[0:02] Good good morning everyone. Uh I'd like
to welcome you to our September 9th uh
[0:08] late plant board meeting. Uh my name is
John Dalton. I'm the chair. Um we will
[0:14] start with uh a roll call. Um Tyson
Kubinski
[0:21] » present.
>> Nicole Grosner
[0:24] » here.
>> Warren Leon
[0:27] » here.
And uh I am John Dalton, chair here as
[0:32] well.
Um our first uh matter of business is
[0:37] approving the minutes for our August
12th meeting. Um we have two sets of
[0:43] minutes. Uh one for a regular session
and one for an executive session. Uh
[0:50] could I hear a motion for approval of
those minutes?
[0:53] » And can we do them separately, please?
Just
[0:55] » Sure. Please.
I move that we vote to approve the
[1:00] regular session minutes from August
12th. And I also
[1:05] um move that we vote to approve but not
release the executive session minutes
[1:10] from August 12th.
[1:15] » Could I have a second?
>> Yeah,
[1:18] I sorry. I I'll say I I I second both
motions.
[1:26] Yes.
[1:32] » Uh, Warren,
>> yes.
[1:35] » Tyson,
>> yes.
[1:39] » Nicole,
>> yes.
[1:42] » And I'm also Yes. So, with that, the
meeting minutes for August 12th are
[1:48] approved. Our next agenda item is the
director's update. Uh Jason, over to
[1:54] you.
>> Thank you everybody. Um so some of the
[1:59] things I want to talk about today. Uh
first I just wanted to mention that the
[2:03] agenda for this meeting incorrectly
states that our next meeting on
[2:07] September 23rd is a Thursday. It is a
Wednesday. So just uh to be clear and
[2:12] we'll make sure that when the notice
goes out, it's it's obviously the
[2:15] correct day. But I just this particular
agenda listed the next meeting as a
[2:19] Thursday. It is a Wednesday. Um, in your
packet on the CMLP updates under the
[2:25] electric side, you'll see that there
were some kind of industry updates and
[2:29] one of those I just wanted to call the
board's attention to was that the DPU
[2:33] did approve some new basic service rates
for the investor own utilities. Um, it
[2:39] was a like a one and a half to two and a
half cent increase on about a 15 cent uh
[2:44] supply charge. There's Chris is coming
in now. Um and so that does bring their
[2:51] total rate for example national grids to
about 39.5 cents. Um when you look at
[2:57] the load shape that we have uh here in
conquered for time of day it's obviously
[3:02] hard to know when the average person
uses their electricity and what that
[3:05] would mean their their rate would be.
But when we look at the average load
[3:09] shape it comes to about 21 a.5 cents.
though just to compare with where we are
[3:14] for neighbors and other communities
served by National Grid and Eversource
[3:18] is a little bit lower than National Grid
but pretty close. Um I wanted to give an
[3:23] update on the middle school solar
project. Um we do have a pathway to
[3:27] getting that project done this year
which is good news. Um where we are now
[3:32] is we have received a proposed site
license from select using the power
[3:37] options uh purchasing methodology
and uh that site license is currently
[3:42] with council uh town council and school
council for review uh along with school
[3:47] administration for their review. And our
hope is that the school committee can um
[3:53] discuss and vote on this at their
September uh meeting which I believe is
[3:57] also around the 23rd or um at that time
frame. So um and if that happens, we
[4:05] still have a path to getting this done
this year. The other um agreement that
[4:09] needs to be signed and executed is the
um power purchase agreement. And uh we
[4:14] do we did receive a draft of that as
well. And so both documents will be
[4:19] reviewed by uh council prior to uh
execution and the site license will be
[4:26] more of a public conversation. But the
developer feels very strongly that if we
[4:30] get these things done this month that
this project can be completed this year
[4:34] and uh lock in the pricing that we've
been exploring. So that's great news. We
[4:39] still have the power options review, but
that does not take that much time. And
[4:44] um the developer feels strongly that if
we can get these things executed soon,
[4:48] the project can move forward. Um work
continues on the landfill solar
[4:54] expansion as well with a lot of those
panels coming off. Um we did receive
[4:59] some really good news that the panels
will be reused instead of recycled. Um
[5:04] while recycling is you know a a good
outcome for re old panels a reuse is
[5:11] much better because it ensures that none
of that is going into a landfill. So
[5:15] these panels will most the vast majority
of them will be reused um as they are
[5:19] for a long period of time which is great
news. Um and we are targeting probably
[5:25] early Q1 of 27 for completion of that.
They're really trying to get everything
[5:30] done this year and commissioned I think
for some tax purposes. But um things are
[5:35] moving very quickly. We are we have some
engineering review with a third party
[5:40] engineer for uh metering equipment and
the way that we will be able to
[5:45] interconnect uh and kind of sit between
where this um equipment is and our
[5:52] conductors downstream so that we can
properly meter it according to the
[5:55] contract. And um and we also have a
temporary measure in case the metering
[6:00] equipment doesn't arrive in time. But um
we're in we're in good shape on this
[6:03] project and really exciting to have our
first uh battery storage here in
[6:07] conquered that we can dispatch.
Um I wanted to remind board members that
[6:12] it's about that time of year again for
the DPU report. This is an annual return
[6:17] that MLPS must file every year and uh
it's a very long document includes a lot
[6:22] of financial information as well as some
information about your municipality and
[6:27] about your decision makers like board
member lightboard members. The DP report
[6:32] is as of 1231 2025. So there's only
actually three members here who were
[6:39] members then and that's Chris, John, and
Warren. So, we'll be reaching out to the
[6:44] three of you for signatures on this um
report and then Tyson and Nicole, next
[6:48] year you would be uh because you were
light would be lightboard members at the
[6:53] end of this year, you would sign the
next return. Um and so, thank you to Nan
[6:58] for driving this process and helping
collect all the information. Um it
[7:02] includes everything from like system and
capital upgrades to a ton of financial
[7:07] information that comes out of our audit.
And uh it was one of Nan's goals last
[7:13] year to help document the process
because it's one of those things you do
[7:16] once a year and is easy to you know kind
of forget and then get drowning in the
[7:22] uh remembering all the different things
you had to do. So uh she's done a great
[7:25] job at that and has already made
significant headway. So we hope to have
[7:28] that to um the board members in a couple
weeks for signature. All the DPU returns
[7:33] get filed on the DPU's website and you
can find um past years for all the MLPS
[7:39] there.
Uh the engineering and line crews have
[7:43] been supporting a number of projects
around town. Uh we have received
[7:46] additional doors for our new SCADA
project uh for substation 223. Uh we
[7:52] still have some doors that are
backordered for substation 219. The com
[7:57] total completion for that project is
probably creeping into early 2027, but a
[8:03] lot of work will happen this fall and
winter. And u you know to do some of
[8:07] this work we will have to be tying
circuits and feeders together that
[8:11] aren't normally tied so that we can kind
of deenergize equipment and then safely
[8:16] replace it. So there's a lot of planning
and coordination work that goes into
[8:20] that because you can't just blindly
connect things that don't normally get
[8:24] connected. You have to do a lot of
analysis and the timing has to be right.
[8:27] which is why this is a fall winter
project and not a um you know anytime
[8:32] where we have super heavy demands um and
uh or maybe solar saturation issues. So
[8:40] um there's been a lot of coordination on
this project and Joe and his team have
[8:44] been meeting with the stakeholders and
the manufacturer uh quite often and um
[8:50] so I'm really happy that it's continuing
on in this way. And then I wanted to
[8:56] mention um you know the light plant
typically celebrates public power week
[9:01] every year which is the first full week
in October and every other year or so we
[9:07] tend to do an open house and this year
we have been planning our open house uh
[9:13] for the better part of the year. It
really started early this year in our
[9:16] planning. So the open house is Saturday
October 3rd. Uh it is from 10:00 a.m. to
[9:22] 2 p.m. And this is uh really an event
for any resident, business, family in
[9:28] conquered uh or any of the customers
that we serve uh who are interested in
[9:32] seeing the light plant and seeing some
of the people that run the light plant
[9:36] and seeing the equipment, the trucks,
the fiber splicers, the safety
[9:40] equipment. Uh as well as interactive
displays on solar, on clean energy, on
[9:45] EVs. Um there'll be, you know, posters
and information about time of day,
[9:50] people who can answer questions. There's
a lot of activities for kids, including
[9:54] face painting and pumpkin decorating and
cider donuts and um local farms are
[10:00] providing uh fresh apple cider and
donuts and things. So um if you go to
[10:04] our website, conqueredmma.gov/cmlp,
[10:08] we'll have information up there about
it. We'll be setting up uh or sending
[10:12] out news and notices and information
blast to the public. We have a banner
[10:16] coming that we'll be hanging both in
West Conquer and downtown and we'll be
[10:20] trying to get the word out as best we
can. Um on when we celebrated our 125th
[10:25] anniversary a few years ago, we had
exactly 125 people come to the open
[10:30] house and we're really trying to uh
vastly outnumber that that group of
[10:35] people. Um we're trying to, you know,
allow people to come a little earlier in
[10:40] the day and stay a little later in the
afternoon. Um, and we have plenty of
[10:44] parking on site, so uh, people don't
have to worry about that. And, uh, yeah,
[10:48] we're just really hoping that people can
come out. And we'd also like to extend a
[10:52] special invitation for any lightboard
members who happen to be around that
[10:55] weekend. If you'd like to stop by and
say hello to the team, um, we'd love to
[10:59] have you there. So, uh, anybody watching
this, please, please do stop by October
[11:03] 3rd, 10 a.m. to 2 pm. And I'll stop
there and see if there's any questions.
[11:09] Any questions from board members?
>> Apologies for being late and cider
[11:14] donuts. Sound good?
>> Yeah, that October 3rd uh
[11:20] date sounds like an important one.
Unfortunately, I'm going to be out of
[11:24] the country and won't be able to to join
you, but
[11:27] » we'll save you a donut.
>> We'll put it in the freezer.
[11:30] » Excellent.
Any any questions, comments?
[11:36] And Jason, I think you'll be doing the
broadband update. Yes. Um I will. Uh so
[11:42] just a few updates on broadband. The
march continues toward broadband's um
[11:47] completion of their 100 gig router
upgrade migration. Um the the current
[11:54] topology is stable. We've even asked um
kind of third parties to vet some of
[11:59] this information. Feel very solid with
our final plans to replace the backup
[12:03] piece of equipment. And um during that
maintenance window, which ordinarily
[12:08] replacing a backup would not impact any
service, but we do plan to actually test
[12:13] the failover capabilities of these units
because what we don't want to do is feel
[12:17] like we've completed this project and
then we think everything is good in the
[12:21] first moment that the we have some sort
of issue. The primary router doesn't
[12:25] fail over properly to the backup router.
So um they will test that. It should
[12:30] just be a very brief service
interruption. Um, routers are really
[12:34] good at um, if if they're up, they can
gracefully uh, kind of let people's
[12:39] session finish on whatever they're doing
and kind of move over to another one.
[12:43] So, because we're not really losing the
router, we can kind of test that
[12:46] failover. It really shouldn't have a big
service impact. And we will advertise
[12:50] this to people like we do any um,
service impacting maintenance window. It
[12:54] will happen in the middle of the night.
Um, usually we prepare around midnight
[12:58] and start these things around 1:00 a.m.
And, uh, for something like this, it
[13:02] should really just be a short period of
time that we need to do that testing and
[13:05] work. So, um, it will happen sometime in
September. We don't have a date yet,
[13:09] but, um, once the team vets everything,
we'll push that out and make sure
[13:13] everybody, all the customers are aware,
um, of that. And then that project,
[13:18] including the XGS pawn migration and
everything else, will be complete. Um
[13:23] and then I think in October Dale might
be here to you know announce the new
[13:27] speeds that we'll be offering
residential customers at no additional
[13:31] cost. um getting these uh bandwidth
upgrades was really important
[13:36] prerequisite to make sure that we could
extend these um faster speeds without
[13:41] inc you know um incurring any any
congestion issues because uh what other
[13:46] ISPs don't tell you is that they vastly
overs subscribe their services and their
[13:52] um their pipes basically their bandwidth
options and so that means that you know
[13:57] 95% of the time you might have you might
not bump up against any of their limits
[14:01] but that you will occasionally. Uh we
don't do that. We currently are not
[14:05] really overs subscribing, especially
kind of our main exits to anything. So,
[14:10] um but we what we wanted to do is make
sure that if we did offer faster speeds
[14:14] to people that they could always get
those faster speeds and that's what um
[14:17] this project enables people to do.
Recently, we implemented a survey uh for
[14:23] a street. there was some interest for
some people that were their road was
[14:27] being paved um in the next year or so
and they were interested in getting uh
[14:31] broadband. One of the models that we've
discussed um going back to the fiber
[14:36] broadband completion task force was
trying to make datadriven decisions
[14:41] about where we expand conquered
broadband access because as you know or
[14:45] could imagine it's very expensive to do
these capital projects to bring fiber to
[14:49] homes and what you don't want to see is
you spend significant capital to find
[14:53] that there's no customers there waiting
for you to to sign up for that service
[14:57] because you you're not going to get any
return to help you expand in future
[15:01] territories. So, one of the things we
wanted to do was um get more detailed
[15:05] information about customers in
particular service areas that do not
[15:09] currently have access to broadband and
then use that data to help plan the um
[15:14] expansion of the territory. So, we did
that. There's the street. It serves
[15:18] really only nine residents. Um and it
was an area that had underground um
[15:23] electricity long before broadband
existed. So, that's why they don't have
[15:27] conduit, you know, going down the road
for for our facilities and broadband. Um
[15:31] we did that survey and we found that
eight of the nine were likely or very
[15:35] likely to take broadband as they were
unhappy with their current options and
[15:39] ISP. Um which suggests that this is
probably a really good market for us to
[15:44] you know consider expanding into
especially with the upcoming paving. Um
[15:48] sometimes what we'll do so we do this on
the electric side as well is that we may
[15:53] either hire a contractor or ourselves
put some conduit in the ground and you
[15:58] know plan where the handholds go but we
might not necessarily do all the work
[16:01] and pull all the conductors or the fiber
immediately but at least before the
[16:05] paving happens because there is a
moratorum after paving occurs. We don't
[16:09] want to see streets sit with no access
in the future. So whether we complete it
[16:14] now or we at least get some uh
infrastructure in the ground so that we
[16:18] can do it in the you know medium term um
we are going to try to proceed with this
[16:23] street but we have to coordinate with uh
engineering and and make sure that there
[16:29] uh there's no other facilities that
we're going to bump up against as we try
[16:32] to plan the street and and then there's
also just the time and we have a small
[16:36] underground crew who does work so we
just have to consider their time as
[16:40] well. uh they've recently replaced all
those hand holes on uh Gford Lane and uh
[16:45] helped connect that broadband
infrastructure that was kind of orphaned
[16:49] and not connected uh then was traveling
through the electric space so that we
[16:53] could utilize that and separate it. But
they get very busy during the the
[16:58] digging season and there's a lot of
underground projects that we have in
[17:01] conquered so we just need to coordinate
that. But I'm I'm just really happy that
[17:05] we've been able to connect with
customers in this way and you know get a
[17:08] kind of a direct representation of their
interest in the service and it seems
[17:12] strong and um oh the last update was
just on Gford Lane which I just kind of
[17:17] touched on. So I'll I'll pause there and
see if anybody has any questions.
[17:21] » Any questions from board members?
[17:28] » Warren.
>> Hi. Um, in the broadband report, there's
[17:33] a box in there that says upcoming
maintenance is taking place in on June
[17:38] 11th and June 18th.
I assume that's
[17:43] a mistake.
>> Yes, that sounds like a mistake. Um, we
[17:48] will get that updated and make sure that
um it's not too confusing for people.
[17:54] » Thank you.
[17:57] » Any other questions?
for comments.
[18:02] I
>> guess just curious um of the you said
[18:05] there are nine people on the street.
Were you were you able to get to get
[18:09] input from all nine?
>> Yes, we did. So the very interested um
[18:15] party who you know initially contacted
us did helped us do some outreach. We
[18:20] did directly outreach to all the
customers. Um but I imagine that maybe
[18:25] one or two might have fallen between the
cracks. that this sounds like a close
[18:29] neighborhood and this individual reached
out directly to all of his neighbors and
[18:32] um encouraged their participation just
so that we would have kind of expedient
[18:36] feedback and it it was really I think it
was within 3 days we had heard from all
[18:40] nine. So that was great.
>> That's great.
[18:46] » Any other questions or comments?
[18:51] » Not seeing any. The uh next agenda item
is financial review. Um I think this is
[18:57] in preparation of kind of the um 2027
forecast which we'll be reviewing in
[19:03] greater detail in the coming months. Um
and uh Jason turn it over to you.
[19:10] » Great. Thank you John. Um so we're going
to kind of handle this conversation in
[19:14] two parts. The first part we're going to
talk about the audit and we can pause
[19:18] and uh see if there's questions and then
we're going to shift to talk about um
[19:23] some early drivers of the of the
forecast for discussion. Um what we
[19:28] envisioned for this forecast cycle was
that we would um have this meeting to
[19:34] kind of talk about some of the pressures
that we're seeing about the forecast
[19:38] while staff continue to develop the
first draft of the forecast and then in
[19:42] October we would be presenting that
forecast um and allowing the board to
[19:47] have a little bit of time to to review
it beforehand and then get feedback from
[19:51] the board on that and then produce a
final draft that would be voted. And
[19:55] just to clarify kind of the
responsibility of all the parties um we
[19:59] produce a forecast that tries to capture
all of our um estimated costs including
[20:05] you know personnel on and m capital
broadband um power supply and the board
[20:12] looks at that and and votes it and that
kind of then sets in motion the rate
[20:18] creation. Now, in a typical year
historically, we were then flipping
[20:23] immediately to setting rates in December
to become effective January 1st. We're
[20:28] kind of in a unique period now because
we went live with time of day rates in
[20:32] April of this year with the expectation
that there would be a phase two. And
[20:37] there's been some discussion and I think
um we are of a mind that the phase 2
[20:42] rates might start exactly one year after
the phase 1 rates in April of 27. Um,
[20:48] and in part that would really help with
the year-over-year comparisons of going
[20:53] live at the same time with this uh new
rate and it might allow for some more of
[20:59] the bill print conversations to take
place before then. Uh whether or not
[21:03] that is fully baked or not, we we don't
have a crystal ball yet. But I think
[21:07] that it would give us more time to take
into consideration some of the requests
[21:10] surrounding billprint um and and and
like I said, provide a better comparison
[21:15] year-over-year. But anyway, regardless
of that, once the financial forecast is
[21:20] voted by the board, we take that as our
revenue requirement to use to configure
[21:25] the rates. Um because these rates were
um you know developed in conjunction
[21:30] with a third party. Um we had that third
party kind of sitting on retainer with
[21:36] some time and materials hours. So, uh,
while Laura and other staff are
[21:41] perfectly capable of running through the
revenue requirements or running the
[21:45] revenue requirements through the cost of
service study model, um, we would
[21:49] probably re-engage them just because
time of day is such a unique uh, beast
[21:53] and we would work with them to look at
analysis on what we've seen so far with
[21:58] time of day and then use that to
construct the rates that would become
[22:02] effective for phase two. Um the way that
the light plant's budget gets voted at
[22:08] town meeting is different from some
other departments, not all but some. In
[22:12] that there's not a specific
appropriation for the light plant. The
[22:15] light the town meeting is authorizing
the light plant to spend all of its
[22:19] money and all the money it might make in
that given year. So the forecast is
[22:24] really that it's this is what we think
power supply will cost. This is what we
[22:28] think these things will do. And then we
we often talk about okay well last year
[22:32] this was our forecast and you know we
thought we're going to give out this
[22:35] many rebates but we didn't. We found
that things slow down or we found that
[22:38] this rebate program was much more
popular. And these conversations allow
[22:42] the board to provide input on kind of
where we're focusing. There are
[22:46] obviously some drivers that we have
little control over. There are contracts
[22:50] executed by boards long before you that
um you know kind of set the stage for
[22:55] for things that we can't change. There
are certain uh contracts uh like for
[23:00] example union contracts that we're going
to have for the first time. Uh these are
[23:03] kind of looked at as fixed costs but
there's a lot of discretion as well and
[23:07] things that you know the board can
provide input onto um initiatives that
[23:11] we should focus more on or less on or
pivot to. So this is the beginning of
[23:16] that conversation. So I first wanted to
talk about the audit. Um I received the
[23:21] audit yesterday morning. I think the
auditors might have sent it to Nan on
[23:24] Friday, but um I just got it yesterday,
put it in the packet and I realize that
[23:29] board members probably have not had a
time to exhaustively read the entire
[23:33] document and that's okay. Um I wanted to
talk briefly just about the audit
[23:37] process and what that looks like every
year um both from our perspective going
[23:42] through it as well as from the town's
perspective. So the first thing that
[23:47] happens is at the end of the year or the
very beginning of the new year, the
[23:52] auditors come on site to do an inventory
audit. They randomly select items from
[23:56] both the broadband and electric side
that are supposed to be in the warehouse
[24:00] and they do spot checks of many of these
items to make sure that the counts that
[24:04] we have on the books match the counts
that we have physically here. um they
[24:09] they hold on to that information and
what they're waiting for is they're
[24:12] waiting for the kind of the close of our
financial year which is usually about 60
[24:16] to 90 days after a given month. So in
the March April time frame we have
[24:22] closed the previous uh calendar fiscal
year for us and um then the auditors
[24:28] kind of engage and they provide us with
a list of their requests that they need
[24:32] and we start collecting documents. Then
they do on-site visits where they
[24:36] collect and might spot check other
documents or look for backup. Uh there's
[24:40] a lot of conversations that happen,
questions that we ask, questions that
[24:43] they ask. And then um we our our staff
prepare and produce reports for them uh
[24:51] as well as additional backup
information. And then the auditors
[24:55] prepare the financial statements uh for
the light plant. And then they produce
[24:59] an audit on the findings and of the
organization's finances. And you know,
[25:04] basically they're they're telling you
and the public um how easy it is to find
[25:08] things, how accurate things are, and
basically the general um financial
[25:14] condition of the of the light plant
organization. Um once we receive that
[25:18] audit, we obviously share it with the
lightboard. But conquer has a unique
[25:22] ether committee that handles audits for
the town, and that's the financial audit
[25:26] advisory committee. that committee um
receives and reports on the town audit,
[25:32] the CCRSD audit, the regional district
audit, and the light plant audit. And um
[25:38] we have a lightboard member, Chris
Shaner, who has been appointed by the
[25:41] select board to to that group um after
he was voted by you um to represent you.
[25:47] And so what will happen at that meeting
is that the auditor, our auditor will
[25:51] show up there and we'll provide a full
presentation of the audit and answer any
[25:56] questions that that group might have
about the audit. And um that audit
[26:01] contains representatives like I said
from the lay plant, from the school
[26:04] district, from the town, from the
finance committee and they you know
[26:07] discuss the audits. Eventually, they
produce a report about the audit and
[26:11] then they vote it and that becomes kind
of like the final record and it's kind
[26:14] of like the town's understanding of the
audit and the result of it and any
[26:18] questions or takeaways or action items
that that need to happen going forward.
[26:23] The the FAAC
um historically would kind of have this
[26:28] dormant um cycle and then come back to
life when audits were done and then go
[26:34] away. But in the last year and a half or
so, there's been a renewed interest to
[26:38] keep this group active so that they have
a better kind of pulse on what's
[26:42] happening um across these different
organizations and and also knowing that
[26:47] there's very big timing differences,
right? Because we're on a calendar
[26:50] fiscal year, but the town and the
district are not. So that means that
[26:55] audits are produced at different times
of the year, which necessitates them
[26:59] meeting kind of at different schedules.
So um the financial audit advisory
[27:02] committee will be reviewing this audit
in great detail. Their meetings are
[27:06] recorded. Their report will be entered
into um you know I don't know if it's
[27:11] printed in the town meeting annual
report but um it is kind of the official
[27:16] log of this and historically the
lightboard has been um you know like
[27:20] okay this is interesting. We'll discuss
some key takeaways but you know that's
[27:23] the audit committee and they'll do their
thing. But just know that if you have
[27:26] any questions, if you have any concerns
or if you would like to talk about this
[27:30] in greater detail, you're welcome to
reach out to the chair or to me to, you
[27:34] know, raise that issue. Um, and we we
certainly can talk more about it in this
[27:38] setting. And John, do you want to take
questions because I'm totally fine
[27:41] taking questions and pausing for a
second here?
[27:43] » Yeah, please. I see you got questions
from Tyson and Chris.
[27:48] » Yeah. So just real quick on a
clarification, is it the responsibility
[27:52] of that committee to look at the
findings that are coming out of the
[27:56] audit and then track those through the
course of the year to make sure that
[28:00] there's progress being made and then
report back to the lightboard on that
[28:04] progress?
>> That's a great question. I think that so
[28:08] historically um the the auditors who had
been in place for many many years were
[28:13] not producing a lot of findings and so
there wasn't as much to track. Last year
[28:17] in the town's audit, there were several
material weaknesses and there was one
[28:21] for the light plant associated with the
inability to reconcile cash between the
[28:25] town and the light plant. And so that is
a fair question to say well like who is
[28:29] tracking these things? Um I think that
you know for the town I think between
[28:33] the finance committee and the financial
aory committee there is definitely a
[28:38] renewed interest in making sure that
those material weaknesses and any other
[28:42] significant findings get discussed and
addressed. Um, I think that you, as
[28:46] you'll see when we talk a little bit
about our current situation, you'll see
[28:50] that either some of them don't pertain
to us. It's not in our control or they
[28:56] are things that have already been
resolved. Um, or they were brought up by
[28:59] staff as questions like, "Hey, this is
how we've been doing it forever. What do
[29:03] you think?" And they said, "Yeah, no,
that's we think you should do it this
[29:06] way instead." So, um, what like it's a
fair question, but I I Yeah. So, I don't
[29:12] really know if it's like their
responsibility. Chris, do you know if
[29:15] like in terms of the charge, it's their
charge to track those and report on
[29:20] them?
>> The charge of the um of that audit
[29:24] committee?
>> Yeah.
[29:25] » Yeah. I mean, I think they they serve uh
you know at the at we serve the
[29:32] selectmen basically. So I think it's
ultimately the select men who have that
[29:36] responsibility, not not us. But that's a
good question. I don't I don't know the
[29:40] answer exactly.
>> It's really hard to hear it, Chris.
[29:42] » Yeah, I'm sorry. I I got the wrong mic
going here. Um
[29:48] » but I think he was saying it's the
responsibility of the select board um
[29:51] ultimately which the financial audit
advisory serves at the request of. Um so
[29:57] yeah, I I I guess that's something we
can certainly ask u maybe Jennifer
[30:01] Barrett the town.
>> Yeah, it it would be helpful to
[30:04] understand what the governance process
is on those now that you sounds like
[30:08] have improved your auditors. So you'll
you'll probably have findings going
[30:12] forward that uh folks need to have an
understanding around and and ensure that
[30:16] we're making progress on
[30:23] » Chris.
>> Yeah. Um but you know we probably will
[30:26] have findings but I'm looking through
this I am I missing something? I'm not
[30:30] seeing any any findings or uh
deficiencies in this
[30:35] maybe maybe it's on the wrong page
>> internal control report. There are two
[30:39] significant findings and I'm going to
touch on those in my conversation in a
[30:43] minute. So,
>> okay, fair enough. I'll wait for that.
[30:47] » Yeah, there's there are some items
identified on page 80 of the PDF, I
[30:51] think.
>> All right, it didn't make it to page 80
[30:53] yet.
>> How dare you, Chris.
[30:57] To his credit, he was on page 78, so he
was almost
[31:01] » No, I you know, if I was writing a
report and there was something
[31:04] important, it would be on page one.
>> Well, it's true. material weaknesses are
[31:08] required to appear in the financial
statements, right? So like to your
[31:12] point, Chris, like if there was
something seriously wrong, you probably
[31:15] would have seen it before then. Um the
internal control report is intended to
[31:19] capture less significant events than
material weaknesses. And so the good
[31:24] news is we did not have a material
weakness on this audit. Um and uh so
[31:29] since we're talking about it, let me
just talk about the two um significant
[31:32] findings that they had. So every auditor
who is asked to prepare financial
[31:38] statements as well um has a potential uh
has identified a potential uh control
[31:46] issue which is that there could be the
situation that the organization does not
[31:51] have the qualified staff necessary to
produce the financial statements which
[31:55] in itself could be a problem right so
imagine an organization and they've
[31:59] fired their CFO and they've fired their
finance director and they've got uh you
[32:03] an AP specialist and an AR specialist
and they're saying somebody says you
[32:08] know we'll produce your financial
statements and they say well we can't so
[32:10] let's ask the auditor to do that in that
case there could be a problem right so
[32:14] the governmental accounting standards
say that if the auditor does the
[32:19] financial statements then they need to
disclose that um and they can decide
[32:24] whether it's a finding a significant
finding a weakness or something else the
[32:29] previous auditor would always mention
this if you go back and watch the um the
[32:35] for example the CCRSD audit that was
presented to the financial audit
[32:39] advisory committee you'll see that the
auditor um from CBIZ that was used by
[32:44] the town for that audit very clearly
discloses that they produced the
[32:48] financial statements and what their
relationship was for the audit and and
[32:53] the creation of those financial
statements and that but that auditor
[32:56] just did not flag that as a significant
finding. Gule Salvidian and Associates
[33:01] our new auditor u does always make this
as a significant finding and it's in
[33:06] every single internal control report for
every MLP that they audit and uh for
[33:11] whom they also create the financial
statements and I think they said they
[33:15] only have one of their more than one
dozen uh clients who they who who
[33:21] produces their own financial statements
and it's probably a very large MLP who
[33:24] has probably a much larger finance team
than we do. Um, but it really is not a
[33:30] qualification thing as uh Nan is a CPA
and and well within uh her capability to
[33:35] produce financial statements, but um
historically conquered has appreciated a
[33:39] third party taking that information and
vetting it and displaying it. And it
[33:43] also is a time thing because the audit
is very labor intensive for staff and
[33:48] having to do both of those functions may
delay the ultimate completion. So
[33:52] anyway, um that finding will always be
there. it will never go away unless we
[33:57] prepare our own financial statements.
But um as you can see they talk a lot
[34:01] about the creation of the financial
statements and they have to raise any
[34:05] issues with that process that they find.
So in other words if we don't have
[34:08] information for them or they don't feel
certain about the data that we're
[34:12] presenting or they find u quality issues
with the data that we're giving them
[34:16] then obviously they can't create the
financial statements and they would you
[34:20] know also identify that as a a different
kind of issue. That's one of the
[34:24] significant findings. The other one was
um and I don't have the language in
[34:28] front of me, but it's something like
account issues and the following 12
[34:31] account issues were identified and these
are um
[34:36] more granular uh suggestions that they
have for best practices on how accounts
[34:41] are handled and there were 12 of them.
Um examples of them include and I'll
[34:46] just run through them. The first one was
the depreciation fund. So we pay money
[34:52] into an account called depreciation for
our assets, right? They depreciate at a
[34:56] particular rate and we are putting that
money away to replace those items when
[35:00] they need to be replaced. Um we do not
handle our cash. That is all handled by
[35:07] the town treasurer and that arrangement
is like that in every MLP in the state
[35:11] because the law requires that they are
the treasurer for the light plants in
[35:15] their communities. So when cash comes
into the light plant, it comes into the
[35:19] town treasurer and is deposited in an
account for the light plant. Um that
[35:24] account is one account and the auditors
would prefer to see depreciation appear
[35:28] in a separate account. And so that is
not something that's within our control,
[35:32] but it's certainly a best practice that
we can pass along to the town treasur's
[35:36] office and say, "Hey, our auditors would
prefer to see a separate account just to
[35:40] make sure cash is not comingled with
other functions." So those are the types
[35:44] of um findings that we had. The other
one was the cash reconciliation with the
[35:48] town which has been an issue but because
we've been able to do it um it was not a
[35:52] material weakness right but I think
there's still delays and the regular uh
[35:57] reporting of cash and something that
town staff will have to work closely
[36:01] with CMLP staff to um make sure that in
a timely manner within X days after
[36:07] close both sides can reconcile cash and
as I mentioned the co-mingling is
[36:11] definitely makes things a challenge
because the town has one account for
[36:16] everything for tax receipts and excise
and you know water sewer other
[36:20] enterprise funds. Um so you know
typically if you had your own bank
[36:23] account you could use the bank statement
as a reconciliation tool. We don't have
[36:27] that at our disposal and our system does
not have you know history of all those
[36:33] other transactions. So it's inherently
complicated and there are timing delays
[36:37] and etc etc but we've made significant
strides in addressing cash
[36:41] reconciliation
um with the town and I think we'll
[36:44] continue to work on that. so that we
feel like we can do a more regular
[36:48] reporting of the cash wreck. Go ahead
Tyson or Don if you are okay with it.
[36:56] » Tyson, please.
>> Yeah, just a quick question on the
[36:59] drafting financial statements. Is there
a reason why you don't use two different
[37:04] firms uh to try and separate the the the
the responsibility there?
[37:09] » I don't know the answer to that
question. And I know that the town and
[37:12] many towns in Massachusetts um use the
same auditor to prepare the financial
[37:17] statements as to perform the audit. They
are technically done by different
[37:21] individuals within the auditing firm. Um
and I know that you know there are
[37:26] standards that they are are held to, but
I don't know the answer to that
[37:30] question. But I can certainly look into
it to see if that's a reasonable thing
[37:33] or if it creates um overhead or if
there's some, you know, cost issue. I I
[37:38] really don't know.
>> Okay. I was just curious because when
[37:40] I've dealt with that situation before,
usually you separate two firms.
[37:44] » Yeah.
>> Thanks,
[37:47] » John. Do you think it would be helpful
to run through the other 10 specific
[37:52] recommendations for accounts under that
or is that too much level of detail for
[37:56] the lightboard? I just I'm happy to do
it, but I I don't want to waste time if
[38:00] that if there's
>> I mean, from my perspective, I'm
[38:04] comfortable with what we've heard. I
don't know if others uh would like to
[38:08] hear greater detail.
[38:12] » We will be preparing um a summary
document. Um it has a table. I'm I'm
[38:18] looking at it right now as I'm reading
off these notes, but it will have the
[38:21] topic and the description from the
auditors. It will have the owner of like
[38:24] who's in charge of implementing that. It
will have notes on where we are today.
[38:28] And it will have the status whether it's
already complete, whether it's going to
[38:31] be complete and then any next steps that
are required. And so that document will
[38:35] be circulated, you know, in the future.
But I prepared that just in case we
[38:40] needed to talk about it. But, you know,
if the board is happy with that, we can
[38:44] do that. Or if again, uh, Chris, do you
want to answer John's question?
[38:49] » No, I I was going to ask that I meet
with Jason before I go to the next
[38:55] financial a committee meeting with this
so that I fully briefed on it, but I
[38:59] don't think we need to cover anymore
today.
[39:03] » Yeah. the the document that you
mentioned, Chris, would be immensely
[39:06] helpful going forward to have that type
of material.
[39:11] » Um,
>> and we can expect that, Jason, at kind
[39:13] of the October or November board
meetings.
[39:15] » Oh, yeah, for sure. I mean, even by the
September meeting. Um, yeah, I mean,
[39:21] it's nearly sharable. we just have
internal notes on what we need to do for
[39:25] certain things and I would just you know
so but yeah I mean literally it could be
[39:29] sent out today if if you know anyway but
we will get it to the board soon just so
[39:34] we can identify and as I said several of
these are already resolved several of
[39:38] these were raised by staff because they
were you know asking you know hey this
[39:42] is something we've done for 20 years
like this the other auditor uh said that
[39:46] this was fine and dandy and can you just
like tell us from your perspective
[39:50] knowing that you've completed way more
light plant audits like is this the way
[39:53] other people do it? No, not really. And
uh you know, you should probably do it
[39:57] this way. So, uh anyway, that does segue
nicely into the just the reiteration of
[40:03] the fact that we do have new auditors.
They do specialize in light plant
[40:06] audits. They did find things that we
asked them to look at that have been
[40:10] nagging us and staff for a while. And
I'm really grateful for their expertise.
[40:14] We had some really um deep, engaging
conversations about process and history.
[40:19] um they get into the weeds of all of
your meetings. Next year's audit, they
[40:23] will be reading the minutes from this
meeting and my words right now. So, um
[40:27] they they look at really everything in
in totality and what the board does and
[40:31] its actions and and looking at laws and
recommendations. So, they they've done a
[40:35] great job and uh first audits can be
very challenging. And so I in addition
[40:40] to thanking the auditors, I need to
thank all the staff who really spent a
[40:43] lot of their time um preparing for this,
especially Nan, but all of her staff,
[40:47] Sandy and Beverly and Rebecca as well,
as well as Karen and other staff and
[40:52] other departments. I mean, this audits
like this spread far and wide. It goes
[40:56] into power supply and Laura's team. It
goes into operations and Joe's team. It
[41:01] goes into customer service and rates. So
um really everybody at the light plant
[41:05] has helped and contributed to the
production of this this document and u
[41:10] you know I think our goals in addition
to um addressing some of these
[41:13] individual account issues is also to um
continue to hone down our monthly close
[41:19] process so that it's a little bit
shorter to reconcile more items on a on
[41:23] a regular monthly basis and then um
hopefully next year's audit will be a
[41:27] little bit faster because we won't be
dealing with a new auditor. We know what
[41:30] they're going to ask for. Um it was kind
of funny. They showed up and they forgot
[41:34] to send us the list of things that they
needed. So we were kind of scrambling at
[41:37] the last minute, but you know, having
all that information just makes things
[41:40] more um expedient in the future. So
we're looking forward to that. Um just
[41:45] some key takeaways. I think you know the
the short version of the of the story
[41:51] from our overall audit and the financial
condition is that the foundation is
[41:55] extremely solid. cash on hand and um
incoming payments alone more are more
[42:01] than enough to cover um all of our total
debts and uh we don't have an issue with
[42:05] liquidity. Um and then long-term
obligations, deferred outflows um are
[42:11] handled proactively and we have um you
know no issues with future budgets uh
[42:16] that won't kind of be caught off guard
by some of these commitments whether
[42:18] it's power supply, oped, pension, things
like that. Um, some key takeaways. I
[42:23] think another good read is the uh
management discussion analysis section,
[42:27] which kind of tells you in plain text
what some of these numbers mean. Um,
[42:31] plant net worth increased 9.88%
year-over-year from 24 to 25. Net income
[42:37] was 6.7 million. Operating revenues were
17.6% higher in 2025 than 24. Um that
[42:45] was driven by commercial sales that were
uh 7% higher than 24 uh with residential
[42:50] sales increasing 5%.
Operating expenses increased by 12.6%
[42:56] mostly due to increased power supply but
also uh additional expenses being uh
[43:01] maintenance and tree trimming. Uh we did
a big tree trimming job in 25. Um we
[43:06] purchased 3.4 4 million kilowatt hours
more in 25 than the year before which
[43:12] indicates that electrification is
increasing especially heat pumps and
[43:16] EVs. Uh but it was also a hotter summer
and a colder winter uh than the previous
[43:21] year and debt decreased about half a
million dollars from the previous year.
[43:26] So, um, I think I'll just pause there,
see if there's any last questions, but
[43:30] just know that A, we'll be following up
with the board on some of those, uh,
[43:33] open items, and B, the financial audit
advisory committee will be doing a much
[43:37] deeper dive into the audit along with
the audit presentation, which will be
[43:41] recorded, and Goule and Salvo and
Associates will be out to to offer that
[43:45] presentation directly. And um, yeah, so
I'll just see John if there's any other
[43:50] questions before I kind of pivot into
talking about the other half of the
[43:53] financial discussion. Any questions from
board members?
[44:00] Thanks, Jason. That was a very
comprehensive review and uh look forward
[44:04] to seeing the uh um summary of issues
and intended response.
[44:10] » Great. Um all right, so I'm going to
share my screen. Um,
[44:24] okay.
[44:29] So, I've kind of already talked about
the process, so I'm going to jump right
[44:33] into some key um financial drivers for
what we're seeing for 27. Um, and the
[44:39] first slide, the first two slides
actually are about power supply. And
[44:43] Laura, if you have any other things to
add about um transmission. I know we
[44:46] received a little bit of information on
that, but we hadn't had time to put a
[44:50] slide on it. But whatever you feel you
have some degree of certainty about,
[44:55] I'll turn it over to you.
>> Well, good morning everyone. How is
[44:59] everybody doing today?
Uh this first busy slide, um I'll don't
[45:04] worry, I'll walk you through it. Um the
two points you want to focus on are the
[45:08] two black circles. Um the
darker blue line
[45:15] uh is what the cost of forward power
delivered at the mass hub around the
[45:23] clock in an even manner would have cost
one year ago today. So back when we were
[45:29] setting the budget for 2026 2027 power
was trading about $70 for the year.
[45:36] Now, as we approach the budget cycle,
you can see the latest date here in
[45:41] August, uh, calendar 2027 deliveries
cost about $87.
[45:47] So, take away from this, power supply
expense is expected to be up.
[45:54] This is the cost of energy. Any
questions about this slide? The other
[45:59] colors are for different ears. Um,
but the the dark darker blue line is the
[46:06] one we're looking at for calendar 2027.
>> Any any questions from board members? I
[46:13] mean, obviously we have a portfolio of
power supplies which so we're not ex
[46:17] exposed to the full $87 per megawatt
hour.
[46:21] » That's correct. So, as you may recall,
about 20%
[46:25] um of our needs are typically met in the
spot market, and it's only that 20% that
[46:30] would be exposed to this increasing
pricing. Um, as John mentioned, the
[46:35] other 80% are covered under long-term
agreements. Um, the prices on those
[46:41] contracts do change. Um, so they the
cost of power can increase somewhat, but
[46:47] it's not going to be um it's like two it
might be a 2% escalator a year. it's not
[46:51] going to be the $70 to $87.
[46:57] So energy is one component of power
supplied. If you go to the next slide,
[47:02] um capacity is another component and uh
look to the far right column, that was
[47:08] the clearing price for capacity in
different auctions. So for um capacity
[47:16] the year runs from July 1st to June 30th
and uh for the 25 26 year
[47:25] um
the
[47:29] zone to which CMLP is subject
uh to is rest of pool which was trading
[47:35] at $259.
That was also the clearing price for the
[47:40] second half of 2026 and the first part
of 2027. But you can see starting in
[47:45] July of 2027 that rate is expected to
increase from 259 to $3.58.
[47:54] And then we don't, as Jason said, have a
slide on it, but another significant
[47:57] component of power supply expense about
6 or 7 million worth is in fact
[48:02] transmission. And a good chunk of that 6
million is attributable to the schedule
[48:07] 9 RNS rate we pay to the ISO New
England. And due to um capacity
[48:14] additions, buildouts, um various
projects to reinforce the grid, um those
[48:21] costs are expected to increase in 2027
versus 2026. Um we don't have an exact
[48:27] percentage right now but the bottom line
is all three legs of power supply costs
[48:34] that is energy capacity and transmission
are expected to increase in 2027
[48:40] um versus 2026. Exactly how much um
remains to be seen when we put the full
[48:46] forecast together. But we want to give
you a heads up that these increased
[48:50] costs um may put pressure uh upward
pressure on rates.
[48:57] » Laura, could you talk a little bit about
Oh, sorry. Maybe Tyson can go first, but
[49:00] I was just going to ask after he's gone,
could you talk a little bit about your
[49:04] process in developing the load forecast
and then working with E& on getting kind
[49:08] of estimates and just what you do there?
But um let's pause and if you want to
[49:13] call in, Tyson.
[49:17] If me call on Ty Tyson, please speak.
>> Um Laura, do you do you know what the um
[49:25] underlying kind of macro drivers are for
the increase in pricing?
[49:29] » I'm sorry. Can you repeat it? I didn't
hear you.
[49:32] » Can you uh Yeah. What are the Do you
know what the back the back like the
[49:35] macro drivers are for the increase in
pricing that are driving it?
[49:39] the back road drivers
>> macro like high level high level
[49:43] » the drivers the macrolevel drivers that
are that are increasing
[49:47] » for the energy cost
>> yes
[49:50] » yes it you want to go back to the
previous slide Jason um that would be
[49:55] oil the cost of oil which you may have
seen Brent just passed $100 a barrel
[50:01] » uh recently so the the major driver
there is world global oil supply you
[50:08] know you see the the market increase
once the war started. If you look, can
[50:13] you see my cursor?
>> No. No.
[50:16] » Okay. So, we went from like a $75 go to
about, you know, January March uh
[50:21] February March of 2026. Jason, you can
see it was trading around $75.
[50:27] Um yeah, go up to the blue line.
Go down a little bit. Yeah. So, but
[50:33] right before the war, it was trading at
75 and it immediately jumped up to 85 to
[50:38] $90. Um, there was a still a little
upward pressure even before the war
[50:44] started. You can see we went from 70 up
to 75 in this period. Um, but the major
[50:50] factor here is uh is oil.
>> Okay, that's helpful to understand.
[51:00] Warren.
>> Oh, and so about the process.
[51:04] » Sorry, Warren had a question.
>> Oh, I'm sorry.
[51:05] » Yeah. Um, given that there's very little
um electricity generation for oil, why
[51:14] is it having such a big impact on
electricity prices?
[51:19] um because oil um is fairly tightly
correlated with natural gas and it's
[51:28] natural gas that's really driving um the
cost of electricity. Now there's there's
[51:35] a couple different dynamics going on
with natural gas
[51:38] worldwide. Natural gas is trending
closely with oil. As oil gets shut in,
[51:44] natural gas production also gets shut in
globally. But in the US, we're kind of
[51:49] having a bit of a boom in oil production
and increased drilling over here coupled
[51:55] with the delay in um coming online of
several LNG export trains. And so the
[52:03] price like down at the Gulf Coast at
Henry Hub has been somewhat disconnected
[52:08] from worldwide worldwide um natural gas
prices. It's been fairly cheap at the
[52:13] Gulf, whereas it's trading very
expensive in Europe and the Far East.
[52:18] Um, but we're up here in New England and
as you may recall me saying in the past,
[52:23] we have um limited pipeline capacity to
deliver the supply we need in the
[52:28] winter. And so there's also a disconnect
between the Gulf Coast and the
[52:31] Northeast. The basis or the difference
between the two of those locations is
[52:35] huge, particularly in the winter. Um
so several different market dynamics
[52:42] happening in natural gas but really the
oil is tied to natural gas which is tied
[52:46] to electricity.
>> Thank you.
[52:52] » So the process for um for preparing the
budget the first thing we do is prepare
[52:59] the load forecast. Um, and we do that by
examining
[53:05] uh recent trends in um
in our sales compared to degree days. We
[53:15] always start the budget with an
assumption that we're going to
[53:18] experience normal weather during a year.
So, we base our load forecast on normal
[53:23] degree days.
Um
[53:28] and then uh once we have a load forecast
uh ENE develops the integrated portfolio
[53:36] cost. They figure okay here's how much
is going to come from each of the
[53:40] contracts. Here's what the cost is for
each one of those. Here how here's how
[53:44] much we'll have to buy from the spot
market and here's the cost of that. And
[53:47] they send us back what they believe the
purchase power supply expense is going
[53:52] to be based on our load forecast. and
that's what we put into the budget. And
[53:58] then as Jason mentioned, a lot of other
um expenses and both capital and
[54:03] operating are then assumed for the
upcoming year um to to develop a full
[54:08] revenue requirement for calendar 2027.
[54:15] » All right. Any other questions on power
supply before we move on?
[54:20] Okay. Um so thank you Laura. Um the next
thing I wanted to talk about was
[54:27] personnel. It's one of the first
sections in the forecast. Um we do have
[54:30] two collective bargaining units um here
at the light plant for the first time
[54:35] and those agreements will be executed
soon. The inception of the contract date
[54:41] is going to be January 1st, 2025. So
there's still some uh questions and
[54:46] uncertainty around the exact dollar
figures of impact, but hopefully we know
[54:50] those figures soon and we'll be
incorporating that into the forecast so
[54:55] that we have um some certainty. That is
only about 11 uh or so staff of the 41
[55:02] or so who work at the light plant. So
it's not, you know, the the majority um
[55:06] by any stretch, but it is a significant
change in in the way that we address
[55:11] that. for the other employees in the
light plant. Um, you know, all light
[55:15] plant employees are town staff and the
non-union staff follow the personnel
[55:19] bylaw and the salary um compensation
plan voted by the town and uh you know
[55:27] which I I think includes the personnel
board and other staff um and and goes
[55:32] through the regular budgeting process
for their salary reserves and all that.
[55:36] But basically that is um if you are
eligible to move up a step if you're not
[55:41] at the top you go up a step which is a
2% increase. Um and then there is a 1.2%
[55:47] cola that was given in um July of this
year. Uh again we're we're trying to um
[55:55] take the town which has a fiscal year of
July 1st to June 30th and the light
[55:59] plant which has one from January 1st to
December 31st and marry those. So
[56:03] there's always some level of uncertainty
because what we don't know is for the
[56:07] period of July 1st of next year through
the end of you know 2027. Um and so
[56:13] we're we're trying to use this as an
indicator of what might happen for uh
[56:17] the other salaries. There is a one-time
merit payment eligible for people who
[56:22] complete uh goals that are um expressly
documented and approved by their uh
[56:28] supervisor and department head. and they
they get a percent for each of those
[56:32] significant goals they complete. Um and
then uh in terms of vacancies and
[56:38] positions, we still do have a couple
vacant positions that we have been
[56:42] trying to fill. We have a senior network
engineer that's vacant right now. We
[56:46] have a meter supervisor that's vacant
right now. We also, you know, have to
[56:50] always think about um continuity and uh
planning around potential retirements.
[56:56] Um several years ago the light board had
suggested that staff um plan for a
[57:03] project manager role and we've been
planning to fund that um for several
[57:07] forecast cycles. Now the thought process
here was that whether it was the
[57:12] advanced metering project, time of day
rates, large solar arrays, there is
[57:17] always a project that's large that's
going on at the light plant and that
[57:21] maybe a a project manager could help
with both the project as well as
[57:26] outreach as well as coordination with
other departments. Um we also have near
[57:32] single FTE, you know, requirements among
several departments that we we're trying
[57:36] to juggle. And so um we're still
thinking about the application of that
[57:41] over the coming year. And I will mention
that you know with the um increased
[57:46] reliance on the advanced metering
system, we did create a new position for
[57:50] an advanced metering infrastructure
analyst that's been filled um with the
[57:56] expected retirement of other individuals
in the metering department. And that did
[58:00] come to fruition. So, we're still down
um or sorry, no, I think right now we
[58:05] we're kind of net even with where we
were with metering, but we're still
[58:09] finding a need that we need a supervisor
to oversee the metering uh team in terms
[58:14] of the safety and coordination and
service orders and all that. So, we're
[58:17] just trying to take a look at that and
um and see if we think we need to add an
[58:22] FTE or if we think that the one that we
had is sufficient or anyway, that's just
[58:27] a a note that we have here to talk
about. um as we go through the process
[58:32] and as we kind of work with staff and
department heads and I think I probably
[58:35] should have started by talking about our
own internal process which um Laura
[58:40] mentioned it for the power supply. We do
that for kind of nearly every major
[58:44] budget driver. Um we sit down with the
operations teams and we talk about
[58:48] projects that are coming down the road
both ones that we can and cannot
[58:51] control. Um for example the 40B projects
where we're going to see hundreds of
[58:55] units of housing come on board. you
know, we we don't have a say in whether
[58:59] that happens or not. It just happens and
we have to be able to respond. Other
[59:02] projects are ones that we might initiate
like an undergrounding project. So, um
[59:07] we sit down and we talk about those and
we figure out what we can get done, what
[59:10] we have to get done in a particular year
and what that translates to for costs.
[59:15] Um and then uh we also estimate revenues
and figure out you know what we plan to
[59:20] raise from uh merchandising and jobbing
and uh other uh contract kind of work
[59:24] that we do where we make revenue on
that. Um and then uh we put together
[59:30] this overarching document that you will
all see in a month that kind of outlines
[59:34] where we expect to spend money and make
money. Um so this is personnel. So, I'll
[59:39] stop here and just kind of see with each
slide if there's any questions that
[59:42] people have before I move on.
>> Any questions from board members on
[59:47] this?
[59:50] » Um, one question. So, you're talking
about um a vacant project manager role.
[59:57] Um, so I guess the question is whether
um you're typically looking to hire for
[1:00:07] full-time
um staff or, you know, are are there
[1:00:13] situations where you might consider
um hiring for a a limited time like a
[1:00:19] contract position for a specific
project?
[1:00:24] » Yep. Yeah, we absolutely do that. Um so
for example the middle school solar when
[1:00:28] we were undergoing construction we hired
a limited status um employee who was
[1:00:34] non-benefited position and uh had the
expertise necessary and had done many
[1:00:39] projects like that before public
projects and so uh she was able to help
[1:00:43] do coordination meetings and you know
on-site visits and bring back
[1:00:47] information to the team and coordinate.
So we've done that. We also have a lot
[1:00:51] of consultants that help us um and there
are for example at our uh NISC our
[1:00:57] software vendor um they have project
managers that help with certain
[1:01:01] implementations right so like there
there are project managers either at
[1:01:05] some of our consulting firms that we use
regularly or some of our vendors um I
[1:01:10] think this when the board conceived of
it was kind of um there was an
[1:01:15] overarching need not just to manage a
project well and help with the staff
[1:01:19] that were already overburdened with
other jobs, but also help communicate
[1:01:23] from the community's perspective um what
some of these things were and then work
[1:01:27] interdep departmentally. And I think
that's where some of those relationships
[1:01:30] sometimes aren't as productive with
third parties is um understanding maybe
[1:01:35] the particular community's needs and
then working closely with other
[1:01:38] departments. So, for example, like
public works and paving, right? So like
[1:01:42] I think sometimes um long-term
relationships like that are harder to do
[1:01:47] with brief engagements with but if
there's a particular big project we've
[1:01:52] absolutely done that in the past.
>> Okay.
[1:01:56] » Any other questions on personnel?
[1:02:02] » All right. I'll shift to capital. Um
this is the project that is coming and
[1:02:08] going. We're not really sure what's
happening here, but Eversource has been
[1:02:11] working with us on feasibility of a a
large substation upgrade that would help
[1:02:16] us participate in transmission. Um, and
so we're not sure exactly if this is
[1:02:21] happening. It's planned for, you know,
early to mid 2030s, but it's something
[1:02:25] that you have to plan for 8 to 10 years.
And so we've we've had several
[1:02:29] discussions with them. obviously is not
going to require us to build anything
[1:02:33] this upcoming year, but it may require
um planning and some of that planning is
[1:02:39] pretty serious and when it surrounds
transmission and capital then it may be
[1:02:43] capitalized. It just depends on what it
is. Um so there's that project coming.
[1:02:48] Uh we have a SCADA system as I mentioned
that will be going online soon. Um, but
[1:02:53] we also would want to look at next
steps, right? There's there's a lot of
[1:02:57] questions and conversations about
distributed energy management uh or
[1:03:01] resource management systems as well as
virtual peaker or virtual um power
[1:03:06] plants um as well as just the extension
of the SCADA system. The initial SCADA
[1:03:11] deployment is really going to be focused
at the substations. We have several
[1:03:15] other pieces of equipment in our
territory that are already uh kind of
[1:03:19] could be connected to this data system,
but there are many more that could be
[1:03:23] replaced. And all of that is providing
much more concrete data that will help
[1:03:28] people troubleshoot and understand how
our system is operating. And where you
[1:03:32] have a territory that's 50% underground,
that can be incredibly useful to help
[1:03:37] diagnose issues, which I can tell you
when we have an underground failure, it
[1:03:41] is it takes a very long time to identify
specifically where that failure is. And
[1:03:47] these manhole systems can be completely
filled with water and require to be
[1:03:50] pumped before you can enter. And it is
like finding a needle in a hay stack. So
[1:03:55] the more visibility we have for some of
these outside resources uh the more
[1:04:00] useful that SCADA system will be. This
will be very useful for looking at uh
[1:04:04] you know feeder data and and live uh
usage across different pieces of
[1:04:10] infrastructure at the substations. But
um you know we want to think about the
[1:04:14] next level which is kind of going out in
a in a circle um from the center from
[1:04:19] these substations which is you know
seeing what visibility we can have for
[1:04:22] things like reclosers and switches and
relays and uh other power protection
[1:04:27] devices out in the field. So that's
going on. And then we also have you know
[1:04:32] we have a lot of um buildings. We have
uh three substations one kind of
[1:04:36] dormant. We have uh municipal office
space and warehouse garage space. We
[1:04:41] have a roof that is in a failed state
that needs imminent replacement. We have
[1:04:45] parking lots. We have a lot of
infrastructure. And so, uh, figuring out
[1:04:49] the timing of that, what staff can do,
what consultants can do, what's
[1:04:53] reasonable, and what schedule we need to
replace these things on. So, those were
[1:04:56] big kind of drivers. Um, we also have on
the battery energy storage. We received
[1:05:03] borrowing authorization from town
meeting a couple of years ago to to
[1:05:07] purchase and own ourselves a large
battery in town. Um, our first battery,
[1:05:13] we were able to use that authorization
to our advantage to negotiate a very
[1:05:17] favorable deal with very little risk for
rateayers on our first battery. But the
[1:05:22] question still remains, which is that
that battery still has a lot of
[1:05:26] limitations. It's not our battery. we
have contractual rights to, you know,
[1:05:30] say when that battery may be charged or
discharged, but it's very different than
[1:05:33] if it's our battery, right? So, we'd
like to have some conversations about
[1:05:37] that and about when the timing is right
to pull the trigger on um ownership of a
[1:05:42] battery and connection, you know, to our
SCADA system and so that if in real time
[1:05:47] we have a problem, the battery could be
used to dispatch, which would probably
[1:05:51] be a little different than how a vendor
battery might work. or a vendor battery,
[1:05:55] we might be able to say stop charging or
stop discharging, but only under certain
[1:06:00] emergency circumstances. But if we
wanted to more smooth things out or
[1:06:03] regulate voltage or um get into
different markets, uh then you know we
[1:06:08] would need our own battery to do that. I
think sighting is a question. The WR
[1:06:13] Grace site is something we've talked
about. Substations is something we've
[1:06:17] talked about. So um the timing of that
is obviously germaine to the budget
[1:06:21] conversation. Um where we decide to
underground next and what our plans are
[1:06:26] for the next few years is a relevant
conversation. Remember that the
[1:06:30] underground fund is a restricted fund.
Uh it's a percent and a half we collect
[1:06:34] on every bill and it's reserved
specifically for the undergrounding of
[1:06:38] existing overhead territories. And um
but that's it's always a conversation.
[1:06:44] and then things like EV charging
stations or other um capital
[1:06:48] infrastructure that can be deployed. So,
you know, it's we we know that these
[1:06:52] things get built out over time. It's a
question of what's happening in in this
[1:06:55] particular year. Uh we typically project
capital out. Uh we try to do 10 years.
[1:07:01] It's pretty um you know, you can predict
certain things that far especially like
[1:07:06] buildings and roofs and HVAC, but other
things it's hard to know. you know
[1:07:10] certain transformers should have a life
of 30 to sometimes 60 or 70 years but
[1:07:16] other times um you know you find you
have to repurpose a transformer and
[1:07:20] purchase a new one to go there because
of uh changing requirements of that
[1:07:24] particular customer. So, um I think I'll
pause there and just see um if people
[1:07:29] have any questions,
>> any questions, comments? I mean, Jason,
[1:07:34] are any of these items in essence
discretionary where you're kind of
[1:07:38] looking for some board perspective on
them or is this just really more of an
[1:07:42] up for us?
>> Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I guess if like if
[1:07:46] people have high level like this seems
important, we should do it sooner than
[1:07:50] later, we can certainly take those
comments now. But I think in the next
[1:07:54] conversation that we have when we
actually start getting into the
[1:07:56] forecast, we can start talking about
know because like the hard part is the
[1:08:01] board doesn't know the the full picture
and the requirements and so they might
[1:08:05] say well this seems important but we're
like well this is more important. The
[1:08:07] board's like oh you're right. So we want
feedback like yes this is a good idea to
[1:08:12] pursue but I think once we get
everything on the piece of paper then
[1:08:16] you can look at the totality and say
well actually this is more important
[1:08:19] than this thing because you'll have more
at your disposal but so welcome to take
[1:08:23] comments on things like this you know
like yes or no we don't really like that
[1:08:27] but it's hard to just weigh in on you
know everything at this point.
[1:08:32] » Any questions or comments?
[1:08:38] Warren, please.
>> Yeah, I have a general comment.
[1:08:41] Listening to all of this, and it's two
interconnected comments. It seems like
[1:08:48] there is
going to be pressure on rates and likely
[1:08:55] a need to increase rates. As we know,
there's great public concern about
[1:09:02] affordability,
and I think we should be taking that
[1:09:06] seriously,
and we should be looking at things that
[1:09:11] really I mean, if something we don't
want to hobble the light plant, but if
[1:09:17] something is discretionary, next year
might not be the year to do it. The one
[1:09:22] thing I was hearing so far that falls
into that category was the project
[1:09:28] manager position, which seems like a
good idea, but next year might not be
[1:09:32] the year to do it. Um, and then another
somewhat related comment going back to
[1:09:39] what you said right at the beginning
about delaying the increase in rates
[1:09:47] until April. I understand the logic of
that. But if we're going to need to
[1:09:54] increase rates, are we going to end up
in a situation where there's sticker
[1:09:59] shock in rates in April because you're
trying to
[1:10:05] recover a year's worth of cost increases
over just nine months?
[1:10:15] » Okay. Yeah, that's that's a fair
question. I I mean I think we do need to
[1:10:19] know probably pretty soon um you know
what the board's feeling is on the
[1:10:24] timing of phase two or any adjustments
in rates. I think we're going to
[1:10:29] hopefully be discussing at the second
September meeting um the PCA charge that
[1:10:35] I mentioned at the last not the last
meeting because that was the OML
[1:10:39] discussion but the one before that um
and so that might be uh the true up that
[1:10:44] can happen separate from the time of day
rates so that people don't conflate
[1:10:49] phase two with being higher rates but
yeah I think we do need some guidance on
[1:10:54] the timing and what board members feel
>> well at least in my opin I it's hard to
[1:10:59] give guidance without talking of knowing
what's the level of additional revenue
[1:11:05] you need. That that's really seems like
>> the crux of the matter. If the revenue
[1:11:14] needs are modest, then recovering them
over 9 months is okay. If the revenue
[1:11:21] need increases are significant, then
it's a problem only covering them in
[1:11:28] nine months,
>> right?
[1:11:32] » Thank Thank you, Warren. Chris,
>> yeah, building on that, I certainly from
[1:11:37] an execution side of things, it's nice
to just do a rate change once. Uh but uh
[1:11:44] I worry that if we've got a big bump in
rates happening along with the roll out
[1:11:48] of the phase two of time of day that
people just think it's raising because
[1:11:52] of the time of day and we get pushed
back on time of day. Um, so, um, it
[1:12:00] there's that. I guess I'm not sure what
I I guess the best answer, but but I
[1:12:04] think we want to think about making sure
we're not,
[1:12:08] um, turning sentiment against time of
day in advertently.
[1:12:16] Agreed and understood. I think that was
has been a message from the board for a
[1:12:20] long time, which is that we want to be
careful about how we do things
[1:12:25] surrounding time of day because we want
to give it a fair shot and not have
[1:12:28] people um incorrectly conflate time of
day rates existence with, you know,
[1:12:35] higher electricity costs.
[1:12:40] All right. Well, I'll keep I'll keep
going. Um
[1:12:44] see here so the next uh budget driver
I've got is operations and maintenance.
[1:12:49] We are seeing um higher costs for
transformers and other distribution
[1:12:54] system resources. Um they are climbing
at higher than the the rate of inflation
[1:12:58] and this is really uh probably a supply
and demand issue. We saw this during
[1:13:03] COVID. there were some um relaxing of um
of quantities of product that helped um
[1:13:11] kind of bring costs or at least not have
them continue to rise astronomically. Uh
[1:13:16] but we are seeing more people uh whether
stockpiling or places building out as
[1:13:22] electrification continues. There's just
more and more of a need and there are
[1:13:25] not a lot of manufacturers of some of
this equipment. Uh further we're seeing
[1:13:29] tariffs. Um and tariffs implemented at
kind of the last minute because a tariff
[1:13:34] is a tax. A lot of agreements say that
taxes can be passed on to customers. And
[1:13:38] so we're seeing situations where we've
ordered equipment and then after we
[1:13:42] receive it, we get a additional bill for
a tariff that was levied on that um in
[1:13:47] the process of delivery. So um you know
it is a tight time. We do try to um kind
[1:13:53] of purchase what we need, keep on on
hand enough uh material and stock to
[1:14:00] address issues as well as respond
expediently to, you know, requests for
[1:14:05] new service or upgrades. Uh and we also
try to occasionally purchase um larger
[1:14:10] amounts of things to kind of get better
pricing. Uh I know there's a a bid out
[1:14:15] there right now to get some of that
equipment. Um I mentioned the 40B. So
[1:14:19] Novo, um this project there at U 292 or
something Baker AB has broken ground.
[1:14:26] Their building permit was issued. Uh
there's going to be a couple hundred new
[1:14:30] units out there. Um we've ordered meters
for that already. There's going to be
[1:14:35] another one Alta at the on Forest Ridge
right next to one of our substations.
[1:14:40] That's a few hundred units. Um there's
going to be uh that that might be a next
[1:14:46] year purchase. Obviously the um the
prison and MCI conquered property
[1:14:51] probably won't be developed you know
next calendar year probably won't drive
[1:14:54] the budget then but obviously as you see
this growth that's that is a pretty
[1:14:58] large purchase not just for meters but
all the supporting equipment and
[1:15:02] installation and it is new load is new
customers it does kind of have an
[1:15:06] overall downward pressure on rates but
in the more short term it's equipment
[1:15:11] and materials we have to buy
um we have not done tree trimming at
[1:15:17] this year. We did a good amount last
year. We're we're thinking about doing
[1:15:21] something similar to what public works
does and what some other communities do,
[1:15:24] which is get a three-year agreement. The
tree bid process is a lot of work on
[1:15:28] staff. And if we could identify um kind
of a rotating plan of a three-year
[1:15:35] trimming where because historically we
had a four-year plan and um we did see
[1:15:41] several outages this year as a result of
limbs falling on lines even though we
[1:15:46] just did exhaustive tree trimming over
about half the town. um it might help
[1:15:51] lower costs, especially administrative
costs on doing some of these agreements
[1:15:55] and will definitely lead to um more
higher reliability of service. Um and
[1:16:01] then you know last year, oh I forgot to
in parenthesis here, but last year our
[1:16:06] rebates um were forecasted to be about
$770,000.
[1:16:10] And we are trying to help um or at least
prepare for a more detailed discussion
[1:16:16] with the board about our rebate program
so that we can have better um data to
[1:16:21] support what our rebates are doing in
terms of decarbonization
[1:16:25] and um and what kind of impact we think
that they're having on decision-m among
[1:16:30] our customers who are are using the
rebates. So, we want to make sure that
[1:16:34] the board can help us prioritize rebates
that they think are particularly
[1:16:38] effective and uh maybe, you know, divert
more money toward those rebates that
[1:16:43] seem to be popular and super effective
at achieving uh light plant, light board
[1:16:48] or town goals. And then, you know, maybe
if we find some that are underperforming
[1:16:52] expectations, we need to shift money out
of there. Um,
[1:16:56] so I'll pause there and see if there's
any questions about some of these O andM
[1:17:00] categories. Any questions or comments
from board members?
[1:17:09] » I guess Jason, I really encourage you to
um as you suggested for these rebate
[1:17:13] programs, I think the board would
benefit from some additional analysis in
[1:17:18] terms of their effectiveness. Um who's
benefiting from them? Um you know, what
[1:17:23] are the specific objectives that are
being furthered? So
[1:17:27] » yeah, agreed. Um
and then last
[1:17:31] » I was just going to sorry before you
move on um when are you expecting that
[1:17:35] discussion to happen?
>> Um that's a good question. I think that
[1:17:40] uh it really depends on what we can fit
in at the this kind of tail end of the
[1:17:46] year with the financial um requirements
that we have and the rates. like if if
[1:17:50] rates are going to get set this year
then it might be tight but u we can
[1:17:55] certainly have more conversation about
it and we can certainly also work
[1:17:59] offline collaboratively. I just don't
know how much time the board will have
[1:18:03] to engage in collaborative discussion,
but um we're certainly happy to bring
[1:18:08] some folks into the fold and um you know
start having those conversations with
[1:18:13] maybe one or two board members similar
to the um bill redesign.
[1:18:23] » Can I chip in here?
>> Yes, he called on you. No. Well,
[1:18:30] » sorry. Um, yeah. So, you're
>> just because we are trying to move on
[1:18:35] and we are going to have an opportunity
for kind of liaison comments, but go
[1:18:39] ahead.
>> I I just have something that's like
[1:18:41] relevant to the comment at the the topic
at the time and coming back to it at at
[1:18:46] the end of the meeting or whatever just
seems like out of step. So, I'm just
[1:18:50] going to try to kick it in here. Um, as
far as the the uh rebate programs,
[1:18:56] anybody who's operating, you know, in an
Eversource region sees a bill and they
[1:19:02] see the Massave, you know, regulatory
framework cost and they they see that on
[1:19:07] their bill, would it be a thing as
you're doing billing redesign to just
[1:19:12] indicate that this much of our budget or
this much of what your bill is paying
[1:19:16] for right now today is going towards our
rebate program so that people see that
[1:19:22] that the money that we are allocating in
a big chunk in our budget $770,000
[1:19:28] shows up on your bill as a buck or
whatever whatever it is. This is your
[1:19:33] you know this is your contribution to uh
to our our energy goals. So they they
[1:19:39] see a number on their bill and and it's
broken out for the customer. That's just
[1:19:44] a thought. I'm I'm just kicking that
out.
[1:19:47] » Yeah. I don't want to go too far down
the rabbit hole, but we did have that
[1:19:50] before. It was called the CARES charge.
Um, it's like conservation and something
[1:19:55] and Laura could probably speak as to
when it appeared and when it went away,
[1:19:58] but it was a I believe it was a board
decision to stop, you know, delay
[1:20:04] charge, but we can certainly have that
conversation as we come through the
[1:20:07] build redesign process to see what
people want to see.
[1:20:11] » And and Jason, just just looking at
time, um, seems we need to
[1:20:15] » Yeah. Yeah, I agree. I I can be very
brief on this just that um the there's
[1:20:20] not a lot of capital for broadband in
the upcoming year with the exception of
[1:20:24] maybe a vehicle replacement. Uh not
certain exactly what year but and then
[1:20:29] you know planning their uh capital
expansion projects into new service
[1:20:33] territories similar to the one that we
discussed earlier. Uh but really that
[1:20:36] was all I was going to cover on on
broadband. So, um, so with that, John,
[1:20:42] do you feel ready to move on or do you
>> Yeah, if there's any other comments or
[1:20:47] questions from board members in general,
it's it's been a really useful
[1:20:51] discussion. Thank you for this, Jason.
And um, you know, I feel like board
[1:20:56] members have offered some really good
comments which hopefully have helped you
[1:21:00] with providing some direction.
>> Yeah, extremely helpful.
[1:21:06] All right. So, are you ready, John, to
share?
[1:21:09] » Yes. Next agenda item we have is
essentially um lightboard governance. Um
[1:21:15] I know Warren has been uh meeting with
uh select board and other members on
[1:21:21] this matter. Um and it's obviously
something that uh you know affects us as
[1:21:26] lightboard members. Um my understanding
is Jason, you're going to be performing
[1:21:30] a presentation.
>> Yes. Um and and that was a good segue,
[1:21:34] John, and to mention that um the the the
governance structure for the light plant
[1:21:39] and light board in conquered is somewhat
unique and um it was uh the town manager
[1:21:45] brought that to the attention of the
select board a few years ago, a few
[1:21:49] years ago and created a goal uh for
herself or the select board created a
[1:21:53] goal for her to study that topic and uh
kind of make recommendations toward a
[1:21:58] resolution for it. So, it's been a a
very public goal of hers for a few
[1:22:03] years. And um one of the things that she
did was asked a task force of people to
[1:22:08] help advise her um through that process.
And to do that, she used a current and
[1:22:13] former light board member, a current and
former select board member, a retired
[1:22:17] general manager from another light
plant, um, who also had been an a deputy
[1:22:21] town manager, uh, and myself to help do
the research and look at the background,
[1:22:26] figure out how we got where we are, what
other people do, and kind of what we can
[1:22:30] do to maybe standardize and reduce some
of the liabilities that we have in our
[1:22:34] current governance structure. So um the
presentation I'm going to give is very
[1:22:38] similar to the one that was given to the
select board and for that reason I may
[1:22:42] abridge a little bit but u please raise
your hand if you have questions in a
[1:22:46] particular area. I think the point of
this is to present an overview of the
[1:22:50] governance to talk about the process
that's underway and then to allow the
[1:22:55] board to offer feedback and uh maybe
address a few specific questions that uh
[1:23:00] would be useful for staff and for the
town manager during this time.
[1:23:04] Um so uh turning to state law chapter
164 um it's very clear about the the
[1:23:12] governance structure for light plants
and it says that um a dedicated
[1:23:17] lightboard and a general manager will
have the operational authorities to kind
[1:23:21] of run a light plant. Um and you're
going to see those those two sections in
[1:23:26] a second, but just know that uh it it
says, you know, if there's a light
[1:23:31] board, they're going to appoint the
general manager. the general manager is
[1:23:33] going to run the plant and it's a
distinct, you know, quasi commercial
[1:23:37] operation that exists as both a town
department and a completely separate uh
[1:23:42] enterprise fund that should not be
comingling funds with the town. The town
[1:23:46] charter, however, um says that there's a
a moderator who can appoint a fincom,
[1:23:53] there's a select board who can appoint
these few committees and boards, and
[1:23:57] then there's a town manager who appoints
everyone else. and that everyone else
[1:24:01] language um leaves it open to
interpretation that that includes uh
[1:24:06] whoever leads the light plant and
including the light board. So that is
[1:24:10] kind of the the discrepancy or the
concern that that we have in our current
[1:24:16] structure is that uh state law says one
thing and the town charter which is
[1:24:20] adopted as a special act of the
legislature says another thing and
[1:24:23] there's a bit of ambiguity and conflict
because the charter itself doesn't
[1:24:27] mention the late plant or the light
board in any way.
[1:24:30] So the specific statute um says that a
town that has established or votes to
[1:24:36] establish a gas or electric plant may
elect a municipal light board consisting
[1:24:41] of three or five members. So the may
elect um means that you do not have to
[1:24:47] have a lightboard. You can certainly
have a select board who operates as a
[1:24:50] lightboard because as you can imagine
>> you want to share your screen on your
[1:24:54] presentation.
I I I've seen this presentation so I
[1:24:59] know oh he's going through his
presentation but we're not seeing it.
[1:25:02] » Please forgive me. Please forgive me. I
I failed to share the screen. So yes. Um
[1:25:08] so that was the first slide. We're here.
Um so uh yes uh anyway the the May says
[1:25:16] that a town may elect a lightboard. Um
in contrast you can imagine there are
[1:25:22] very small communities some that have
four to 600 meters um who have their
[1:25:29] select board act as their lightboard and
that is an option as well. So um that
[1:25:35] lightboard has the authority to
construct purchase or lease a gas or
[1:25:38] electric plant in accordance with the
town and maintain and operate it. So
[1:25:42] after that it says that either the mayor
of a city, the selectman or a municipal
[1:25:48] light board if there is one um appoints
a manager and that manager has certain
[1:25:53] responsibilities and that includes the
complete operation of the plant. It
[1:25:58] includes the purchase of supplies so
procurement. It includes the employment
[1:26:03] of attorneys and agents and staff um and
a lot of other responsibilities. Now in
[1:26:09] in conquered those other
responsibilities like procurement,
[1:26:13] hiring and firing all rest with the town
manager and and it states that clearly
[1:26:16] in the charter. So basically you've now
got the town manager who can do all
[1:26:21] these things and the general manager of
a light plant who can do these things.
[1:26:24] And so conquered had to find a way to
reconcile these things. And I'll tell
[1:26:27] you what they did in a second, but just
as a brief history, know that the light
[1:26:32] the light plant was established by the
town in 1898 after two successive votes.
[1:26:38] And at that time there was a three
member elected lightboard all the way
[1:26:42] until the 1950s. Um the mid-50s it
shifted and what happened was in the 40s
[1:26:49] after the second world war conquer's
number of elected officials had
[1:26:53] skyrocketed. There were something like
60 elected officials in total because
[1:26:59] you had weights and measures. You had
tree wardens. You had all these people
[1:27:02] that were elected. And conquered was
growing. And all of these people, the
[1:27:07] board of health, they were hiring staff.
They were setting employment policies
[1:27:11] and pay schedules and rules and
accounting of their funds and all of it
[1:27:16] was separate. And so there was a strong
desire to centralize and increase
[1:27:20] efficiency. So the town said, "You know
what? let's figure out what committees
[1:27:24] have to be elected and what what roles
have to be elected and let's really pair
[1:27:28] this down. They saw the may elect and
they said well it looks like the light
[1:27:32] board can be elected or not. So we'll
just leave them on this list over here
[1:27:36] and they left it with the town moderator
the school committee and the select
[1:27:39] board as the only elected officials in
conquered and everybody else was
[1:27:43] appointed. So um at that time in the 50s
after the charter was formally adopted
[1:27:50] and the town manager form of government
was set here in conquered um the light
[1:27:55] board flipped to an appointed board and
they were appointed by the town manager
[1:27:58] and they have been ever since. In the
early 80s you know people were pointing
[1:28:03] out that there were some of these issues
that it says state law says this but
[1:28:07] we're doing something a little
different. So to kind of smooth things
[1:28:10] over, the town adopts an administrative
code which just says, "Well, we have a
[1:28:14] good solution for this. The town manager
has all these authorities. The general
[1:28:17] manager has all these authorities.
They're actually just the same person.
[1:28:20] We'll just call the town manager the
general manager and we'll create an
[1:28:24] agreement between the light board,
between the select board, and between
[1:28:26] the town manager to kind of, you know,
understand what everybody's
[1:28:29] responsibilities are here in conquered
because they're unique. So the
[1:28:34] administrative code exists for a while
but um it did ruffle some feathers. In
[1:28:40] the early 90s there was a charter review
and so there was a committee called by
[1:28:45] the select board to open up the charter
and say okay we're going to look at this
[1:28:48] and let's figure out all the things we
want to do all the changes we might need
[1:28:51] to make. And one of the big things that
came out of it was that the light board
[1:28:54] at the time expressed serious concerns
about the governance structure and
[1:28:58] objections that some of their statutory
rights as a lightboard were being um
[1:29:04] taken away in this governance structure
we had in conquered. And while those
[1:29:08] concerns were documented, nothing really
changed. the charter or the um the
[1:29:13] administrative code was amended and it
has been amended a few times as recently
[1:29:17] as 2008. But the issue of governance was
really never fully resolved in that
[1:29:22] discrepancy about who is appointing and
how the two different groups are um
[1:29:27] separated or connected was was never
fully resolved. So um what what we see
[1:29:34] here is some snippets from the
administrative code. And a couple key
[1:29:38] ones to point out was it says that the
municipal lightboard is responsible to
[1:29:42] the town manager and has the authority
and responsibility delegated to it by
[1:29:46] the town manager. But somewhere else
there's a state law that says they
[1:29:50] actually have these particular
requirements. And we've got a code which
[1:29:54] is a document signed by nobody here
today that says that no in fact the
[1:29:59] board has these responsibilities. So
there's a bit of a discrepancy there.
[1:30:02] And then the second one was even though
the light board is responsible for um
[1:30:06] appointing a general manager who has the
authority to manage staff um the
[1:30:12] administrative code says that the uh
town manager agrees to consult with the
[1:30:17] light board prior to uh and during the
course of selection of a permanent
[1:30:20] director. So you know instead of the
board doing it the board can certainly
[1:30:24] advise the town manager but the town
manager has appointing authority. So
[1:30:28] what is happening around us? So what
you'll see here is if you look at that
[1:30:32] pie chart in the middle
um there are about 40 MLPS in the state
[1:30:38] and 35 out of 40 have at least a
majority elected lightboard. They're
[1:30:42] either fully elected or they're majority
elected and then there are five who are
[1:30:47] appointed. Conquered is one of those
five. It's really important to note that
[1:30:51] the other four uh to talk about those
two of them have mayors um and the mayor
[1:30:57] is the appointing authority and the
other two have specific mentions in
[1:31:02] their charter um or separate legislation
of how the appointing will work in those
[1:31:09] communities. So the town manager is the
appointing authority. Those two
[1:31:12] communities are Danvers and Shrewsbury.
and it very explicitly lays out that the
[1:31:17] town those towns have voted to say we
don't want to do the elected thing even
[1:31:22] though the state law says it we want to
adopt a different law and we want to say
[1:31:25] that the town manager is the appointing
authority so Cochran is singular in that
[1:31:30] we we are appointing but we have never
really received explicit word from the
[1:31:34] town that that is their preferred method
of appointing the lightboard um
[1:31:38] » excuse me Jason you've never conquer's
never received explicit authority from
[1:31:44] the state.
>> Correct.
[1:31:48] » Right. Because there's never been
special legislation.
[1:31:51] » Yeah.
>> Yeah. You could argue that by adopting
[1:31:55] the town charter, um even though it was
ambiguous, that there was an intention
[1:32:00] by the the people at the time. Um but we
don't really know that for certain. Um
[1:32:08] and then you can just see here a couple
other metrics in terms of the number of
[1:32:12] um board members. You see they're vastly
the vast majority is three or five
[1:32:16] members.
Um this is a snippet from that charter
[1:32:22] review in the 1990s and it this is a a
memo from the charter review committee
[1:32:27] to the select board at the time board of
selectmen. um basically letting them
[1:32:32] know that the board's position is that
the administrative code um is illegally
[1:32:37] preempting many of the obligations and
responsibility that's given to the light
[1:32:41] board in chapter 164 of uh math general
law. Um and so there there's a whole
[1:32:47] history here. Um some of these documents
we've put on a governance page on our
[1:32:51] website. So if you go to conquer.govlp
/tlp and then look for governance on the
[1:32:56] lefth hand side there. Some of these
documents are there and we'll be posting
[1:33:01] more um as time goes on as well.
So there's a couple slides about like
[1:33:07] why is this conversation happening? Um
we can certainly read these but in the
[1:33:11] interest of time I'll just say that um
the light plant has very different
[1:33:15] requirements from town departments. Um
the light plant is a commercial utility
[1:33:19] that competes with other utilities. The
town can decide at any time that the
[1:33:24] utility is not meeting its needs and
decide to sell the plant. It does belong
[1:33:27] to the people of conquered and so as
such we we can we have different pools
[1:33:32] of competition of personnel. Uh and we
really are competing with other light
[1:33:36] plants and investor own utilities which
operate all very distinctly from their
[1:33:41] towns. Um and so uh that is one of the
biggest reasons and again as I stated
[1:33:46] it's been a select board and town
manager goal for a few years to look at
[1:33:49] this and try to bring some permanent
resolution.
[1:33:53] Um and here is talking about the labor
market and the size of the light plant.
[1:33:57] Um which uh though power supply makes up
the vast majority of our budget um you
[1:34:04] know 20ome million dollars our the size
of our budget in our organization you
[1:34:08] know is larger than the general
government appropriation which includes
[1:34:12] police, fire, public works um and all
the other town departments. Uh so
[1:34:19] in terms of where we are today and what
the town manager has done, I mentioned
[1:34:23] that working group and I kind of
mentioned their uh the the people on it
[1:34:27] and they were asked to basically let's
look at what other people are doing.
[1:34:31] Let's look at the charter. Let's talk to
legal counsel and let's understand um
[1:34:35] some of the pitfalls and some of the
benefits of the way that we do things
[1:34:38] and let's make a recommendation. So that
group um did issue a recommendation and
[1:34:43] this is what it was. It was a suggestion
to ask town meeting to um vote to
[1:34:51] solidify a new governance structure and
and what they would be doing is asking
[1:34:55] the legislature to adopt uh special
legislation that would solidify the
[1:35:00] method of appointment of the light board
and then allowing the lightboard to have
[1:35:04] the full statuto responsibility in
chapter 164. And the recommendation was
[1:35:09] a five member board that's majority
elected with the other two members being
[1:35:14] appointed by the town manager. Um if
that passes town meeting then it would
[1:35:20] go through the special legislation
process which can take a year or two
[1:35:23] depending on the legislature and then
once certified then there would be at
[1:35:27] the next town election the three
lightboard members would be on the
[1:35:31] docket to be elected. Um I'll pause
here.
[1:35:36] Chris.
>> Yeah. Yeah. I'm wondering, we have a lot
[1:35:40] of overlap between the light board and
the town now and all kinds of things,
[1:35:43] you know, just for example, the uh
stormwater charges are on our bills and
[1:35:50] uh so does this change any of those
kinds of relationships?
[1:35:54] um the light plant incurs a lot of um
you know uh services on behalf of the
[1:36:01] town or from the town and and pays for
them and I think that all of that is
[1:36:05] completely permissible and something you
see in all other municipal light plants
[1:36:09] where uh any indirect costs borne by the
utility are paid by the utility and any
[1:36:14] support that the utility gives to other
town departments is also compensated in
[1:36:18] in reverse. So um today we bill the
public works departments for the
[1:36:22] services that we offer and I would think
that this would have no impact on that.
[1:36:27] Um as Dean mentioned in a previous
meeting about the billprint there are
[1:36:30] conversations for other reasons entirely
which is really just more um questions
[1:36:35] about cost and complexity as well as um
maybe some of the systems that are in
[1:36:41] place with the different fiscal years
and the financial obligations for
[1:36:44] reporting. questions of what, you know,
whether it makes sense to continue a
[1:36:47] consolidated utility bill. But there
would be no concern with, you know,
[1:36:52] light plants that are operating more
independent from the town having um
[1:36:56] shared resources and shared interest.
That will always be the case. We will
[1:37:00] always be owned by the town. We will
always be considered a municipal
[1:37:03] department, right? We are a department
of the town. We just operate different
[1:37:06] from every other department because of
the statute.
[1:37:12] Um so in terms of that governance
structure and what it specifically looks
[1:37:17] like um this is an illustration that we
put together. So on the left hand side
[1:37:21] you can see the different levels of
responsibility. You've got the citizens
[1:37:24] who elect a select board. The select
board hires or appoints a town manager.
[1:37:29] And today that town manager is
appointing both the light board as well
[1:37:33] as the director of the utility. That's
me today. Under the proposed governance
[1:37:38] structure, the citizens would elect the
select board who would appoint the town
[1:37:42] manager. The citizen would also elect
three of the five lightboard members and
[1:37:47] then the other two lightboard members
would be appointed by the town manager.
[1:37:51] And um then that combined lightboard,
all five members would appoint a general
[1:37:56] manager. And the general manager and the
lightboard in terms of what their
[1:38:00] responsibilities would be, it's exactly
what the statute says. They have the
[1:38:03] authority to run the plant. The general
manager has the authority to hire agents
[1:38:07] and staff and um you know the board sets
rates that many of the responsibilities
[1:38:12] that the board has today are the
responsibilities that the board would
[1:38:15] have. You have to file a DPU return. You
have to vote rates. Um you have to vote
[1:38:20] a forecast. Uh you know those types of
responsibilities those are inherent in a
[1:38:24] lightboard and that's what happens in
every other community. The difference
[1:38:29] here is that there's some direct
representation on the lightboard from
[1:38:32] the rateayers and the citizens of the
town.
[1:38:36] So the question is, you know, well, why
a blended board? There's only a small
[1:38:40] handful of other blended boards out
there. Um, is this a unique structure?
[1:38:45] Um, we argue that, you know, the vast
majority have elected um or elected a
[1:38:50] majority elected light boards and so we
would be moving into the majority. Um,
[1:38:56] and I think that one of the important
things that the working group uh had for
[1:39:01] its recommendations was that whatever we
do should be in line with the statute.
[1:39:05] So even though they could recommend a
fully appointed board and the town could
[1:39:08] certainly vote on that, they felt like
there was definitely a trend and and a
[1:39:13] and a path that other light plants and
light boards have been going through
[1:39:17] toward more direct representation. And
the law says a three or five member
[1:39:21] elected board and this would be three
elected members as well as two
[1:39:25] appointed. And then the reason for that
split and the appointment at all is that
[1:39:31] being an elected position there's not
any requirement on somebody's expertise
[1:39:36] in the utility field or financial
expertise uh which are all really
[1:39:40] important members for a high functioning
lightboard. And so the thought process
[1:39:44] there was that the town manager with
those two appointments could help ensure
[1:39:48] that there is some utility or financial
engineering expertise on the lightboard
[1:39:54] um to to you know be kind of some
technical resources for for people who
[1:39:58] may be elected um onto the board and and
the elected members may have all those
[1:40:03] qualifications as well. There just is
less of a guarantee. Um
[1:40:07] » and then I just have one more slide uh
yeah one more slide and then the
[1:40:11] questions. So in terms of like what the
process is
[1:40:17] um the goal here is having these
discussions, ensuring that the public um
[1:40:24] know what what the need for this change
is. Um offering things like recorded
[1:40:28] interviews or explanations and workshops
to talk about the governance structure.
[1:40:33] uh working with council to draft a
warrant article and then you know
[1:40:38] bringing it up at the hearing through
the hearing process and then a town
[1:40:41] meeting vote and again the town meeting
vote does not make an instant change.
[1:40:45] The change happens once the legislature
adopts what town meeting has asked it to
[1:40:50] do and then a town meeting or a town
election cycle happens. uh the board
[1:40:54] would be elected all three members at
once but in staggered terms so that in
[1:40:58] the future you would have each year a
different member would be coming off the
[1:41:02] board. Um and so some of the key
questions that we'd like to ask in
[1:41:06] addition to answering questions the
board might have about this process or
[1:41:09] about the governance structure in
general is you know additional guidance
[1:41:14] about outreach. You know Dean had a good
suggestion about using things like bill
[1:41:17] inserts or um online messages you know
news and notices podcasts. We've had
[1:41:23] ideas like this, but if if anybody has
ideas, and they it doesn't have to be at
[1:41:27] this moment. You can always email staff,
but you know, what kind of additional
[1:41:30] outreach, this is a complicated topic
that um gets deep into the weeds of, you
[1:41:36] know, competing uh legal documents and
um and does require a bit of a a deeper
[1:41:42] understanding before maybe some people
can form an opinion. So, how do we get
[1:41:46] to a lot of people with this topic? uh
you know are there certain
[1:41:50] vulnerabilities in the current current
governance structure that you feel like
[1:41:54] really deserve to be highlighted as we
talk about this? Um and then you know
[1:41:58] what are some of the concerns that you
think people might have um if we propose
[1:42:04] a governance structure change like this?
And so those are kind of the questions
[1:42:08] that I had and um you know maybe John we
can have a brief discussion.
[1:42:15] » Yeah. Any any board members uh want to
weigh in here or have additional
[1:42:19] questions they would like to to propose?
[1:42:26] » I was thinking a little bit about um you
know kind of the best way to communicate
[1:42:32] the the material this this topic um to
the public because I think that is
[1:42:39] important. Um, and you had the chart
slide, which I think is great. Like
[1:42:46] people always like visuals. Um, I would
I would say maybe on the current part of
[1:42:53] it, um, you might want to add the
general manager, basically indicating
[1:42:59] that the town manager is the general
manager. So having that word
[1:43:04] um or or that label town man or general
manager
[1:43:09] kind of highlights the
the potential conflict.
[1:43:15] Um but I I would say like just kind of
listening to everything that you talked
[1:43:21] through
um there would be a need to have like a
[1:43:27] really concise sort of highlevel
these are the these are the like big
[1:43:33] reasons why we're proposing this change.
um you know, consistency, alignment with
[1:43:39] the Massachusetts general law, um and
you know, the ability to separate the
[1:43:48] you know, the roles town of town manager
and general manager of the light plant,
[1:43:53] things like that. Um to kind of start
the conversation and then people who
[1:43:58] want to get into the weeds, there's
there's a lot of great content um you
[1:44:04] know that you have here. Yeah, that's a
great suggestion. Thank you.
[1:44:09] » Any other questions or comments?
[1:44:14] I guess one I would offer would be um
what's our role and responsibility in
[1:44:20] terms of moving this forward versus the
select board or town managers?
[1:44:26] » Yeah, I know that the you know the
select board can put more articles on. I
[1:44:31] know um you know there at the last
select board meeting when this was
[1:44:36] discussed there was conversation and um
comments made by Wendy Rall who's the
[1:44:42] chair of the select board right now and
who is a former lightboard member as
[1:44:46] well who understands the the light plant
light board a lot and um you know I
[1:44:51] think the select board would be the one
advancing the article but I think that
[1:44:56] people would be probably pretty
interested in the lightboard's
[1:44:59] perspective since they um work more
closely with the light plant and staff
[1:45:03] and um so yeah I I it's a good question
you know and and also as we seek to do
[1:45:09] outreach like how does that um how how
can we leverage some of the layboard
[1:45:15] expertise and having some of those
conversations that's a good question I
[1:45:20] know Warren being more involved in the
in that working group I mean maybe he
[1:45:24] has a perspective and you know Warren
you could certainly join me on Zoom for
[1:45:29] some of the meetings or podcasts, you
know, we might have with outreach for
[1:45:33] people or or others if if time allows.
>> Yeah, I'd be happy to do that. But I
[1:45:39] also think this is a case where the role
of the select board and endorsing this
[1:45:46] is going to be crucial because it can't
be perceived as an effort by the light
[1:45:53] board to um execute a queue taking away
authority from the town manager. Right.
[1:46:01] It's a good point.
[1:46:05] » In terms of outreach, I think a variety
of of different kind of modes is always
[1:46:11] a good idea, but um I I'm a proponent of
the bridge. I feel like
[1:46:16] » that's a good way for kind of a wide,
you know, cast of people to to read
[1:46:23] about the the topic. um in-person
workshops and things like that are
[1:46:29] great, but you know would probably be
attended by a very small minority.
[1:46:35] » Yeah. And the bridge did do a great
article after the select board meeting
[1:46:38] um a few weeks ago and um you know their
continued coverage on topics does really
[1:46:43] help inform the public especially since
it goes to every home um and business
[1:46:48] here in conquered. So that I agree that
is a great way to get the word out and I
[1:46:52] think um it'd be interesting to see how
much appetite there is for continued
[1:46:57] discussions on this topic because I
think that uh people may just decide ah
[1:47:02] I don't not really I don't have a horse
in this race you know I doesn't seem
[1:47:05] interesting to me or or they're already
insiders and they've already heard these
[1:47:09] presentations now multiple times you
know so like um that's that's what
[1:47:15] that's where your ex your information
and perspective is really helpful for us
[1:47:19] because you, you know, have neighbors
and friends and family members who all
[1:47:23] live in town and can kind of see through
their lens much better than than we as
[1:47:27] staff can because we're living this
every day.
[1:47:32] Yeah, I agree with um that about the
bridge and I also agree with what Nicole
[1:47:38] was saying before that it's crucial that
we have boiled down this issue to like
[1:47:46] one slide
that we could present and present over
[1:47:50] and over again. This is why this is an
issue. This is why we have to do
[1:47:56] something and here's what we're
proposing to do and got to fit it on one
[1:48:00] slide.
[1:48:04] » Chris,
>> I I got to ask here. So, we're going to
[1:48:07] end up asking the legislature to endorse
some scheme. Why don't we just ask him
[1:48:12] to endorse what we do now?
>> Um, right. So, there's two basic
[1:48:18] options. one is we can just simply
accept the provisions of chapter 164 and
[1:48:25] be done with it. Um or we can do
something different. And if we're going
[1:48:29] to do something different, we can do
what we do now or we can do something
[1:48:33] more similar to what the statute says
already. And I think the um as I pointed
[1:48:39] out on that one slide, I think there was
a goal to say that if we're going to go
[1:48:42] ask the town, we're going to go ask the
legislature to do something, it should
[1:48:46] be rooted in the statute and what the
legislature did when they created this
[1:48:51] legislation for light plants to exist in
the first place and that a departure um
[1:48:56] is harder to justify than something
that's in line with the law and what the
[1:49:01] vast majority of other light plants are
doing. So that that was the motivation
[1:49:05] of the group and I don't know Warren if
you have any other thoughts on that.
[1:49:09] » Yeah I think that's the case. Well,
there are really two issues, you know.
[1:49:14] One is how is the light board selected?
The other is the issue of who's the
[1:49:19] general manager
and um and who appoints the general
[1:49:24] manager.
And I think
[1:49:31] moving more in the direction of what the
legislation says in both of those makes
[1:49:37] good sense. And if we ask the
legislature, can you endorse something
[1:49:43] that we've been doing, but really
doesn't match
[1:49:47] what the legislation says? You run the
risk of the legislature just turning
[1:49:52] around and saying, "No, we're not going
to do that."
[1:50:01] » Uh, just looking at the time, any other
questions or comments? And uh you know
[1:50:05] I'd like to thank Warren and and Jason
for kind of their work here. I feel like
[1:50:10] what they've come up with is in the
broader group is a real workable
[1:50:14] solution that kind of uh would serve
conquered well.
[1:50:19] Any other comments, questions?
[1:50:23] Um I guess right now uh open it up for
liaison and public comment.
[1:50:31] Um, since I'm the liaison, I'll I'll go
first and then you can take public
[1:50:35] comment. Um, I just want to thank Jason
and Warren for all the work they've done
[1:50:40] to sort of bring that whole thing
forward. Um, that that was a year in the
[1:50:45] making and uh and it's a long hall to
get it over the line at at town meeting.
[1:50:50] So, um, you know, we've got we've got
work to do to get the public to at least
[1:50:55] understand what the complexities of that
are. Uh Warren's comment about trying to
[1:51:00] get it on one slide is germaine because
when you end up in front of town
[1:51:04] meeting, you're not going to get more
than five minutes to uh make your case.
[1:51:09] Uh so it's got to be pretty crisp. Um
and and uh we'll need to we'll need to
[1:51:15] hone that over time if we want to make
this fly. So thanks for all of that. Um
[1:51:20] I do want to comment one one comment on
on the CMS solar. I uh I made some
[1:51:24] comments as we were setting our select
board goals. Um, I made some comments at
[1:51:29] the uh, select board meeting that were
somewhat pessimistic about this and
[1:51:33] Jason has kind of started to turn my
view a little more optimistic that we
[1:51:38] can get this over the line this year.
Um, I I was lobbying at the select board
[1:51:43] level that maybe we just take it off our
goals because it seems so remote at this
[1:51:48] point, but it's sounding a little more
uh, optimistic. So, so thank you for uh,
[1:51:54] you bringing me around, Jason, on that.
Uh I'm I'm still I'm still concerned
[1:52:00] that that you know we got to have one
shot at this point which is the
[1:52:03] September 23rd meeting of the school
committee uh to get this done. Um so
[1:52:09] that's that's an important date on the
calendar now for the CMS solar project.
[1:52:13] And that that's that's my uh that's my
comment from the liaison perspective for
[1:52:17] now and thank you.
>> Thank you Dan.
[1:52:21] Not seeing other any other liaison. Um
here Pamela Dre.
[1:52:29] Pamela, do you come off mute and
offer your question or comment?
[1:52:35] » Yes, please. Uh
let me find my notes. Come back. Uh
[1:52:44] » and if you if you can recognize that we
are fast approaching our 9:30 uh
[1:52:49] scheduled uh closing of the meeting.
>> Um
[1:52:56] where'd they go?
Well,
[1:53:02] the the danger of I I haven't found
them. I'll off the cuff. I'm sorry. I
[1:53:08] apologize. The
the danger of
[1:53:14] a fully elected board is that we could
elect someone who is a fiscal
[1:53:18] conservative cost cutter who doesn't who
believes climate change is a hoax who
[1:53:24] could obstruct the board um in the
interest of saving costs on the
[1:53:31] investments that we're paying for the
entire community in the long term. Um
[1:53:38] I
On the other hand,
[1:53:43] elections are always good because they
involve the community and
[1:53:50] and
[1:53:54] when we're making
[1:54:01] when we're making the the
uh
[1:54:07] the
[1:54:10] We need to the way we put our costs has
to do more than just uh be a fair
[1:54:18] thing. It has to also incentivize the
behavior that people we want people to
[1:54:24] do. I if we want we need to decarbonize
our energy supply and people will not
[1:54:32] switch from gas or oil uh heating
systems to heat pumps if it's going to
[1:54:40] be more expensive for them. You have to
make it cheaper to do that. And if that
[1:54:47] means subsidizing the the people who use
all electric uh heat pumps,
[1:54:56] then that's what we must do. make it
more expensive to do the wrong thing by
[1:55:03] placing the the major uh uh payment
on those people that are doing the wrong
[1:55:11] thing by sub by giving uh uh that's what
incentives for battery and solar
[1:55:20] adoption is.
>> Thank you. because we want to end at
[1:55:25] » the virtual power plant.
>> Appreciate your comments there. Um Fran
[1:55:30] Cummings,
[1:55:33] » hi. Thanks uh for taking a comment. The
I have a couple things. One is in
[1:55:38] general, I think you might anticipate uh
town meetings saying, "Wait a minute,
[1:55:43] we're going to have less control over
the light plant." um you know that that
[1:55:47] it it goes more to the uh people who
elect the light plant compared with like
[1:55:52] town meeting working through the town
manager affecting the the policies at
[1:55:57] the light plant. It sounds like it may
be necessary and and a good proposal
[1:56:02] anyway, but I think that's a that might
come up. I have a separate point small
[1:56:07] one about the rebate discussion. Um I
think we should be looking for ways to
[1:56:12] encourage ground source seed pumps as
much as possible going forward and try
[1:56:16] to you know highlight that in the in the
analysis and uh discussion going forward
[1:56:22] as compared with the obvious need to
continue supporting air source heat
[1:56:26] pumps. But we need to try to find a way
of encouraging the mix to shift toward
[1:56:30] ground source for various reasons
including keeping the light plant peaks
[1:56:34] and costs uh moderated. Thank you.
Thank you, Fran.
[1:56:41] Um, any other comments from from the
public?
[1:56:48] » Not seeing any. Um, can I have a motion
to adjourn the meeting?
[1:56:52] » Move to adjurnn.
>> I second.
[1:56:56] » Beat you to it.
>> Nicole,
[1:57:00] » yes.
>> Tyson,
[1:57:02] » yes.
>> Warren,
[1:57:03] » yes.
>> Chris,
[1:57:05] » yes.
>> And I'm also Yes. Thank you all. With
[1:57:08] that, we'll adjourn the meeting.
>> Thank you.