When we had that

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Bid go out. We did find out that our current vendor had recently begun to offer time of use rate structure in the existing software that we have.

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Although there is implementation required And a lot of coordination between them and our hosts for the AMI meters.

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And then finally, I wasn't involved in this one, but on April 5th, 2023, Then Deputy Utility Manager Heather Garcia presented an electric rate design kickoff with GDS. And at that time, there was an overview of time of use, what that rate design looked like, and talking about the need

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And the recommendation they had for implementing that.

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One of the things we were asked to cover was what the open market purchases look like, what are the costs that we pay. So before I go through this slide, I want to point out that a big portion of our cost of power

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Is based on our fixed price contracts or direct costs. So for example, Mercuria is a fixed price and it's 24 seven.

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So there is not a different rate day and night. Wapa is a federal hydro.

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And those are direct costs that get passed through. Same with the hydros that we own, Elvato and Abiq And then Lincoln.

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Which is we refer to as LRS, is another one of our fixed price contracts.

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I'm sorry, can you go back one? But we do to show kind of what those hourly rates do look like, though, when we do have to buy power This is the annual average hour ahead electric market, or they refer to it as ham energy prices. And this is an annual average over time

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That they took and looked at the last few years. The bottom are the 24 hours in the day.

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The left axis is the price paid. And as you can see, it's between I think it's about 36 or 37 going on up to around 59 and this is the average during those particular times a day.

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But we did want to point out at this time, primarily we are on fixed price.

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Purchases, but this is what the market prices are. Next slide.

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We were also asked to look at what foxtail flats is. Some of the pricing is not 100% known, but what we do have is an estimate not including any system losses or if there's any underutilization.

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But the solar during the day is 3788 a megawatt hour And the nighttime battery is $148.83.

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And that includes charging the battery as well as the use of the battery.

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Next slide. Actually, can you go back one? I'll just leave it there because I want to cover one more thing.

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So. Normally, we do not provide a new staff report. That's pretty unusual for us to do that. But we wanted to make sure that you had The recommended action, which is to introduce the ordinance as is And then the alternate action which would be

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To introduce the ordinance removing time of use and residential demand.

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And then if the alternate motion is made the items that are in yellow is what would be removed.

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The utility manager does recommend the board introduce the code ordinance as presented, including the time of use in residential And I think, and the other thing I wanted to point out from the staff report is that we did include $250,000 in the budget.

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Which is the implementation cost. And we have already been in discussions with both our current billing vendor as well as our AMI vendor.

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And to coordinate because there's a lot of data that has to go back and forth between the meters and the billing system.

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And we are ready to launch that and that get the ability to do this in place.

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And with that, I will stand for any questions that you may have. Okay, thank you, Karen. Appreciate the the brief presentation. Get everybody spun back up.

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And first ask the first ask members who were not here two weeks ago, if they have questions or comments on on the proposed ordinance.

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All right. Thank you. Chair Gibson, I'm just wondering how many Customers have opted out on the electric AMI.

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140 approximately. 140. Okay, thank you.

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No questions for me. We'll have a full discussion next time. Okay.

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Any other questions or comments? Matt, Jen?

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Okay. Everybody understands it completely, huh?

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The…

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I have two or three here. Let me ask a simple one. So the way you phrased it was at this time, we are primarily on the fixed price purchase You know, in terms of what we're getting. And then you talked about the foxtail flats

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Beyond Foxtail Flats, can you remind us um what might change in terms of our percentage or ratio of fixed price contract purchases versus something else that's variable.

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Thank you. The Mercuria contract I apologize, I don't had the exact date as to when it ends, but it ends during the next fiscal year. So in the budget.

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We presumed a similar rate for market purchases for the period of time between when the contract and when Mercuria ends.

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And foxtail Flats would be presumed to start. So for the entire fiscal year.

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We made the presumption that we'd be paying the same amount as we have with Mercuria.

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So for this next fiscal year. The prices that we have should we have stay constant.

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I believe Bercuria contract presently ends at the end of February 26th.

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When Foxtail Flats was originally supposed to come online. Thank you. Chair Gibson-Pilo has something to say. Sure.

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Philo?

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Yes, I just, I was going to point that out that Mercuria ends.

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Next February, it was planned for March 1st with Foxtail Flats.

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And I think to fall on. A little further with board member hollingsworth's question is Generally, in our resource mix.

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We try to procure as much as needed, but then should something shut down or additional energy be needed you saw that hour.

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Purchase price, we will purchase energy to fulfill the load requirements. That includes both the county and the laboratory.

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So sometimes in the spring, for example, when the hydroelectrics are running.

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We're not purchasing any energy. Because we have essentially excess at times. This year, with the drought, I anticipate we might be a little short and so We'll be purchasing power probably on the hour ahead market instead of trying to find a fixed price contract to make up

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An anticipated loss. But it varies. That's part of the integrated resource plan When we look at procuring resources.

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The current plan When you blend in renewables, you want to have 115% because they'll be times when the energy is not available.

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Such as a snowstorm or in a solar case or a solar case disruption in disruption in delivery of energy We had… LRS down for a month while transmission lines were upgraded. So there's a variety of things you know you don't always have 100% reliability so you

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So you go for the 115% to back things up. But at times we do open market purchases.

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Chair Gibson, if I can add to that. Even when you look at our cost of power.

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Which is our share of the power pool And you look at all of our blended costs in a month.

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If you look at FY24, our average was $77.10 per megawatt, excuse me, per megawatt hour.

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However, it fluctuated between a low of 60, 120 and a high of 109.86.

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So different months absolutely did have different amounts. If you take the average for January through June of 24, it was 89.56.

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And then in July through December, our average was 91.43. So even though we say we have these fixed contracts.

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There are, especially because for some of our contracts you pay actual costs. So there are absolute fluctuations in the prices month over month, and that does go directly to our cost of power.

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Question first for Tom. The definition of on-peak and off peak time in here is in parentheses.

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Does that have any legal significance that it's parenthetical instead of stated it is still just as though it were clearly stated? Yes. So yeah, there's no legal significance except that that is the way to define something. You can put it in parentheses and that forms the definition.

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Okay, thank you. I guess for now that's all the questions I had.

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They've got… others to bring up next month.

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Is it the preference of the board? This is not a vote this is just head nodding to go ahead and introduce the full ordinance with both components at this time.

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And which we could still divide or take out the restructuring next month, we have that option.

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Is that the preference of the board? Provided support.

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Let's see. Matt, I think you so indicated last month Yep, I see that. Thank you.

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And Eric. No opinion. Okay.

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All right. That being the case. Unless there's anything else Let's see, I really should ask for public comment here. So is there any public comment on this item?

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Tonight. See not in chambers, do you have any online?

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Thank you, Chair Gibson. If anybody online would like to make public comment, please raise your hand. And we do have one person.

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Okay, just one moment.

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Mr. Rosenbaum, you should be able to unmute yourself and make your comment.

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Are we good? Can you hear me?

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Yes, we can.

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Okay, this is Mrs. Rosenbaum. And I'm confused by it all. I'm working on trying to understand what you're you're trying to do. My concern is this.

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And maybe you've addressed this and if you have, you can say, I'm sorry, we've done that.

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But the rate increase for the peak hours, meaning 5 to 11.

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My concern is, what about all of us that need to cook dinner.

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And some of us, I mean, all of us cook dinner. So that means Everybody's going to get home from the lab and other places.

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And they need to cook dinner. So we're going to charge them more.

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That to me seems just a little… confusing, especially when we talk about, and I know this isn' Right, but we've been talking about subsidized housing for the lower income, this will affect us lower income folks.

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And that concerns me. Maybe you've addressed it.

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But I have that. That's my concern. There are a lot of us seniors that can't afford higher and higher and higher and higher.

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That's all we seem to do. Almost is just go higher.

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That's all.

00:30:47.000 --> 00:31:03.000
All right. Thank you for the comment. I might just briefly say we're well aware that there are lots of things that happen When people get off work, that's why we have the peak from 5 to 11 roughly.

00:31:03.000 --> 00:31:11.000
And one way that people can address that is to Yes, we assume people are going to cook it.

00:31:11.000 --> 00:31:21.000
Five or six or seven or eight o'clock or something like that, but perhaps not running the clothes dryer or other high loads at the same time.

00:31:21.000 --> 00:31:24.000
I think we're all going to have to learn to

00:31:24.000 --> 00:31:38.000
Perhaps manage our loads with with a Being consciously aware of the power sources and the costs associated therewith.

00:31:38.000 --> 00:31:45.000
When Foxtail Flats comes online. We'll have a lot of power available in the daytime.

00:31:45.000 --> 00:31:51.000
And the power in the evening will be on battery. And as you just saw, much more expensive.

00:31:51.000 --> 00:31:58.000
But things like cars can be charged during the day Or at least we'd like people to try to do that.

00:31:58.000 --> 00:32:09.000
Things of that variety. So it's not just the cooking It's uh trying to manage the overall peak loads.

00:32:09.000 --> 00:32:18.000
Thank you for your comment. Do we have any other? Chair Gibson, I don't see anybody else. Okay, thank you.

00:32:18.000 --> 00:32:26.000
Would someone like to introduce The…

00:32:26.000 --> 00:32:30.000
It's just talking.

00:32:30.000 --> 00:32:31.000
Don't care.

00:32:31.000 --> 00:32:37.000
Ordinance. Let's see how are we hearing the staff report here Make sure we get the right introduction.

00:32:37.000 --> 00:32:48.000
The other one right on the flip side of the cover sheet, right? It's the one that was handed out on the dais.

00:32:48.000 --> 00:32:58.000
I was looking for it and skimmed right past it. So this would be the recommended action. Would someone like to introduce the ordinance through that? Sure, I'll go ahead and do that.

00:32:58.000 --> 00:33:06.000
I introduced without prejudice Incorporated County of Los Alamos code ordinance number 02-365.

00:33:06.000 --> 00:33:16.000
An ordinance amending Chapter 40, Article 3 sections 40-121, 40-122, and 40-123.

00:33:16.000 --> 00:33:23.000
Relating to electric rate schedules, electric customer service charges, and electric energy charges.

00:33:23.000 --> 00:33:32.000
Okay, thank you. And as I said, that will be heard in public hearing here For four weeks from tonight.

00:33:32.000 --> 00:33:41.000
16th of April. We will move on to… Item 6B.

00:33:41.000 --> 00:33:57.000
Ordinance 02366 which has to do with sewage rates. It's still called sewage in the code apparently it's not waste water or water resources or whatever politically correct term of the day.

00:33:57.000 --> 00:34:02.000
Karen, would you go ahead? Thank you, Chair.

00:34:02.000 --> 00:34:10.000
We did a presentation at the last meeting about this increase and it is included in the budget, the budgeted revenues.

00:34:10.000 --> 00:34:16.000
There already is a 2% rate increase that is effective October 1st, 2025.

00:34:16.000 --> 00:34:23.000
This would replace that. And would make the increase 7%.

00:34:23.000 --> 00:34:45.000
In FY26 and another 7% in FY27. As a reminder, last time we did hand out a historical and projected monthly bill and with the the rate increases that are being considered in electric, gas, water, and sewer if you compare it to the prior year, the total is a 5.75%.

00:34:45.000 --> 00:34:52.000
Increase overall. So with that, I will stand for any questions about the increase.

00:34:52.000 --> 00:35:02.000
Okay, and I'd like to first offer the floor to the floor Eric or Charlie, because they weren't here two weeks ago No questions, Charlie? Eric?

00:35:02.000 --> 00:35:11.000
Anyone else? Okay. Is there any public comment?

00:35:11.000 --> 00:35:15.000
Don't see any in chambers. I don't see any online.

00:35:15.000 --> 00:35:24.000
All right. Would someone like to introduce this ordinance.

00:35:24.000 --> 00:35:46.000
Jim. I introduce without prejudice Incorporated County of Los Alamos code ordinance number two dash three six six an ordinance amending Chapter 40, Article 3, Sections 40-201 Relating to sewage service rates.

00:35:46.000 --> 00:35:53.000
Okay, thank you. And that ordinance will also be heard on the 16th of April.

00:35:53.000 --> 00:36:06.000
That moves us on to item 7A. Approval of the department's FY26 budget Again, Karen Kendall.

00:36:06.000 --> 00:36:21.000
Okay, Kathy, could you bring up the attachment and we'll It's page 34 of the packet.

00:36:21.000 --> 00:36:31.000
Yes, it was. It was the one attachment to this one agenda item.

00:36:31.000 --> 00:36:43.000
So while we're doing that, I'll walk through. So this evening We're happy to present to you our proposed budget for FY 2026. The total expenditure amount is $107 million.

00:36:43.000 --> 00:37:03.000
$289,835. That is for the total joint utilities fund expenditures. And as we talked about when we did some training on the budgets for utilities, we give you details down to the sub funds. So electric production, electric distribution.

00:37:03.000 --> 00:37:20.000
And but when it rolls up to council They look at electric, gas, water, and sewer combined. And then the approval And the way that the state looks at it is all as one fund, the joint utilities fund.

00:37:20.000 --> 00:37:32.000
So tonight we're requesting that you approve the total expenditure budget of 107,289,835.

00:37:32.000 --> 00:37:39.000
In addition to that, and I'll go through the slide that's up in just a moment. Can you make it a little bigger? This one.

00:37:39.000 --> 00:37:42.000
Yeah, right now I'm just going off the staff report. Thank you.

00:37:42.000 --> 00:37:50.000
In addition, there is a budget option. And that is 1,450,000.

00:37:50.000 --> 00:38:11.000
As a reminder, the budget option is in accordance with the ordinance that has to do with the revenue or profit transfer and the direction from that ordinance is to do a five-year plan with budget options for projects that are joint with the public works road projects.

00:38:11.000 --> 00:38:23.000
That could be used for council to redirect the profit or revenue transfer back to utilities to support those capital projects.

00:38:23.000 --> 00:38:37.000
We did a detailed presentation last month. On the budget. But what we'd like to do is, as we told you then, there would be some changes based on where we are in the process and working with our partners in finance

00:38:37.000 --> 00:38:50.000
As we said last time, this is a huge undergoing for our department. It starts off in December, actually prior to December, but in December we have the asset team meetings.

00:38:50.000 --> 00:38:58.000
And then finally. James Allard came to you and presented the results of that asset team meetings.

00:38:58.000 --> 00:39:13.000
And looked at our capital plan the following meeting, I did a presentation on a draft of the budget and talked walked through it and explain kind of why we do it and how the budget works.

00:39:13.000 --> 00:39:19.000
So these are the changes from that time. In February, the budget we presented was 107 million.

00:39:19.000 --> 00:39:34.000
211-714. The one we're presenting to you tonight is 107, 289,835 Which is a difference of 78,121. And I'm going to walk through very quickly and high level what those changes were.

00:39:34.000 --> 00:39:57.000
So we had, as you can see, primarily IDC charge charges Those are the interdepartmental charges that we get from the county So there's two overhead amounts that we include in the budget. One is from the county, the IDC's And the other is where we distribute our administrative charges.

00:39:57.000 --> 00:40:08.000
And in this case, there was an update to the allocation percentages and that reduced in some funds and increased in other funds the amount of IDCs that we would be paying.

00:40:08.000 --> 00:40:17.000
The other change is there is a require an increased requirement for testing at both of our wastewater facilities.

00:40:17.000 --> 00:40:22.000
That we literally got, I think it was late last week or in the middle of last week.

00:40:22.000 --> 00:40:34.000
And so we have an extra $145,000 that's needed in wastewater to be able to meet that requirement of the additional testing.

00:40:34.000 --> 00:40:40.000
Go to the next slide.

00:40:40.000 --> 00:40:46.000
Not slide, next page.

00:40:46.000 --> 00:40:59.000
There you go. Okay. Although you don't… specifically approve the revenue budget. We wanted to go over the changes there. In February, the amount was $100.

00:40:59.000 --> 00:41:09.000
In March. The amount we're presenting today, the final is 98,946,895000.

00:41:09.000 --> 00:41:15.000
And primarily the reason for that is there was an error in the fund flow for revenues.

00:41:15.000 --> 00:41:19.000
And it did not tie to the proposed rate increase for wastewater.

00:41:19.000 --> 00:41:24.000
And that had to do with the volumes. So we have corrected that.

00:41:24.000 --> 00:41:31.000
And the actual sales revenue that we're proposing is 7,251.68,000.

00:41:31.000 --> 00:41:44.000
The other changes were the changes were swapping of the revenue and recoverable work and the miscellaneous revenue and water distribution that we talked about at the meeting, they were on the wrong line.

00:41:44.000 --> 00:41:52.000
And then there was an update to the bond federal subsidy to get that to match the debt schedule.

00:41:52.000 --> 00:42:09.000
And those bond federal subsidies relate to electric and the bonds that we have outstanding where we do receive subsidies back from the feds each year. And then the final change was there was a correction that was needed on the interest for utility reserves for water production.

00:42:09.000 --> 00:42:26.000
As was pointed out at the last meeting, there were some issues with the 2023 consumption report And so we did need to correct megawatt sales, kilowatt hour sales, and then the associated revenue per kilowatt or revenue per megawatt.

00:42:26.000 --> 00:42:33.000
And so if you have look at the fund flows, you will see these updated amounts.

00:42:33.000 --> 00:42:43.000
And since we did go go through this in great detail last time. I'm just going to do a couple more highlights and then I'll open it up for any questions.

00:42:43.000 --> 00:42:48.000
As we told you last time, there is no change to the employee count.

00:42:48.000 --> 00:42:54.000
And… Let's see if there's anything else.

00:42:54.000 --> 00:43:04.000
The schedule of funds has been included. Kathy, if you can go to Let's see.

00:43:04.000 --> 00:43:16.000
Page 103.

00:43:16.000 --> 00:43:24.000
The schedule of funds? I'm sorry. Okay.

00:43:24.000 --> 00:43:34.000
It would be the second attachment and it would be A66.

00:43:34.000 --> 00:43:46.000
So I'll walk through what this is. The schedule of funds defines what our cash balances are and what the split is between our cash and our reserves.

00:43:46.000 --> 00:43:57.000
And it is required per ordinance that we prepare this. It is prepared Kathy, it'll be page 66, I believe.

00:43:57.000 --> 00:44:09.000
Of that set. Mm-hmm.

00:44:09.000 --> 00:44:13.000
Two more pages. Yeah, sorry.

00:44:13.000 --> 00:44:21.000
There we go. If you could flip it. Okay.

00:44:21.000 --> 00:44:27.000
So this document

00:44:27.000 --> 00:44:43.000
Is about 30 pages. And basically what it, I've walked through it before in a training exercise But basically what it does is it starts with our cash per our aquifer it estimates what our cash will be for FY25.

00:44:43.000 --> 00:44:52.000
And then it evaluates what money is already in the reserves and what funds are What is our fund target?

00:44:52.000 --> 00:45:10.000
For each of the reserves as defined by our financial guidance. This report, as I said, is required In the charter as well as in an ordinance, and it is required to be reviewed, agreed to and approved by the chief financial officer.

00:45:10.000 --> 00:45:15.000
Of the county. And we have done that. Melissa Dodsey did work with us on this.

00:45:15.000 --> 00:45:24.000
And did go through and review it and approve it. And our goal is always to make sure that within a 10 year period.

00:45:24.000 --> 00:45:33.000
We are going to achieve having all of our reserves fully funded.

00:45:33.000 --> 00:45:48.000
That's how we set the rates in that 10-year projection is to make sure that we're being as we're being conservative as we can on what we set the rates for, but that we are making sure that there is enough to fulfill

00:45:48.000 --> 00:45:54.000
The required reserves.

00:45:54.000 --> 00:46:00.000
And with that, I will stand for questions. There may be questions on this document.

00:46:00.000 --> 00:46:14.000
Thank you. Questions?

00:46:14.000 --> 00:46:22.000
It's not really a question. It's more of a comment. I mean, so in part based on the question we had earlier from the public.

00:46:22.000 --> 00:46:31.000
You know, so we're kind of steeped in pages and pages of presentations for a long period of time, right? But our public is not.

00:46:31.000 --> 00:46:41.000
And so, you know, so you just stated that the goal is to have in a 10-year period, we need to have reserves fully funded. And that's how we determine our rates and so forth.

00:46:41.000 --> 00:46:52.000
But there's a pretty extended period of time for the electric, for example, that rates didn't change. And so now we're kind of having an issue where we have to kind of backfill effectively.

00:46:52.000 --> 00:47:04.000
And so, you know, is there sort of a simple way to I think we need to have a simple way to explain this to the public, not just our goal and our motivation here.

00:47:04.000 --> 00:47:24.000
But why we are where we are. I mean, you know, just it's not a question. I mean, we've been through it, but more of a comment that In this next period of a couple of months where we're selling this to the public or explaining it, yeah. So thank you. Yes, whenever we have a rate

00:47:24.000 --> 00:47:37.000
A rate increase or decrease or rate change, structure change. In addition to the meetings we have here leading up to it, we Of course, advertise the meetings, et cetera, but we know that everyone cannot attend.

00:47:37.000 --> 00:48:00.000
So our public relations team Cathy of one. Our public relations team um works on frequently asked questions. We do put out press releases. We do put it out on social media and um explain it.

00:48:00.000 --> 00:48:12.000
In terms of why we're doing this, what we're doing. And I can tell you on a big picture and the way I respond to citizens who I'm speaking with about it.

00:48:12.000 --> 00:48:25.000
Is primarily the infrastructure reliability. And those are two of the biggest things and then just cost changes in the economy.

00:48:25.000 --> 00:48:33.000
I'd say those three things are probably the biggest factors that go into why our rates might have to go up.

00:48:33.000 --> 00:48:43.000
We did do a chart. That is in your packet on page 89.

00:48:43.000 --> 00:48:48.000
And this shows the historical and projected typical monthly bill for residents.

00:48:48.000 --> 00:48:56.000
And it's provides for what we use for our averages. So electric it's 500 kilowatt hours.

00:48:56.000 --> 00:49:03.000
Gas at 75 therms. Water 6,000 gallons and then our regular sewer charge.

00:49:03.000 --> 00:49:15.000
So if you look at all of that together. The only other item that a citizen would see on their bill is refuse, which we do the billing for them, but I excluded it for this purpose.

00:49:15.000 --> 00:49:26.000
So in 2015, with these averages. A bill would have been $188.10. And in 26 with everything we're proposing.

00:49:26.000 --> 00:49:35.000
So after July 1st. And actually technically probably more like after October because some of the rates like water does not go into effect until October.

00:49:35.000 --> 00:49:44.000
The bill would go up to 278.92 Which per month is $15.17.

00:49:44.000 --> 00:49:50.000
So although the percentages

00:49:50.000 --> 00:49:54.000
Can give you a false impression of what that's going to mean to your actual bill.

00:49:54.000 --> 00:49:59.000
The bill for an average customer would be 1478.

00:49:59.000 --> 00:50:08.000
Excuse me, $263.75 in 25 and it would go up to $278.92 in 26.

00:50:08.000 --> 00:50:23.000
And then up to 294 and 27. So we do try to get this out. We have written the frequently asked questions Some of the graphics or information that we've provided to the board gets included in those frequently asked questions.

00:50:23.000 --> 00:50:30.000
And then… Our customer care team is also educated on this so that when they get calls, which they will get.

00:50:30.000 --> 00:50:38.000
Were able to respond and answer as to why the rates are why the rates are going up.

00:50:38.000 --> 00:51:03.000
From an oversight perspective, the reason the schedule of funds is so important it's not It's not designed as a tool for hearers to the public what exactly what we're doing. It's really designed to show counsel the details of how we're fulfilling that part of the charter that says that in our budget

00:51:03.000 --> 00:51:10.000
We must look at the infrastructure. We must look at improvements.

00:51:10.000 --> 00:51:17.000
As well as reserves for different um parts of our operations.

00:51:17.000 --> 00:51:33.000
So that's why that document, even though it's very complicated. When you start going line by line, it's actually pretty straightforward. But the goal there is that the charter requires that we give that level of detail. And so it's a tool for council to see

00:51:33.000 --> 00:51:39.000
How we're budgeting for each of those areas.

00:51:39.000 --> 00:51:46.000
So I hope that wasn't too long winded, but that's great. Thank you. Thanks.

00:51:46.000 --> 00:51:52.000
Other questions?

00:51:52.000 --> 00:51:56.000
Is there any public comment?

00:51:56.000 --> 00:52:03.000
Yes, ma'am. Please come to the podium up here.

00:52:03.000 --> 00:52:06.000
And give your name for the record, if you don't mind.

00:52:06.000 --> 00:52:09.000
And we'd ask you to keep your comments to no more than three minutes.

00:52:09.000 --> 00:52:13.000
You can pull that microphone down where it's a convenient height.

00:52:13.000 --> 00:52:25.000 - PUBLIC COMMENT
Hello, my name is Sandra Media Perez I am listening to your budgeting in I am listening to numbers.

00:52:25.000 --> 00:52:30.000
I do understand that you guys are Oh, no.

00:52:30.000 --> 00:52:35.000
The money part, it's not there. And you need to do the infrastructure.

00:52:35.000 --> 00:52:44.000
I do get that. But I am not happy with the way you're presenting it, I think you need to explain it more.

00:52:44.000 --> 00:52:49.000
To the public.

00:52:49.000 --> 00:52:57.000
Yeah, I understand that you didn't charge much before and you need to get to a point where you need to make your money. I get it.

00:52:57.000 --> 00:53:08.000
But the percentages that are going up with the batteries that you guys are implementing I think it's not a good investment.

00:53:08.000 --> 00:53:17.000
To be honest. And the other thing is some people can afford it. Some people make $12 an hour.

00:53:17.000 --> 00:53:29.000
It seems like you're trying to To me, it feels like you need to make certain money like love money to be able to live here.

00:53:29.000 --> 00:53:36.000
So just putting it out there for the people who make McDonald's kind of wages.

00:53:36.000 --> 00:53:42.000
Or smith's kind of wages. I live at Anchorage.

00:53:42.000 --> 00:53:46.000
And you have heard from us before. I'm pretty sure you already know us.

00:53:46.000 --> 00:53:55.000
And we have, like I said before. Elderly retire we have a lot of people that in and out of the hospital.

00:53:55.000 --> 00:54:01.000
In that kind of budget, she's $15, $12. Yeah.

00:54:01.000 --> 00:54:20.000
But when you put it on a budget where it's limited Yeah, it's money that some people don't have So I don't know if they can be a a program for a program the elderly or people that need it.

00:54:20.000 --> 00:54:29.000
Because there's a lot of people that don't speak. And I'm scared of speaking a lot. You're doing a good job of it. Don't worry.

00:54:29.000 --> 00:54:36.000
But I figure I need to talk because I am listening to the budget and it's a lot of numbers.

00:54:36.000 --> 00:54:42.000
But the problem is that I cannot even, it's going to be hard for me to pay that bill.

00:54:42.000 --> 00:54:46.000
So that's it. Thank you.

00:54:46.000 --> 00:54:56.000
Karen? Chair Gibson, I wanted to also respond to something regarding how we inform the public.

00:54:56.000 --> 00:55:26.000
From what board member Hollingsworth asked. One of the things that's included in the frequently asked questions, which also addresses the public, we do always provide information on how seniors And those on a fixed income can qualify for our assistance program, which for the elderly is year-round or if you're income qualified, it's during the winter months.

00:55:26.000 --> 00:55:30.000
So we do try to make sure that we do that outreach also.

00:55:30.000 --> 00:55:33.000
So I just wanted to let you know that. Thank you. Thank you.

00:55:33.000 --> 00:55:41.000
Other comment in chambers? Kathy, do we have any online?

00:55:41.000 --> 00:55:45.000
No, Chair Gibson, we don't. Okay, thank you.

00:55:45.000 --> 00:55:53.000
Comments.

00:55:53.000 --> 00:56:02.000
None. So we have to fill in the vacuum.

00:56:02.000 --> 00:56:21.000
The… The proposed budget includes the rate changes that are either already in ordinance or in the code excuse me or the subject of the ordinances that were introduced earlier this evening.

00:56:21.000 --> 00:56:33.000
It also projects rate increases every year going out

00:56:33.000 --> 00:56:42.000
There are some misguided souls that like tax increases, but I don't think there's anybody that likes utility rate increases.

00:56:42.000 --> 00:56:49.000
And… Yes, there's a lot of numbers here and part of our job is to go through them.

00:56:49.000 --> 00:56:56.000
In much more depth and detail than we expect anybody else to.

00:56:56.000 --> 00:57:02.000
My conclusion is that the main driver is inflation.

00:57:02.000 --> 00:57:08.000
Some of that is past inflation where rates were not increased to stay up with it.

00:57:08.000 --> 00:57:14.000
That's particularly the case in electric rates. We're still catching up.

00:57:14.000 --> 00:57:21.000
There. Inflation is not just what you see in the consumer price index, the CPI.

00:57:21.000 --> 00:57:39.000
But there are different parts of the of the economy of the economy have different inflation rates and in particular electric equipment and construction have gone up a lot faster than consumer rates have.

00:57:39.000 --> 00:57:48.000
We're dependent on those. That's a Washington issue, and we can't do much about that here.

00:57:48.000 --> 00:58:13.000
Unfortunate with all the inflation, that may mask some issues that we have… under our control. And I think we, the board and the department need to look for and try to drill down below the inflation try to find those and see what we might be able to do about them. And I'm not quite sure process-wise how to do that at this point.

00:58:13.000 --> 00:58:25.000
At the same time. Customer bills are a product of rate times usage rate times And usage is what's under the customer's control.

00:58:25.000 --> 00:58:44.000
And the department does have a number of resources. And there's many others online and elsewhere that can help customers figure out how to manage their utility usage We don't have any other sources of income other than some grant monies we get for capital projects.

00:58:44.000 --> 00:58:58.000
All of our revenue, all of our costs to operate the system And by the power and by the everything gas That has to come from our customers.

00:58:58.000 --> 00:59:04.000
We're… We don't like doing it either.

00:59:04.000 --> 00:59:10.000
I said, nobody likes this. But I don't think we have a lot of choice in this case.

00:59:10.000 --> 00:59:34.000
Any other comment? Maybe I can shed some light on how internally how some things have had to go because you know seeing that we are constantly increasing rates and costs of things go up I'll put my regular day job hat back on and

00:59:34.000 --> 00:59:59.000
And kind of tell a story about you know a some of the equipment that our crews use, you know, it it's a hard service life on things like sewer flushing equipment And, you know, things that we use to fix water line breaks. But we have this particular piece of equipment. We call it the VACTOR. And this comes up all the time. We have two of them now.

00:59:59.000 --> 01:00:13.000
We used to just have one. And this particular piece of equipment, it's used all the time. And we have two of them and we could use three. The problem is they're expensive and they're expensive to maintain. They're expensive to use.

01:00:13.000 --> 01:00:20.000
And, you know, our crews are constantly coming to me saying, we need yet a third factor.

01:00:20.000 --> 01:00:30.000
And I was like, well, we have two of them. How come? And it's like, well, you know, one of them's old, one of them's newer, but it's more complex. It's always breaking down. It's in the shop.

01:00:30.000 --> 01:00:39.000
And we can't cover some of the work we need to do with it. And so, you know, we analyze it. I go to Karen, I go to Philo and I say.

01:00:39.000 --> 01:00:55.000
You know the guys need another vector and they're like, that's another $800,000, you know, and so we have to look at those budgets carefully and see what can we get away with what can we do to be Agile.

01:00:55.000 --> 01:01:02.000
In using this machine and being more careful with it, what can we do to maximize its life?

01:01:02.000 --> 01:01:17.000
So, you know, the answer was no. This year because budgets were getting tight, we're already increasing rates. So we're having to find ways to make do with what we have. So these are the kinds of issues we have to confront on a day-to-day basis. I mean they're

01:01:17.000 --> 01:01:34.000
Constant never ending list of things that we want, but what can we do internally to make sure that we are that we're making do with what we have living within our own budget. So that does occur and we don't just get everything we want. So that's

01:01:34.000 --> 01:01:42.000
You know, I thought I'd put that out there. Okay, thank you, Clay.

01:01:42.000 --> 01:01:48.000
If there's no further comments from the board, would someone like to make a motion?

01:01:48.000 --> 01:01:55.000
Someone brave enough to propose a budget like this. Sure.

01:01:55.000 --> 01:02:20.000
Propose approval. I move that the Board of Public Utilities approve the fiscal year 2026 budget as presented and forward to council for adoption. I further move that the Board of Public Utilities approve the fy 26 budget option as presented and forward to council for approval.

01:02:20.000 --> 01:02:30.000
Okay, I second. Okay. Moved and seconded that we approve the proposed budget and the budget option.

01:02:30.000 --> 01:02:36.000
Any further comment? If not, Kathy, please call Laurel.

01:02:36.000 --> 01:02:45.000
Member Heppner? Remember Hollingsworth? Yes. Member Knockley? Yes. Member Stromberg? Yes. And Member Gibson?

01:02:45.000 --> 01:02:51.000
Yes. Thank you. Okay, motion passes five to zero. Thank you.

01:02:51.000 --> 01:03:13.000
I would really like to thank Karen Kendall and Joanne and Richard and all of your co-conspirators here that have uh worked very hard on putting all these numbers together and juggling them as changes came, et cetera.

01:03:13.000 --> 01:03:25.000
And although it's almost impenetrable. It is professional and it does meet the professional standards And we really do appreciate the work that you've done.

01:03:25.000 --> 01:03:43.000
Starting in December or earlier. We've been seeing it I've seen every meeting now for several meetings And it's a lot of work and we thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you.

01:03:43.000 --> 01:03:51.000
Okay, that takes us. To the item 7B on page 133.

01:03:51.000 --> 01:03:56.000
The DPU quarterly report. This is for the second quarter of fiscal year 25.

01:03:56.000 --> 01:04:11.000
And that is Philo or Catherine Deanna or both. Thank you, Chair Gibson. I'm going to share from a different screen and see if I do better with that one.

01:04:11.000 --> 01:04:20.000
This is for the… the months of October, November, and December. So quarter two of FY25.

01:04:20.000 --> 01:04:33.000
And… Oops, my mouse isn't working. Hold on.

01:04:33.000 --> 01:04:50.000
It looks just like quarter one. You just got to read it to see the difference and look a little more closely. Philo did a nice summary of calendar year 2024 and I wanted to point out that It was a pretty exciting quarter for us. And he did mention

01:04:50.000 --> 01:05:05.000
These things that I'm going to boast about in those three months, we got two two national awards, one accreditation We had a grand reopening at the reservoir. We had a ribbon cutting at the wharf.

01:05:05.000 --> 01:05:20.000
And we almost had a groundbreaking up on the Pojarito mountain. So we had a lot going on and a Everybody in DPU should be you know, pretty proud of themselves for all that we accomplished, in my opinion.

01:05:20.000 --> 01:05:32.000
Moving on. Your goals that you all adopted in September have been updated. So if you checked in on that, you should have seen that.

01:05:32.000 --> 01:05:45.000
Our safety employee of the quarter was Gary Trujillo And I just thought the reason that he was nominated was amazing. He was nominated.

01:05:45.000 --> 01:05:58.000
Well, he was nominated by a citizen, but we got a comment card from a citizen saying that Gary had stopped his while he was driving down Central by the post office. He had stopped his truck to help an elderly gentleman that was

01:05:58.000 --> 01:06:13.000
Having some car trouble and in the process of helping him, the man started to kind of have some sort of a a physical issue as well. So 911 was called and Gary stayed with the gentleman and kept him calm and

01:06:13.000 --> 01:06:22.000
Helped move his car somewhere in there also until the paramedics got there and it was just an amazing thing.

01:06:22.000 --> 01:06:30.000
And as the citizen said. I think he summed it up really great. Gary represents the very best character and attitude of community service.

01:06:30.000 --> 01:06:37.000
So we're all just super proud of him so If you see Gary, give him a big old pat on his back.

01:06:37.000 --> 01:06:45.000
On Edie's page, I just wanted to point out this is like the only big snow dump that we've had so far.

01:06:45.000 --> 01:06:51.000
So that caused a a branch to touch a power line. So we did have an outage.

01:06:51.000 --> 01:07:03.000
And speaking of outages, if you look at the SADI chart, we have been under 60 minutes since I think that's October of 2023.

01:07:03.000 --> 01:07:12.000
So yay steve and electric distribution. And now I'll just zip through most of this.

01:07:12.000 --> 01:07:21.000
The usual stuff, the reports from the deputies I'm probably going to go, there's one of our events.

01:07:21.000 --> 01:07:39.000
You may recognize if you were there. I'm going to head over to Abby's summary because I talked about how much we accomplished, but I think it's worth mentioning that Abby is a rock star. I know I'm biased because She works so closely with me

01:07:39.000 --> 01:07:48.000
There was a whole big long list of events that DPU was either responsible for or partnering in or participating in in that quarter.

01:07:48.000 --> 01:07:55.000
And it was just kind of amazing how many people she actually impacts when she's out there.

01:07:55.000 --> 01:08:02.000
And that is probably all I'm… going to mention.

01:08:02.000 --> 01:08:10.000
You have this in your packets. I assume you've already taken a quick browse and oh.

01:08:10.000 --> 01:08:20.000
Since we had all those awards, there's lots of feedback and kudos on that kind of stuff in here. So be sure to read those.

01:08:20.000 --> 01:08:24.000
And that's all I got. Philo, do you want to add anything?

01:08:24.000 --> 01:08:31.000
No, I think that was a great summary, Kathy and open for questions.

01:08:31.000 --> 01:08:38.000
Okay, questions from the board.

01:08:38.000 --> 01:08:42.000
Okay, well, I guess I'll have to ask a few minutes.

01:08:42.000 --> 01:08:46.000
Oh. First.

01:08:46.000 --> 01:08:52.000
There's mention under electric distribution of the Los Alamos switch station.

01:08:52.000 --> 01:09:01.000
Scheduled to be active before june Oops, Steve just escaped. He knew that question was coming. Maybe I'll… Ah, there he is.

01:09:01.000 --> 01:09:07.000
He should have stayed away because the question was for you.

01:09:07.000 --> 01:09:25.000
Well, Salamo Switch Station scheduled to be active before June. I was looking back through some of the older records Trying to figure out past budgets and so forth. And I kept seeing last back at least as far as 2017.

01:09:25.000 --> 01:09:37.000
And I know last year we were expecting to be online in this quarter and what's our current best estimate of when that's going to finally be done?

01:09:37.000 --> 01:09:49.000
Chair Gibson and board members right now the status of the The last station is the last station We have a vault ready to intercept the East Hammers Road conduit duck bank.

01:09:49.000 --> 01:10:03.000
But we recently in doing our investigations of the duck bank The duck bank is, we found, is concrete encased asbestos pipe So now I have a contractor on hand.

01:10:03.000 --> 01:10:09.000
Really negotiating how to dispose of it. I have a meeting on Friday with Lanel.

01:10:09.000 --> 01:10:16.000
Just my personal opinion, if Llano would get out of the way. We'd finish it quite quickly.

01:10:16.000 --> 01:10:24.000
So we have the the vault is ready. The XIDs are in place, everything's lining up.

01:10:24.000 --> 01:10:34.000
But we did have the owl They were going to keep us out of the canyon, but they did waive that After some discussion.

01:10:34.000 --> 01:10:55.000
Determine there is no owl in that section of the canyon So they finally waived that because that was going to be another barrier So right now the only problem we have is finalizing the requirements of Llanel to allow me to cut the duck bank and dispose of the asbestos with a contractor who does

01:10:55.000 --> 01:11:03.000
Lanel work on landl property also. So that's an increased cost, but I think we can absorb that.

01:11:03.000 --> 01:11:18.000
So I have those lined up. So Friday, I should be finding out if Llan will will approve the disposal method and then we'll approve Hopefully within the next week or two we will begin excavation to intercept the duck bank.

01:11:18.000 --> 01:11:27.000
Pull cable to tie the station to the town site. And hopefully on the schedule for June.

01:11:27.000 --> 01:11:37.000
Okay, well, hope that holds. Thank you. Don't leave. I got another comment. I've made this before and I'll make it again.

01:11:37.000 --> 01:11:54.000
The way we show the sadie is based on outage times that we control that are part of our system. They don't include what's upstream Yet when we compare it to other entities, which we should do.

01:11:54.000 --> 01:12:01.000
They include all of their outages, I believe. So it's not really an apples to apples comparison.

01:12:01.000 --> 01:12:12.000
And I know you track the complete sadie and although the local version is the one that we can do something about.

01:12:12.000 --> 01:12:24.000
Understand that. That's understandable. But I think for comparisons to others, we also need to see Occasionally, the CD that includes upstream outages also.

01:12:24.000 --> 01:12:33.000
Yes, when we do have upstream outages, I was, as previously, I was including a separate SADI chart with external outages included.

01:12:33.000 --> 01:12:46.000
But, you know, the way I've always positive is the SADI is a determination the reliability of our distribution system and how we perform within our boundaries.

01:12:46.000 --> 01:13:08.000
But I always, whenever we do have an external, I will include a separate SADI with And then knowing large utilities such as PNM and Colorado or other larger utilities Most times they do not include catastrophic outages or momentary outages in their calculations. So they kind of skew their

01:13:08.000 --> 01:13:13.000
There's Sadie too. To fall in line also.

01:13:13.000 --> 01:13:27.000
But I include any outage that Another type of outage I do not include is a planned outage because it's not a failure of the system it's It's a service that we're we're providing.

01:13:27.000 --> 01:13:35.000
Okay. Thank you and One last question, which last question I'm not sure if it's you or Ben, but Ben's not here.

01:13:35.000 --> 01:13:43.000
Is the landfill solar field actually generating or isn't it? I'm confused on that.

01:13:43.000 --> 01:13:53.000
It is not. It is not. And I have excluded that from my by solar figures that we present to you.

01:13:53.000 --> 01:14:22.000
Okay. And I see under pending distribution distributed generation excuse me Currently, there's 31 customers in the process of adding Another 369 kilowatts of distributed generation. That's almost 12 kilowatts per customer Is that really the case that we really the average new distributed customer is adding more than our

01:14:22.000 --> 01:14:30.000
10 kilowatt general limit. I know most of them are coming in right around at five.

01:14:30.000 --> 01:14:38.000
So that may be what we have there is what they proposed and they're they're in evaluation and permitting.

01:14:38.000 --> 01:14:53.000
So yeah, there's only very few that can satisfy the requirement currently consume 10 kilowatts or greater, in which case we'll give them a variance to increase the size of their service.

01:14:53.000 --> 01:14:59.000
Okay, that's what I thought, but the numbers didn't say that. I'll have to check those numbers. Why I was curious.

01:14:59.000 --> 01:15:11.000
Okay. That's all I had for you, but I have a couple others going forward here.

01:15:11.000 --> 01:15:16.000
Again, since Ben's not here, maybe Philo can answer this one.

01:15:16.000 --> 01:15:22.000
Chair Gibson-Ben is online. Oh, he is. Aha. Thank you.

01:15:22.000 --> 01:15:39.000
Ben, you're… Your report talks about your reports Foxteel Flat's successful review by BIA as planned for the third quarter of FY25, which ends in less than two weeks.

01:15:39.000 --> 01:15:50.000
Is indeed there is indeed. Any likelihood of that review being done by then or is that still slipping?

01:15:50.000 --> 01:15:59.000
Gibson, this is Ben. Members of the board so yes i have reached out then for an update. They are generally required to give us quarterly updates.

01:15:59.000 --> 01:16:12.000
So they haven't given us the next quarterly, but I've asked them to touch on that I'm still waiting on status on that, but I'm not aware of any any significant change to the schedule beyond what we've already established as

01:16:12.000 --> 01:16:15.000
Potentially a six-month slump.

01:16:15.000 --> 01:16:19.000
Okay, so right now you think it's a six month delay

01:16:19.000 --> 01:16:39.000
That's what it's looking at. Also, I will point out that I do believe that they were they were The BIA office was held up by federal direction. They weren't expecting anything to really happen any progress to be made.

01:16:39.000 --> 01:16:49.000
At least until mid-March, which is where we're at. So that's why we're checking in for status. And as soon as we get something new we'll keep the board informed.

01:16:49.000 --> 01:16:55.000
Okay, thank you. Ah.

01:16:55.000 --> 01:16:58.000
James, a question for you.

01:16:58.000 --> 01:17:14.000
On the Trinity Drive utility upgrades If I interpret this correctly, you're bidding planning to bid the utility portion of that project for construction in August.

01:17:14.000 --> 01:17:20.000
That is correct, but it will be combined with the road project. It's going to be one contractor building both.

01:17:20.000 --> 01:17:32.000
Okay, so is… So will they and that the road project it says starting spring of 26 so we'll Will our work not be starting until spring of 26?

01:17:32.000 --> 01:17:42.000
Yeah, so we will the plan is to award it in the fall but in all likelihood, it's going to be too late in the fall to really mobilize and start construction.

01:17:42.000 --> 01:17:49.000
So we see if… if not all the work, the vast majority will take place in the spring and summer of 26.

01:17:49.000 --> 01:18:00.000
Okay, that was my concern was Are we going to start a utility part of the project and then we wind up leaving a mess over the winter.

01:18:00.000 --> 01:18:08.000
Okay, good. Glad to hear that. That satisfies my concern. Thank you.

01:18:08.000 --> 01:18:21.000
Okay. Anyone else? Come up with questions while we while i was weathering on here.

01:18:21.000 --> 01:18:25.000
Okay, seeing none. Thanks.

01:18:25.000 --> 01:18:32.000
To Philo and Kathy and everyone involved, because I know there's a fair amount of work to put this together.

01:18:32.000 --> 01:18:39.000
And it shows. It shows, again, very professional work.

01:18:39.000 --> 01:18:50.000
Next item is board business and that starts with a chair's report I've got three things.

01:18:50.000 --> 01:18:55.000
Two of them were last Thursday, the board and commission luncheon.

01:18:55.000 --> 01:19:11.000
I sent out a copy of the report that I gave on our behalf The… items that were mentioned by other boards there that have other relation to what we're doing.

01:19:11.000 --> 01:19:28.000
Mostly came from environmental sustainability board And their support of the charging study They are supporting looking for a contractor for home energy audits.

01:19:28.000 --> 01:19:36.000
And of course, they're of course looking at climate action plan items in general.

01:19:36.000 --> 01:19:50.000
One item from the personnel board that caught my attention is that… the turnover Last year, I believe it was, and county staff was 17%.

01:19:50.000 --> 01:20:09.000
The current vacancy rate was 6%. They did say that there were a few divisions. It wasn't whole departments, but few divisions that were trying to or had been implementing some sign on compensation packages to try to get bonuses, if you will.

01:20:09.000 --> 01:20:16.000
To get people on board. I thought that was interesting. That evening.

01:20:16.000 --> 01:20:22.000
There was an electrification town hall Unfortunately.

01:20:22.000 --> 01:20:40.000
There weren't very many members of the public there. It was mostly department staff I'm glad department staff was there. This is the first time we've seen anything about or from that study or about that study and it was actually three of the people who are doing it

01:20:40.000 --> 01:20:57.000
Here live in here live in in the Nature Center. It was a two-hour presentation, quite substantive I will, it appeared that they're focusing presently on estimating demand, which is a good place to start.

01:20:57.000 --> 01:21:06.000
There wasn't much yet on design of a new distribution system, but of course you have to have some idea of the demand before you can do that.

01:21:06.000 --> 01:21:18.000
There were a number of slides. And I got a copy of the handout anyway, so I presume that our staff has those slides if you want them.

01:21:18.000 --> 01:21:33.000
And of course, the presentation itself would be available online. I was impressed, and frankly, I've seen a lot of these kinds of consultant presentations And I'm not usually very impressed.

01:21:33.000 --> 01:21:45.000
Depressed might be a more common reaction to them. These guys sounded like they very much knew what they were doing. They were familiar with what's going on in the rest of the country.

01:21:45.000 --> 01:21:56.000
But they were also very aware of our situation, which a lot of contractors, especially early in a in any study don't really seem to be.

01:21:56.000 --> 01:22:02.000
They seem to try to make us fit the rest of the country instead of taking the information from elsewhere and applying it here.

01:22:02.000 --> 01:22:14.000
So I thought it was a good start. Appreciate it. And there's quite a bit of information in the in the slides if you have the chance to look at that.

01:22:14.000 --> 01:22:30.000
The other item The first report to Council on the EV charging study was scheduled for last tuesday I think it was supposed to come in via Zoom and there was a problem, as you might remember.

01:22:30.000 --> 01:22:42.000
So it's now scheduled for next Tuesday night's council meeting. And we're scheduled to see it here at our next session, our next meeting on the 2nd of April.

01:22:42.000 --> 01:22:49.000
That's all I have. To any board members have reports to make?

01:22:49.000 --> 01:22:56.000
Don't all speak at once. Utility managers report.

01:22:56.000 --> 01:23:01.000
That's either clay or phyllo depending

01:23:01.000 --> 01:23:09.000
Well, I'll make the report. I prepared just a kind of summary of what I've been doing over the last month.

01:23:09.000 --> 01:23:22.000
So I attended the APPA legislative conference And as part of that conference they do some training.

01:23:22.000 --> 01:23:31.000
Discussion about what's going on in what legislation that the organization wants to support going forward.

01:23:31.000 --> 01:23:36.000
And there was a lot of discussion about the Inflation Reduction Act.

01:23:36.000 --> 01:23:57.000
And the risk that might be to portions of that bill And just because Trump administration has threatened to rescind some elements of it and I'm sure it's been in the news mostly that the highest vulnerability ones are EV tax credits

01:23:57.000 --> 01:24:16.000
Ev refueling. Low-income communities with solar and wind credits and energy community bonus credits the ones that… that the organization thought were the least vulnerable or carbon capture credits.

01:24:16.000 --> 01:24:34.000
Zero emission nuclear power. And technical neutral clean fuels and tech neutral electricity production tax credits and investment tax credits Those, when you say tech neutral, it doesn't matter where it comes from.

01:24:34.000 --> 01:24:42.000
And obviously our foxtail flats kind of falls in that line.

01:24:42.000 --> 01:24:56.000
For a majority of them. I'm not quite sure on… You know, depending on if any of these get clawed back what that will mean in total that seemed to be the sentiment.

01:24:56.000 --> 01:25:06.000
At washington dc there. And then happened to be on Capitol Hill when the budget blueprint resolution was going through.

01:25:06.000 --> 01:25:24.000
I just, just sharing it with sharing with the board because I was there in the hall of congress to get a tour that evening and And this is the blueprint for the one big beautiful bill The resolution passed at 8 p.m. That

01:25:24.000 --> 01:25:34.000
And the back story was The second term Republican members of Congress were at the White House receiving a challenge coin from President Trump.

01:25:34.000 --> 01:25:50.000
And they were all individually shaking his hand And once that was completed and the bus was full of second term congressmen, they returned from the White House to vote on the resolution where it passed.

01:25:50.000 --> 01:26:00.000
But as we know. In the end that the federal budget's still on a continuing resolution until September 30.

01:26:00.000 --> 01:26:25.000
Some project updates. Elkridge actually prepared a 50% design and Clay and James met with The team… last week and made some good comments and they're making good progress on their design They haven't given us a formal schedule yet, but they still have the intent to

01:26:25.000 --> 01:26:43.000
Begin construction in a June timeframe. On staffing, I know Chair Gibson mentioned that we we Mostly our turnover is due to retirements. We received another notice of retirement for a power system operator.

01:26:43.000 --> 01:26:57.000
I mentioned that last month we had one. Unfortunately, most of the staff came to the county at the same time frame and so They're all maturing in there.

01:26:57.000 --> 01:27:03.000
Para system in planning retirements.

01:27:03.000 --> 01:27:15.000
And then that's For Karen's replacement, we have held two rounds of interviews and We're in the process of doing some reference checking.

01:27:15.000 --> 01:27:21.000
And on NNSA. We received a six-month extension.

01:27:21.000 --> 01:27:29.000
To the current ECA, that would mean it would expire December 31st of this year.

01:27:29.000 --> 01:27:39.000
And our next steps are the extension will go before the operating committee for approval on march 27th.

01:27:39.000 --> 01:27:48.000
Then BPU on April 2nd. We're going to have to suspend the order and allow for action on that day.

01:27:48.000 --> 01:28:01.000
And then to council on April 8th. I really want to get that extension in place given all the volatility we have with contracts and grants and everything.

01:28:01.000 --> 01:28:13.000
Right now at the federal level. We also met with the public schools on converting their irrigation sites.

01:28:13.000 --> 01:28:26.000
A long diamond drive to reclaim water. And the consensus at this meeting was to look at converting back to middle school to reclaim this year.

01:28:26.000 --> 01:28:36.000
And then have their staff gain some experience using reclaimed water. So we're making some progress and finding new customers for that product.

01:28:36.000 --> 01:28:41.000
This morning we had a UAMS meeting that was only online.

01:28:41.000 --> 01:28:53.000
Not a lot of updates on the cohort or rotatherm. Just because they're subject to some FERC review and Those hearings have not occurred.

01:28:53.000 --> 01:29:04.000
Primarily, the meeting today. That I was involved with is as the chair of the CFP was extend the project financing.

01:29:04.000 --> 01:29:15.000
The project has about $5 million in outstanding balance that we anticipate getting reimbursed by DOE.

01:29:15.000 --> 01:29:28.000
But the closeout has been delayed some, so we had to extend the financing. I don't anticipate he'll have any impact because we did an early payment So we're not financing.

01:29:28.000 --> 01:29:35.000
We're not going to be subject to additional costs. There.

01:29:35.000 --> 01:29:50.000
And then… Chair Gibson mentioned that there is electrification town hall. The county also held two cip open houses. I attended the first one I know James Aller had attended both.

01:29:50.000 --> 01:29:58.000
And while the meetings were lightly attended, we actually got good questions from people that did attend.

01:29:58.000 --> 01:30:09.000
I know you always wish for more, but when you do get good questions, I do think they're productive For everyone that participated.

01:30:09.000 --> 01:30:15.000
So we have a better project in the end. To serve our community.

01:30:15.000 --> 01:30:29.000
And then I know we've mentioned electric asset transfers. Atlanta, there's been a little switch in some of the team members, but we do have a progress meeting that Stephen Myers is going to attend tomorrow.

01:30:29.000 --> 01:30:34.000
We mentioned, we already spoke about foxtail flat, so I'll skip that.

01:30:34.000 --> 01:30:42.000
And then attended the roundhouse I almost stay at the roundhouse. That was last Wednesday.

01:30:42.000 --> 01:30:49.000
And we gave away glass water bottles that people could fill with Los Alam's tap water.

01:30:49.000 --> 01:31:02.000
And most people filled… filled it with our water and enjoyed it. And it was uh well received by people that work there.

01:31:02.000 --> 01:31:09.000
In the roundhouse. And Kathy Deanna, I want to thank her for coming up with the idea and And getting it implemented.

01:31:09.000 --> 01:31:27.000
It was mentioned about our internet outage that's related to our state route four water supply line replacement And I'm going to ask James if you could come up and just explain some of the efforts we're trying to coordinate with Lumen.

01:31:27.000 --> 01:31:36.000
To protect their fiber line. Unfortunately, this last outage was related to mislocate.

01:31:36.000 --> 01:31:39.000
You know, James, me, you can explain some of the efforts.

01:31:39.000 --> 01:31:43.000
I know you had meetings with lumen.

01:31:43.000 --> 01:31:55.000
Rick, yes. So, Philo. Board chair members of the board so We got on the phone yesterday, well, by email, we finally made contact with the contacts at Lumen.

01:31:55.000 --> 01:31:59.000
And we flat out requested that we wanted to have an on-site monitor.

01:31:59.000 --> 01:32:19.000
They need to provide someone on site continually locate, you know, we specifically want a locator And work with us. It's going to take some extra effort As we have received a lot of, you know, a lot of negative feedback, so have they. So they agreed we um

01:32:19.000 --> 01:32:24.000
Somebody in that email train was an authority and he said, make it happen. So we had a progress meeting today.

01:32:24.000 --> 01:32:33.000
With the contractor and we invited the lumen representatives So they were there and they were they were there you know, we got him familiar with the team.

01:32:33.000 --> 01:32:48.000
Our contractor and Lumen. You know there was there was a good thing they weren't in the same room for a while there But we settled. We got everybody looking forward that uh You know, we all need to bring our best efforts to

01:32:48.000 --> 01:32:57.000
So it doesn't happen again. And we all have our respective bad things are going to happen. All the entities, the contractor, Lumen and and us so

01:32:57.000 --> 01:33:07.000
They have committed to us that they're going to bring somebody on site from their subcontractor who does the locating.

01:33:07.000 --> 01:33:15.000
And we should know more tomorrow. They said they would do whatever the arrangements they can do today, report to us tomorrow.

01:33:15.000 --> 01:33:31.000
And we just pushed. We told them there's we're building right now right next to that darn thing and we're So, you know, we need you out here like today, tomorrow fast and So we'll see you tomorrow. We'll push until we see that support.

01:33:31.000 --> 01:33:36.000
I did get word from the field that Locator was on site today.

01:33:36.000 --> 01:33:50.000
So that might be the first step in just being a little more attentive, but we're demanding full sight full-time presence by them on there. And it's a small price to pay with what I'm sure they're going to have to pay at this point.

01:33:50.000 --> 01:34:02.000
So we'll keep you posted but That's everybody's goal is you know this this can't happen again. And if there's any way to avoid it, it is this is our best chance.

01:34:02.000 --> 01:34:10.000
Can I just say a word on that just to congratulate you, James, and Philo for jumping on this. I really appreciate it. It's a big deal.

01:34:10.000 --> 01:34:20.000
Right. On a lighter note for any of you who, like myself are severance fans, the fact that it's named Lumen is just kind of awesome.

01:34:20.000 --> 01:34:39.000
And I hope not like, you know, you know, it doesn't have any implications for the future but um I mean, on a serious note though It's not just the fact that, oh, we can't look at our phones or whatever, right? I mean, like, and this is, I think, a serious issue for the county, right?

01:34:39.000 --> 01:34:47.000
You know, we've got our four classic infrastructure utilities that we've been dealing with. You could have written that down in the 19th or maybe early 20th century, right?

01:34:47.000 --> 01:34:57.000
But I think digital infrastructure is actually an important new piece of infrastructure, right? At least for me, I don't know. I felt like that's one thing I learned coming out of the pandemic is like.

01:34:57.000 --> 01:35:00.000
One of the basic needs was access to the internet, right?

01:35:00.000 --> 01:35:13.000
And, you know, you can't do anything. Maybe like many others, it just so happened on monday my own family, extended family, we had a family member in a hospital, right? It was out of state.

01:35:13.000 --> 01:35:27.000
But we couldn't get any contact with how they were doing, what was going on. And, you know, it's much it's obviously that was a fairly straightforward thing. It's much, much harder right for people who are really dealing with medical emergencies or things like that.

01:35:27.000 --> 01:35:37.000
So, you know, it's important. I mean, you've said that, right? But the fact that we have such fragility in our system is really not okay, right?

01:35:37.000 --> 01:35:48.000
I mean, one, we're always one cut away and it will, seems like it's going to happen again But maybe the steps you've taken will help prevent it this time. And I sincerely hope so. But I think that's something we're going to have to

01:35:48.000 --> 01:36:04.000
Try to figure out as a county like how are we going to deal with digital infrastructure moving into the future? I don't have like fantastic or great ideas, but I do think it's something probably that we're going to have to have. And I know we've got a broadband strategy, but it's like years in the making and

01:36:04.000 --> 01:36:19.000
You know moves at a glacial pace. So it feels like we have to have something that's a little more responsive and a little more you know, fit for purpose. I don't know what that is, but it seems like We have to grapple with that problem. Thanks.

01:36:19.000 --> 01:36:27.000
I actually attended the senior management team meeting today and Helen Paraglio gave a an update on that.

01:36:27.000 --> 01:36:43.000
The county is responding and they're looking at several scenarios to uh to not only have backups, but parallel access in a different mode. They're looking at several things right now and there are quite a few things on the table. One of them

01:36:43.000 --> 01:36:57.000
You know, having a cell repeater on Paredo Mountain that can that can look at Albuquerque so that as soon as it comes off the tower, it can go into the fiber optic that way.

01:36:57.000 --> 01:37:07.000
And then several like nodes around the county that can jump off points to something like Starlink or something like that.

01:37:07.000 --> 01:37:17.000
So that can come up for the whole county when and if we have a infrastructure outage.

01:37:17.000 --> 01:37:25.000
So then everybody can do that. It won't be there all the time, but it's pay as you go type situation so that it's a contingency plan.

01:37:25.000 --> 01:37:32.000
So they're looking at several options like that.

01:37:32.000 --> 01:37:46.000
Okay, other questions on the other questions on the utility managers report? I did have one more on a totally different topic the uh The ECA, that's coming, you said Philo on the 1st of April to us is that right

01:37:46.000 --> 01:37:47.000
Yes, your first meeting April the 2nd, but yes. Yeah.

01:37:47.000 --> 01:37:57.000
Second. The first meeting, April 2nd. So are we going to get a chance to, I mean, to look at it Right. And to read it through.

01:37:57.000 --> 01:38:10.000
So I actually shared what the last extension looked like. It's a simple paragraph. There's not much to look at.

01:38:10.000 --> 01:38:11.000
Oh, I see. Yeah, okay. Okay.

01:38:11.000 --> 01:38:23.000
Only to extend the current agreement by six months while we While we work to do renewed agreement that'll be a 10-year term with another 10-year renewal.

01:38:23.000 --> 01:38:24.000
Yeah. Right. Yes.

01:38:24.000 --> 01:38:35.000
Okay, so that's fine on the simple agreement. We are actually going to have to see the actual new agreements to approve it otherwise i I don't foresee approval coming without actually seeing it.

01:38:35.000 --> 01:38:45.000
Well, we don't know what's in it either so exactly we may not be jumping to approve it. Even if we do see it. Right.

01:38:45.000 --> 01:39:01.000
I'll just add one last thing from the senior management team meeting. Helen Paraglia reported on that they were given a presentation, you know, from the LANL side that that it looks like, you know, for budget planning going forward the uh

01:39:01.000 --> 01:39:16.000
It doesn't look like there's going to be a serious reduction in staff at Lanel. It's just going to hold steady and so it shouldn't like negatively affect the budget moving forward. So that's how they're they're basing all of their budget planning.

01:39:16.000 --> 01:39:21.000
For that.

01:39:21.000 --> 01:39:27.000
Okay, if there's nothing else, we'll move on to the county manager's report.

01:39:27.000 --> 01:39:31.000
Juan sitting in for Anne.

01:39:31.000 --> 01:39:39.000
Thank you, Chair Gibson. Not much to report. Lots of budget discussions. Looking forward to kicking off.

01:39:39.000 --> 01:39:52.000
Those budget hearings in April. The budget book is scheduled to be finalized in the coming weeks and so the proposed budget will be available for distribution.

01:39:52.000 --> 01:39:59.000
Late march i believe um the deadline to print, I believe, is next week.

01:39:59.000 --> 01:40:21.000
So from that standpoint. I also just wanted to report that Council did approve a department head for the community development At a recent meeting. And that gentleman, Eli Isaacson who's coming by way of California, Santa Barbara.

01:40:21.000 --> 01:40:29.000
We'll begin that post May 12th so Just a couple of items to highlight there.

01:40:29.000 --> 01:40:34.000
So thank you.

01:40:34.000 --> 01:40:40.000
Okay, thank you. Any questions for Juan?

01:40:40.000 --> 01:40:49.000
I don't see any, so we'll move to council liaisons report Thank you, Chair Gibson.

01:40:49.000 --> 01:40:57.000
Let's see, at last night's meeting last night's meeting On March 18th, it was a work session held down at the White Rock Fire Station.

01:40:57.000 --> 01:41:03.000
James Allred kindly gave us a quick little presentation during public comment.

01:41:03.000 --> 01:41:13.000
About kind of what he just briefed you on about the network outage and he will be giving a more lengthy presentation at our meeting next Tuesday, the 25th.

01:41:13.000 --> 01:41:29.000
We then had a presentation from Ted Weika And NSA Los Alamos field office and let me bump to some highlights from that.

01:41:29.000 --> 01:41:39.000
As you all know, the CR that just passed gets us through september You talked about pit production.

01:41:39.000 --> 01:41:59.000
Objectives, you know, minimum 30 per year by 2028, talked about the goals of stockpile stewardship triad just receiving a 91% performance rating moving from growth toward execution and the fact that the laboratory will probably be hiring about a thousand

01:41:59.000 --> 01:42:06.000
Personnel this year basically to replace the average attrition rate of about 900 staff per year.

01:42:06.000 --> 01:42:21.000
The field office itself, he… noted what we all know and the New York Times had an article about it a couple days ago. The hiring freeze, having lost nine people, but he said they're very proud of their resiliency.

01:42:21.000 --> 01:42:36.000
Continuous safety improvement is still a top priority. Traffic safety is also a priority. He noted, at least from his perspective, that speeding incidents and other traffic incidents appear to be down.

01:42:36.000 --> 01:42:43.000
He was glad for more coverage that he sees from Los Alamos Police Department.

01:42:43.000 --> 01:42:53.000
Talked about the ECA. Expiring June 25th and the six month extension. He thinks there's been a great Examples of partnership working on that.

01:42:53.000 --> 01:43:07.000
Talked about cleanup at Rendia Canyon, talked about the NEPA and the Swice to assess the impacts of future operations and that the comment period on the SWICE has been extended to April 10th.

01:43:07.000 --> 01:43:13.000
Fyi, if you didn't know that.

01:43:13.000 --> 01:43:19.000
He talked about electrical power capacity project and the Let's see.

01:43:19.000 --> 01:43:27.000
I think, as we all know, that the existing lines serve the lab and the county will reach capacity by about 2027.

01:43:27.000 --> 01:43:38.000
But demand and load on the power transmission lines will continue to grow based on supercomputer needs AI work and Lance.

01:43:38.000 --> 01:43:44.000
Said they're working on MOUs with the Pueblos, New Mexico Historical Preservation Office, etc.

01:43:44.000 --> 01:43:48.000
On that. Effort.

01:43:48.000 --> 01:43:54.000
Talked about waste shipping. Expecting 37 shipments this year.

01:43:54.000 --> 01:44:01.000
In partnership with EM, talked about wildlife, wild land, fire preparation.

01:44:01.000 --> 01:44:09.000
And mitigation efforts and forest thinning at Randia, Los Alamos, and Los Alamos Canyon, I'm sorry, and TA37.

01:44:09.000 --> 01:44:20.000
Said they're doing a lot of interface work with our own fire department, US Forest Service, et cetera, and said that a wildfire fighting helicopter will be on site.

01:44:20.000 --> 01:44:27.000
Starting mid-April.

01:44:27.000 --> 01:44:32.000
And then he confirmed in some Q&A. That.

01:44:32.000 --> 01:44:39.000
Are now at, they were at an FTE count of 97, now down to, I think, 76, he said.

01:44:39.000 --> 01:44:43.000
But he said, we're not missing a step in getting the work done.

01:44:43.000 --> 01:44:59.000
Anyway, that was just of interest. It's very timely. A group of us just returned from Washington, D.C, talking with NNSA staff and our congressional delegation that was two weeks ago, that's why I missed this meeting So it was just very timely. I wanted to ask them way more questions than

01:44:59.000 --> 01:45:02.000
We felt was appropriate at that time. But anyway, that's that.

01:45:02.000 --> 01:45:15.000
Sorry, a little side note. Let's see then. After Ted Weika, Jerry Cowan, the vice chair of the Parks and Rec Board, gave a nice little presentation.

01:45:15.000 --> 01:45:37.000
Of their 2024 accomplishments and the 2025 priorities. Their priorities are working on the csd um Integrated master plan and an ADA transition plan getting public input for capital improvement projects and focusing on services from the aquatic Center, ice rink and golf course.

01:45:37.000 --> 01:45:49.000
Those might be relevant. Talk to that bike park stuff, Clay. Flu Trail, you know, BMX tracks Stuff like that.

01:45:49.000 --> 01:46:02.000
Potential shade structure for the ice rink, etc. Michelle Altair, the vice chair of the library board, then gave a presentation, again, about their 2024 accomplishments in 2025.

01:46:02.000 --> 01:46:18.000
Work plan focused on efforts that are in progress right now for the potential outdoor classroom plan, which would include a performance platform platform seating and a shed with a purpose to offer more diverse programming to the community.

01:46:18.000 --> 01:46:37.000
Let's talk about the library of things. I talked about our social services department offering hours to meet with citizens at the library kind of a, you know, an easy no stigma place to talk about different things to ways that you know the county can help

01:46:37.000 --> 01:46:44.000
And then talked about events coming up like Pride, Earth Day, Atomicon, etc.

01:46:44.000 --> 01:46:52.000
We then received a presentation from a team that include our deputy manager Juan Rael.

01:46:52.000 --> 01:47:11.000
This thing keeps skipping on me. Our wildland fire chief Kelly Sterna and our fire marshal, Mr. Cordova and our CDD building official official David Martinez. The presentation was about potential changes to our wild land, urban interface.

01:47:11.000 --> 01:47:32.000
Code. Well, it's called the WUI, the Wildland Urban Interface, and how it relates to our code of ordinances It was mainly just an introduction since it was a work session for us to kind of become apprised of some ideas that might be coming forward as ordinances and give the public a chance to kind of learn about it and

01:47:32.000 --> 01:47:42.000
Give input as well. There could be changes to our building code and to our fire code. It'd be based on the 2021 international WUI code.

01:47:42.000 --> 01:47:49.000
And it would be to address fire risk, safety, and challenges that our residents are having with insurance.

01:47:49.000 --> 01:47:56.000
Being able to keep property insurance avoid escalating property insurance rates, et cetera.

01:47:56.000 --> 01:48:14.000
There's been a skyrocketing interest in getting home assessments done from our fire marshals so public or you all want to do that, know that that's available where they come out and help you know you know find learn about ways to make your fire your house less fire prone.

01:48:14.000 --> 01:48:30.000
Talk about defensible space and the idea of these potential ordinances just to give ideas for proactive action not to be punitive in giving out citations.

01:48:30.000 --> 01:48:40.000
We then just had the introduction of two ordinances. We didn't have any discussion on them whatsoever. They will come back to us in, I think it's our April 2nd meeting.

01:48:40.000 --> 01:48:52.000
A code ordinance amending Chapter 38 related to distracted driving. And another potential ordinance relating to automated speed cameras.

01:48:52.000 --> 01:49:02.000
The introduction of these does not necessarily mean that they will be approved, but they were introduced for discussion and public input at a public hearing.

01:49:02.000 --> 01:49:10.000
I believe it is April 2nd. That was last night's meeting. Any questions on that?

01:49:10.000 --> 01:49:18.000
Questions? That's too much detail. If that's more detail than you guys want, let me know.

01:49:18.000 --> 01:49:37.000
But I just think some of it's timely and of interest. At the March 11th meeting, we received a presentation from the folks who organized the eighth annual Atomic City Winter Classic Hockey Tournament. And just a fun highlight of that, they talked about the social and economic impact and apparently

01:49:37.000 --> 01:49:43.000
Of the like 13 teams who attended from Texas, California, and across New Mexico, 68%.

01:49:43.000 --> 01:49:55.000
Stayed in Los Alamos hotels. We received a presentation from our county's Economic Development Division and the Los Alamos commerce and Development Corporation.

01:49:55.000 --> 01:50:01.000
They talked about our new economic development program manager who was just promoted, Anita Barella.

01:50:01.000 --> 01:50:17.000
They talked about based on survey feedback, they're going to do a lot more high touch and proactive outreach with our local businesses. They talked about the national parks needing volunteers and they talked about tourism and focus on outdoor recreation.

01:50:17.000 --> 01:50:23.000
Also talked about focusing on niche markets with seniors and families.

01:50:23.000 --> 01:50:28.000
And talked about upcoming events like Science Fest, our business accelerator program.

01:50:28.000 --> 01:50:35.000
And the ambassador program. So if you have any questions about any of those, let me know.

01:50:35.000 --> 01:50:56.000
We also had a bunch of items on consent. As Juan Rael mentioned um we approved the hiring for our new community development department director, Eli Isaacson from Santa Barbara. He also in the past worked at Espanola and Santa Fe. So he is kind of a northern New Mexico native.

01:50:56.000 --> 01:51:01.000
There were lots of good applicants for that position, by the way, which I think speaks well for our county.

01:51:01.000 --> 01:51:11.000
And it kind of came down to two highly qualified applicants and he was the one selected unanimously by three different kind of committees that were part of that.

01:51:11.000 --> 01:51:20.000
Hiring process. We talked about a… affordable housing project.

01:51:20.000 --> 01:51:36.000
That's being proposed for what we're calling the Knight Street Apartments. They're over on Knight Street and 11th street Personally, well, I guess I'm not least to say what I'm personally that we talked about it and it will be coming back to us for potential approval.

01:51:36.000 --> 01:51:42.000
And…

01:51:42.000 --> 01:51:49.000
That was the day we'd had an internet outage. So we talked about that because our whole meetings, lots of paper and no Zoom.

01:51:49.000 --> 01:51:54.000
Because this is the March 11th meeting

01:51:54.000 --> 01:52:00.000
Eric Martinez, our public works director, informed us, and just so you'll know too, that we're going to have enhanced brush collection.

01:52:00.000 --> 01:52:04.000
It's part of fire mitigation. Maybe you all have read that or know that already.

01:52:04.000 --> 01:52:19.000
So that we won't have alternating weeks It'll be starting like in about a couple weeks we'll have brush collection on the same days you have recycling and the regularly scheduled days. And you'll also be able to call up and get personalized pickup.

01:52:19.000 --> 01:52:27.000
From our environmental services division. There'll be a fee for that, but you can still do that.

01:52:27.000 --> 01:52:36.000
I think that's right. Or maybe there won't be. Okay, my apologies. I'm not sure. There was some questioning about that. I think it's going to count towards your free, you get to use your free pickups.

01:52:36.000 --> 01:52:40.000
I think that's right. Anybody wants to help me on that, I appreciate it.

01:52:40.000 --> 01:52:41.000
Talk about delaying the golf. Oh, please.

01:52:41.000 --> 01:53:02.000
Chair Gibson and Chair Gibson I'm sorry to interrupt. Yeah, Chair Gibson and Councillor Haberman. Yes. So the proposed program is In lieu of three freeloads of the 12 would count for one of these bulk pickups. And that's the way that we're trying to implement that to be able to

01:53:02.000 --> 01:53:12.000
Help the community with the brush collection. And then there is also, I believe it's a $31 fee if you choose to pay that way. So just wanted to add that. Thank you.

01:53:12.000 --> 01:53:24.000
Thank you very much. I appreciate the teamwork there. And then talk about delaying the opening of the golf course because we have such a multimillion dollar investment there and we had such a dry winter that we want to protect that investment.

01:53:24.000 --> 01:53:27.000
So hence, that's the reason for the delay in case you were wondering about that.

01:53:27.000 --> 01:53:37.000
Then we also had a quick presentation to kind of summarize the federal working groups trip to Washington, D.C. The week before last.

01:53:37.000 --> 01:53:47.000
That included Chair Teresa Cole, myself, Councillor Randall Wrighty, County Manager Ann Laurent, and our intergovernmental affairs manager, Danielle Duran.

01:53:47.000 --> 01:53:59.000
We met with our entire delegation and or their staffs. We met with the House Armed Services Committee, Senate Armed Services Committee, Senate Appropriations, Senate Energy and Natural Resources.

01:53:59.000 --> 01:54:07.000
Committee and we focused on support for the DOE missions with NNSA and environmental management.

01:54:07.000 --> 01:54:28.000
There was… a consensus that these are uncertain times. So they thought that our visit was very timely. At that point, I don't think anyone thought the CR was going to get approved last week. And we might have a shutdown, but obviously that changed.

01:54:28.000 --> 01:54:38.000
We highlighted the interconnections between the county and the laboratory and made sure people were aware of that and all the things that we do in collaboration and how we do have a symbiotic, you know.

01:54:38.000 --> 01:54:55.000
Relationship that benefits everybody. And we address concerns or express concerns about possibly losing tax exempt status of our municipal bonds, which could be a major blow to local governments across the country. That's a big issue.

01:54:55.000 --> 01:55:15.000
We talked about workforce development. And the interest in artificial intelligence and We also talked on the workforce development. It was suggested by the Senate Appropriations staff that maybe we could be considering workforce development in partnership like with other DOE sites. So that would be, of course, Sandia

01:55:15.000 --> 01:55:32.000
And whip, but also as far as maybe pantex So you could have, you know, especially of the trades. So there was just some brainstorming about that Visit went well and um I think that's all I've got on that.

01:55:32.000 --> 01:56:00.000
Sorry. Thank you. You're welcome. Okay. Now that we've had the report from felt a bit like… being in front of a fire hose but the you folks have been busy Not that you aren't always Questions?

01:56:00.000 --> 01:56:12.000
And I'll just add that the Los Alamos data legislature last Wednesday, I thought went really well. And I thought that You all were really well represented by your DPU staff, really well represented.

01:56:12.000 --> 01:56:28.000
Okay, thank you. Not a question, just a comment. I appreciate the download and uh I think it's good to have that kind of detail. I think you hit it at a really nice level. So thanks very much. Okay, good. Good to know because I'm still figuring it out with you guys.

01:56:28.000 --> 01:56:36.000
Okay, we move on. Environmental Sustainability Board liaison is not available this evening.

01:56:36.000 --> 01:56:42.000
So that concludes the reports. We'll move on to general board business.

01:56:42.000 --> 01:56:52.000
Review and possible action on recommendations from our self-evaluation working group that starts on page 214 of our agenda doc.

01:56:52.000 --> 01:56:58.000
And that's Eric and jennifer. Okay, I'll start us off. The executive summary.

01:56:58.000 --> 01:57:15.000
Of our work is, I don't know. And really what that means is that a lot of the survey questions didn't have an I don't know answer And so especially when we had new board members they're being asked a yes or no question.

01:57:15.000 --> 01:57:23.000
I'm like, well, I've only been here for a month. I don't know. So the other thing is that, and Jen did a great job on this. Thank you.

01:57:23.000 --> 01:57:35.000
Then what she did was she put into into this in more of a… typical survey format. I'll put it that way.

01:57:35.000 --> 01:57:38.000
So we have strongly agree to strongly disagree. That's just a very typical format.

01:57:38.000 --> 01:57:53.000
But because the previous survey there were questions the She also changed a lot of the wording over on the left, which is, for example.

01:57:53.000 --> 01:58:08.000
Board members participate in a formal orientation before it might have been do they participate yes no now they are all statements So that we can do a strongly agree to strongly disagree and a don't know.

01:58:08.000 --> 01:58:18.000
And then in the very end. Some of the open forum questions. There was a question added for just general comments, totally free form general.

01:58:18.000 --> 01:58:23.000
So a lot of the format change. Ms. Hollingsworth, do you have anything to add to that?

01:58:23.000 --> 01:58:32.000
Not really. So I kind of went through it in detail the last meeting. So not a whole lot has changed since then.

01:58:32.000 --> 01:58:39.000
Except for we did add a question towards the end of the document of the survey.

01:58:39.000 --> 01:58:55.000
There was a question about the chair's role in helping the board and so on. And it was phrased in sort of a negative tone So I wanted to add a second question or a part B to that, and it ended up being a second question that was more positive too. So what's been done well?

01:58:55.000 --> 01:59:15.000
Anyway, let's see. Yeah, the other changes that were made previously was the consistency um in describing this organization or the DPU itself and so forth there were some inconsistencies previously that were very confusing. So that's been dealt with.

01:59:15.000 --> 01:59:25.000
Yep, I think that's about it. So yeah, we went through it in gory detail last time. So I don't think

01:59:25.000 --> 01:59:32.000
All right, thanks. Yeah. Okay. Questions.

01:59:32.000 --> 01:59:43.000
Actually, one more comment. So yeah, we didn't like change this wholesale in terms of a philosophical sense, right? These are more structural changes to make things more clear.

01:59:43.000 --> 01:59:51.000
To give more opportunity for a wider variety of responses. So rather than a yes, no, true, false, whatever.

01:59:51.000 --> 01:59:57.000
Now, all of the questions have been worded in such a way that we can have this broad-based response, including don't know.

01:59:57.000 --> 02:00:03.000
And there's a couple more options for a open-ended response as well.

02:00:03.000 --> 02:00:16.000
So I would recommend we do something like this, ideally, you know, as close to what we have this year and then we can revisit again next year if it still seems to be problematic.

02:00:16.000 --> 02:00:25.000
But anyway, so hopefully we've addressed some of the issues that we faced last year but And then we can change things more wholesale next year if necessary.

02:00:25.000 --> 02:00:37.000
Okay. Thank you both for your effort on this. It's one of those thankless tasks that not too many people see or appreciate, but we do.

02:00:37.000 --> 02:00:49.000
And if nothing else, this survey I think serves and this should be an improved surveyed surgeon. It's a basis for discussion and introspection.

02:00:49.000 --> 02:01:06.000
And I think it's a good suggestion that we go through it use the revised version this year and see how we like it and see whether we want to make any other were more maybe even more fundamental changes in how we

02:01:06.000 --> 02:01:13.000
Look at ourselves in the mirror. Are there any Any other comments?

02:01:13.000 --> 02:01:25.000
Susie. Thanks, Chair Gibson. Is this something that you do on your own fruition, like in the spirit of continuous improvement or is this like required in your bylaws?

02:01:25.000 --> 02:01:35.000
We have it in our rules, but of course that's that's something that we establish. So yeah, it's ours.

02:01:35.000 --> 02:01:48.000
Just in your rules, but not necessarily in the charter for BPU. Correct. It's our rules. Okay. You guys decided on your own voluntarily, proactively that you would do this. Has this been going on for, have you guys been doing this for a long time?

02:01:48.000 --> 02:01:54.000
For quite a while, I believe. I'm not sure how long, but this isn't recent. Okay, like five years, 10 years.

02:01:54.000 --> 02:02:12.000
I just wonder. I'm not sure if any of us here go back that far. I don't remember it being done when I was here 20 years ago okay okay um like i wonder i don't think other boards do this. I wonder, and I don't think council does this ourselves, but I wonder if it would be a good exercise.

02:02:12.000 --> 02:02:24.000
But that's why I was just curious. Well, you'll get a chance to sit through us doing this this fall. We do it in November, that time frame.

02:02:24.000 --> 02:02:41.000
And you'll get to see how it works or doesn't and You can carry that back to council with your opinion. All right. Thank you kindly. I would say Thanks to both Vice Chair Stromberg and Member Hollingsworth because it was just a mess.

02:02:41.000 --> 02:02:57.000
I think you guys have made it coherent and structured and intelligible so Yeah, and just so you know, if you look at the first page in front of the actual survey that we have in our papers tonight.

02:02:57.000 --> 02:03:11.000
There's a list of reasons we do this. There's a lot of them, but I was just probably as unwieldy as the survey itself but Anyways, just, yeah. Yeah, I think I saw that. I just didn't know if it was mandated or you were just doing it.

02:03:11.000 --> 02:03:22.000
Because you're just good people wanting to do better all the time. Or our predecessors were anyway. There you go.

02:03:22.000 --> 02:03:30.000
Okay, if they're, let's see. Is there any public comment on this?

02:03:30.000 --> 02:03:37.000
Done in chambers. Anybody online? Okay.

02:03:37.000 --> 02:03:51.000
Would anyone like to make a motion? Sure. I move that the Board of Public Utilities approve the suggested revisions to the BPU self-evaluation tool As amended, I guess, or as fixed in the last week.

02:03:51.000 --> 02:03:56.000
Because there were a couple of changes made.

02:03:56.000 --> 02:04:10.000
Is what's in here in the clean version does that include everything? Including this Oh, that's right. Yeah, right. Let's say as revised. So the clean clean okay as revised.

02:04:10.000 --> 02:04:15.000
So I move the Board of Public Utilities approve this just revisions to the BPU self-evaluation tool as revised.

02:04:15.000 --> 02:04:22.000
Second. Okay. Thank you. Any further comment?

02:04:22.000 --> 02:04:28.000
If not, Kathy. Amber Heppner?

02:04:28.000 --> 02:04:29.000
Yes.

02:04:29.000 --> 02:04:35.000
Member Hollingsworth? Yes. Member Nochley? Yes. Member Stromberg? Yes. And Member Gibson?

02:04:35.000 --> 02:04:40.000
Yes. Thank you. Motion passes five to zero.

02:04:40.000 --> 02:04:51.000
Again, thank you very much. That takes us to… the status reports for february

02:04:51.000 --> 02:04:55.000
And I'll read them. Philo, do you have any comment?

02:04:55.000 --> 02:05:10.000
Chair, short of risk and safety uh we've had a tort claim and then also a couple accidents which we're addressing.

02:05:10.000 --> 02:05:19.000
Okay. Questions or comments on any of the status reports?

02:05:19.000 --> 02:05:27.000
Yeah, I'm amazed. I'm not looking at this average system availability availability index.

02:05:27.000 --> 02:05:37.000
99.9998%. Wow. Congratulations. That's awesome.

02:05:37.000 --> 02:06:04.000
I do have a question. It's kind of a more general question, but the couple of accidents brought it up. When you have mishaps of this variety.

02:06:04.000 --> 02:06:05.000
Yeah. Yes, Chair.

02:06:05.000 --> 02:06:12.000
How do you learn from them? Do you actually have some kind of of lessons learned exercise How do you figure out what the root cause was or might have been or root causes contributing factors, et cetera?

02:06:12.000 --> 02:06:16.000
Not just the proximate cause, but what was behind it.

02:06:16.000 --> 02:06:24.000
So that's the purpose of our quarterly safety meeting is to review these incidents.

02:06:24.000 --> 02:06:36.000
And discuss prevention of them and that there's there's a that's primarily how it's addressed.

02:06:36.000 --> 02:06:40.000
In a prevention setting.

02:06:40.000 --> 02:06:57.000
How is that? The results of that or the outcome of that archived and promulgated, et cetera, so that everybody learns from it, not just the folks who are at the meeting.

02:06:57.000 --> 02:07:05.000
You know, we have a… Meeting minutes we keep but you know as people change over, you know.

02:07:05.000 --> 02:07:09.000
Things do happen.

02:07:09.000 --> 02:07:15.000
One of the incidents happened in GWS. And, you know.

02:07:15.000 --> 02:07:22.000
We get the claim and we get the claim we have to bring it up as a group in the staff meeting.

02:07:22.000 --> 02:07:37.000
And so we bring it bring it out and we have everybody talk about it, what could have been done better what was what lapse of decision making occurred and why and So, you know, everybody weighs in.

02:07:37.000 --> 02:07:57.000
Especially some of the more experienced guys, you know, they have a whole career of career good and bad choices they've made. And so, you know, their stories come out so In this case, it was He was a very junior member trainee guy who had a

02:07:57.000 --> 02:08:02.000
He had his perm, you know, his kind of learner's permit for the CDLA.

02:08:02.000 --> 02:08:18.000
And he had a he had the he had a he had the senior guy with them and they made this decision together So we had to talk about why did you do that you know and so the whole group weighs in and then that does come up at the safety meeting but

02:08:18.000 --> 02:08:37.000
It has to come up amongst the committee of our whole of their peers. So they were kind of not put on trial but they had to explain it to the whole group and the whole group weighed in on don't do that again kind of thing. So those things do come up across our desk and we have to talk about them.

02:08:37.000 --> 02:08:49.000
Do you get in deeply into the background, the why said rather than just the proximate cause? Sure, sure. I mean, uh.

02:08:49.000 --> 02:09:02.000
You know everybody talks about you know When I was younger, I would have thought that that was okay. But as I get older, I have all these levels of experience that would have led me to, you know, the risk was fairly high

02:09:02.000 --> 02:09:18.000
If you did something like that. So if there's any risk, just take the time to not to stay away from it, you know, like stay away from something that, you know, you look at risk as this fear. And it's like, just stay away from anything that's risky like that and they

02:09:18.000 --> 02:09:32.000
You know, the younger guys start to realize that it would have just been easier to just park a little farther away and walk It would have been no big deal, but they thought they could do this thing.

02:09:32.000 --> 02:09:43.000
You know they they all have to explain it to the group And I think that makes a big difference if if it's sort of a discussion amongst their peers and everybody who's been through this before.

02:09:43.000 --> 02:09:48.000
So. Okay. Thank you.

02:09:48.000 --> 02:09:58.000
Any other questions or comments on status reports? Seeing none, we move on to the tickler file.

02:09:58.000 --> 02:10:06.000
Page 2. 249.

02:10:06.000 --> 02:10:23.000
A couple of comments there. The planning under the planning April 2nd meeting that planning for the annual board appeal presentation to council would start then it's not going to start then. It wouldn't start until at least May.

02:10:23.000 --> 02:10:30.000
It was originally on here for June and I thought it maybe should be moved up to May.

02:10:30.000 --> 02:10:43.000
And I'm rethinking even that, but this is way too early. So it's not going to happen the next meeting. What is going to happen two weeks from now, though, is we get to start the performance review of the utility manager

02:10:43.000 --> 02:11:02.000
And that starts with a closed session. So I, A, I would like people to think about uh you know look at the performance expectations that we established for the utility manager and think about those so we're We've got some ideas before we get to the meeting.

02:11:02.000 --> 02:11:09.000
And then… There was a question of when to start the closed session.

02:11:09.000 --> 02:11:16.000
Is it possible to start at four o'clock that day?

02:11:16.000 --> 02:11:26.000
2nd of April. Yeah. So I'm out of the country and I've already informed them on April 2nd. So I missed that one meeting.

02:11:26.000 --> 02:11:35.000
Yeah. Okay. If you have any input.

02:11:35.000 --> 02:11:40.000
I can take that input as long as it's just two of us talking about it.

02:11:40.000 --> 02:11:47.000
So that I can carry it to the meeting. Until second vapor, you want to see where you start before? Yeah.

02:11:47.000 --> 02:11:58.000
But please let kathy know The… As we remember, this takes a while.

02:11:58.000 --> 02:12:10.000
We would like to start our regular meeting at the regular time, if at all possible.

02:12:10.000 --> 02:12:20.000
Are there any other comments on the tickler file or anything that folks would like added or changed or whatever?

02:12:20.000 --> 02:12:37.000
Okay, then we'll move to open the floor to public comment again on any topic relevant to utilities Is there any public in the chambers who would like to comment?

02:12:37.000 --> 02:12:47.000
Is there anyone online? Chair Gibson, there is. Okay. Mr. Reager, you can unmute yourself.

02:12:47.000 --> 02:12:49.000
We can, yes.

02:12:49.000 --> 02:12:50.000
Yes.

02:12:50.000 --> 02:13:02.000 PUBLIC COMMENT BY DAVID REAGOR
Hello, can you hear me? So I want to point out that there was that earlier comment by the young lady from Elk Ridge about the cost of living in town and there are There are people here on Social Security and people here that are

02:13:02.000 --> 02:13:08.000
Making less than $20 an hour Every time you raise all these fees and make the county more expensive.

02:13:08.000 --> 02:13:18.000
You're not going to save carbon, right? You're just going to have somebody driving from wherever it is an hour away oh caliente or someplace where they can find affordable housing.

02:13:18.000 --> 02:13:25.000
And you're not really accomplishing any carbon goal. When you just keep pushing the rates up for everything in the town.

02:13:25.000 --> 02:13:31.000
You're just simply making people leave and drive farther. Thank you.

02:13:31.000 --> 02:13:37.000
Thank you. And the other comment online.

02:13:37.000 --> 02:13:44.000
That's it. Okay. I think we are done.

02:13:44.000 --> 02:13:55.000
For once, it's not a super long meeting All right, everyone, we're adjourned. Thank you. (7:42 p.m.)